MOMENTS IN TIME

• On May 7, 1789, President George Washington attends a ball in his honor. The event provided a model for the first official inaugural ball. Since 1809, formal inaugural balls have been held to celebrate new presidential terms.

• On May 8, 1988, Stella Nickell becomes the first person to be found guilty of violating the federal Anti-Tampering Act when she is convicted on two counts of murder. Nickell put cyanide in Excedrin capsules in an effort to kill her husband.

• On May 9, 1950, Ron Hubbard publishes "Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health." Hubbard's book introduced a branch of self-help psychology that morphed into a belief system boasting millions of subscribers: Scientology.

• On May 10, 1749, the 10th and final volume of Henry Fielding's "Tom Jones" is printed. The novel tells the humorous story of the attempts of the illegitimate but charming Tom Jones to win his neighbor's daughter, despite her father's objections to his uncertain parentage.

• On May 11, 1997, chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov resigns after 19 moves in a match against Deep Blue, a chess-playing computer developed by IBM. Kasparov, conceding defeat for the first time in his career, said of his decision, "I lost my fighting spirit."

• On May 12, 1932, the body of aviation hero Charles Lindbergh's baby son is found less than a mile from his Hopewell, N.J. home, more than two months after the child was kidnapped. Bruno Hauptmann was arrested, tried and convicted of the crime. In April 1935 he was executed in the electric chair.

• On May 13, 1981, Pope John Paul II is shot and seriously wounded while passing through St. Peter's Square in an open car. The pontiff, who spent three weeks in the hospital, fully recovered from his wounds. Pope John Paul II died in 2005 from flu complications.