Nope, you didn't win. 

There was no Powerball winner in Wednesday night's drawing for the $360 million jackpot, the third-largest prize ever, Sue Dooley, an official with the Multi-State Lottery association said. 

Nati Harnik / AP

Parker Adair works the Powerball machine at a Baker's supermarket in Omaha, Neb., on Wednesday.

The next drawing will be Saturday May 18 for a grand prize of $475 million. 

The winning numbers for the jackpot were 02-11-26-34-41, with Powerball 32.

Powerball tickets are sold in 43 states.

The biggest jackpot ever totaled $587.5 million. That unbelievable sum was split between two tickets on Nov. 28. New Jersey resident Pedro Quezada won the fourth-largest Powerball prize ever in March, taking home a $338 million jackpot.

If you couldn't match these numbers, you might not be totally out of luck. A game redesign last year made such gargantuan prizes more common and raised the price of a ticket to $2.

There’s a one in 175.2 million chance of anyone's winning the grand prize, according to Powerball.

This story was originally published on Wed May 15, 2013 11:18 PM EDT

Lyon County Sheriff's Office via AP

Jeremiah Bean, a 25-year-old person of interest who has been arrested after five people were found dead in one morning in northern Nevada.

A suspect has been charged with open murder for the brutal killing spree that resulted in five deaths on Monday and put a small western Nevada town on edge.

Lyon County police on Wednesday announced Jeremiah Diaz Bean, 25, who was arrested Monday on burglary charges, now faces the open murder charges along with arson, burglary, robbery, ex-felon in possession of a firearm and grand larceny counts.

The open murder charge means Bean can face homicide charges ranging from first degree murder to manslaughter.

Though autopsies have yet to determine a cause of death for the victims, Lyon County Sheriff Allen Veil told reporters that all five had suffered gunshot wounds.

Police believe Bean broke into the home of Robert Pape, 84, his wife, Dorothy, 84, then killed the couple in their Fernley, Nev. home and stole their car. The vehicle somehow became disabled near an interstate exit for an infamous brothel just outside of Reno.

That is where authorities say Eliazar Graham, 52, came upon Bean and was shot and killed. Police alleged Bean then returned to Fernley and murdered Angie Duff, 67 and Lester Leiber, 69, inside Duff’s home — just a short distance from where the Papes were killed. Bean was arrested after authorities found him hiding in a nearby neighbor’s garage with items taken from Pape’s home.

Police have yet to determine a motive, and said it is possible Bean was under the influence of drugs during his rampage. Veil said there is no indication that any other suspects are at large.   

“There should be a sense of relief that we believe we have the person we think did this is custody,” Veil said at a news conference Wednesday.

Police do not believe there is any connection between the five victims.

Lyon County Sheriffs’ officials say there is no immediate threat to the residents of Fernley, but urged everyone to take extra precautions in the wake of the murders that terrified the tight-knit community.

“This is a new one for me and after 31 plus years I know I haven’t seen it all, I wish I had, but this is just one that’s beyond words,” said Veil.

Police said Bean, who served time for burglary in 2011, also admitted to being a gang member.

Elise Amendola / Elise Amendola / AP

J.P. Norden, right, followed by his brother, Paul, both suffering limb-loss after the Boston Marathon bombing, emerge from a news conference at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Boston's Charlestown section Monday, May 13, 2013.

The One Fund Boston, which has raised more than $30 million for victims of the Boston Marathon bombings, on Wednesday announced a final protocol for distributing the funds which they hope to have in claimants' hands by June 30.

The protocol prioritizes claims for deaths, double amputations and for bombing victims who sustained permanent brain damage, followed by single amputations and then those victims with physical injuries who required an overnight hospital stay.

Claim forms, which are available on OneFundBoston.com, are due by June 15. After that, the requests will be reviewed and distributed on the final day of June.

"The outpouring of support for The One Fund has been unprecedented in my experience," said Administrator Kenneth Feinberg in a press release announcing the final protocol. "We remain committed to channeling that generosity to assist those most impacted by the bombings and to do so by the end of June."

Earlier this month, two town hall meetings were held in Boston to discuss how the funds should be distributed.

Potential claimants will also be able to request a face-to-face meeting with Feinberg, who has played a similar role overseeing victim compensation in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting, the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December 2012.

Claims made after June will be decided on a rolling basis, determined by consultation with the victims, community and One Fund Boston Board, the protocol says. Those killed or injured during the pursuit of bombing suspects Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev are also eligible for compensation.

The announcement came exactly one month after the bombings that killed three and injured over 250. On Wednesday, at 2:50 p.m., the time of the first bomb blast exactly a month earlier, Boston Police raised an American flag over their headquarters to full staff. They also removed black mourning bands from their badges.

Also on Wednesday the Boston Globe reported that thirteen deputy chiefs from the Boston Fire Department sent a letter to Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino calling Fire Chief Steve E. Abraira's response to the bombings inadequate.

Abraira contends that when he got to the scene the command staff had the situation under control. "When I got there I was comfortable with what was going on," he told the newspaper.

Jeff Black of NBC News contributed to this report.

Related: Meet Kenneth Feinberg: The man who puts a price on pain

Jeremiah Bean, 25, has been arrested as a person of interest after five people were found dead in one morning in northern Nevada.

Police identified three of five people killed in a brutal flurry Monday that has terrified a small western Nevada town.

Robert Pape, 84, his wife, Dorothy, 84, and Angie Duff, 67, were among the victims discovered in Fernley, Nev., NBC's Reno affiliate KRNV reported.

Another male victim found in Duff's residence and a body found in a ditch near an interstate exit for an infamous brothel just outside of Reno have yet to be identified. Autopsy results into the causes of death are pending, police said.

Lyon County Sheriff's Office on Tuesday announced that Jeremiah Bean, 25, was arrested on suspicion of burglary after authorities caught him with items from the Pape's home.

Authorities believe all five deaths are connected, KRNV reported.

Bean was found when a neighbor near the first crime scene called the police about a man hiding in his garage, officials said.

He attempted to run from police, but was quickly surrounded by authorities, officials said.

Bean is being held on $50,000 bail.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

This story was originally published on Tue May 14, 2013 7:51 PM EDT

Reaching across the aisle can be helpful not only in politics but also in the personal growth of recent college graduates, first lady Michelle Obama said in a commencement address at Eastern Kentucky University over the weekend.

“If you’re a Democrat, spend some time talking to a Republican. And if you’re a Republican, have a chat with a Democrat. Maybe you’ll find some common ground; maybe you won’t,” she said to about 600 graduating seniors on Saturday.

“We know what happens when we only talk to people who think like we do," she added. "We just get more stuck in our ways, more divided, and it gets harder to come together for a common purpose.”

Michelle Obama was just one of hundreds of commencement speakers imparting their wisdom to college graduates this month. Over the weekend, the first lady, former President Bill Clinton and NBC News’ Tom Brokaw highlighted the speakers circuit with a common theme: Focus on the things that unite us, not divide us.

"You can either choose to use those opportunities to continue fighting the fights that we’ve been locked in for decades, or you can choose to reject those old divisions and embrace folks with a different point of view," Michelle Obama said.  "And if you do that, the latter, who knows where it might take you -- more importantly, where it might take our country."

Since her husband's 2008 election, Michelle Obama has had a front row seat to experience the gridlock that partisanship has caused in the federal government. Like the first lady, Brokaw urged graduates of Loyola University in New Orleans to focus on the "common pursuit of the goals that we all have, not small ideas that divide us."

"You are prepared to do all that to make us better,” he told the Class of 2013.

Brokaw also told the graduates that the next 100 years will be known as the century where women will fully be viewed as equals to their male counterparts.

“The 21^st century will be remembered, I can assure you now, even though it’s a long way from being over, it will be remembered as the century when women finally took their rightful and fully recognized place in society here and around the world,” he said to thunderous applause.

Clinton told Howard University graduates that they are part of a small minority of the world's population that has the privilege of choosing how they want to earn a living. His advice: Do what makes you happy.

"Most people are happiest doing what they are best at. You have been given that gift," he said.

 Below are some excerpts from their speeches:

Tom Brokaw

Address to Loyola University in New Orleans on May 11.

“Leave here today determined to be the generation of big ideas that unite us in the common pursuit of the goals that we all have, not small ideas that divide us. Adopt the mantra of the generation that gave you all those apps, the instruments and the capacity that so change your life. In Silicon Valley they wake up every morning saying, ‘How can we be disruptive? How can we challenge convention and make life a better place? You are prepared to do all that to make us better.”

Former President Bill Clinton

Address to Howard University on May 11.

“Even with the employment situation and the economic challenges, virtually all of you have the power to choose what you will do to earn a living. It may seem self-evident, but most people who have ever lived, including hundreds of millions even billions on the face of the Earth today, never had that choice.

"… You have a choice. The only bit of personal advice I have is this: Try to do something that will make you happy. And most people are happiest doing what they are best at. You have been given that gift." 

Sara Delano Roosevelt was a doting -- and, at times, overly protective -- mother to Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Presidents have at least two things in common: They love their country and they love their moms. From John Quincy Adams' overbearing Abigail to Barack Obama's single-mom Anne Dunham, our presidents tend to be the products of strong, confident women who made life-lasting impacts on their sons. 

"If you look at the families of presidents, it's the momma's boy who is most likely to be president," said Doug Wead, author of "The Raising of a President: The Mothers and Fathers of Our Nations Leaders." 

Sigmund Freud theorized that the child perceived to be a mother's favorite is empowered for life. The close connection between presidents and their mothers could be due to absentee fathers who weren't around while the future leaders were growing up.

Whatever the reason, behind nearly every great president was a great mom.

"In virtually every case, it was the mothers who raised their sons to be president, and developed their character and will to get there," said Bonnie Angelo, author of "First Mothers: The Women Who Shaped the Presidents."

In honor of Mother's Day, here's a look at some of the most prolific momma's boys to ever occupy the White House:

John Quincy Adams
When it comes to being a momma's boy, John Quincy Adams did not have much of a choice in the matter, Angelo writes. His mother, Abigail Adams, decided early on that she would play an active role in her son's life. Her husband, the second president of the United States, spent much of his career as a diplomat, clocking in serious time overseas before becoming president. And while he was away, Abigail Adams had the responsibility of molding and educating the children, along with instilling a strong sense of morality.

When 11-year-old John Quincy traveled to Paris to spend time with his father, Abigail expressed her concern about the seedy underbelly she thought the city to have. "I would rather see you find a grave in the ocean you have crossed, than see you an immoral, profligate or graceless child," she told him.

Abigail Adams prohibited John Quincy's first engagement, and later in life when he wrote from London to say he was looking to marry, she said urged him to think about his future and stay single. When she found out the girl was British, she wrote "I hope for the love I bear my country that the Siren is at least half-blooded." Fortunately, the father of future first lady Louisa Catherine Johnson was the American consul in London.

William McKinley
The Ohio native at first disappointed his mother by not becoming a preacher. But she quickly forgave him. As president, he had installed a special wire to her home in the Buckeye State so that he could pray with her daily, said Wead. When she was on her death bed, McKinley rushed out of Washington on his presidential train to be by her side. During her illness and death, McKinley was "inconsolable," Wead writes.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Sara Delano Roosevelt, the first mother ever to vote for her son for president, would not let him take a bath alone until he was 9 years old. In fact, she kept FDR in dresses until he was six, as was custom of the day. When he went off to Harvard, his mother rented an apartment in Boston to oversee his social life. 

Though a privileged child, FDR did not fit in well growing up. He was unathletic and socially awkward, which some historians cite as a result of his domineering mother. Her heavy involvement in her son's life did not end after his childhood. She was a staple of the FDR White House, sitting next to her son as he delivered his first fireside chat. She even delivered her own address to the nation on Mother's Day. 

"She was a force to be rekoned with," said Angelo. The author noted that because of FDR's health complications and troubles as a child, he easily could have chosen a privileged life out of the public eye. But his mother pushed him to directly confront the challenges he faced.

Her strong manner also made for a contentious relationship with famed First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. Angelo notes that FDR could take on labor leaders, big business and stare down Hitler -- but he could never say no to his mother. It meant he was largely mute when she bullied his wife. "The momma's boy willingly made his wife second fiddle to his mother," Angelo writes.

FDR also became the first president since Woodrow Wilson to not issue a presidential proclamation on Mother's Day. Instead, in 1935, he said the the holiday held such significance that a proclamation was unnecessary, and called on Americans to honor their mothers with tributes that “come simply and spontaneously from our hearts.” 

Harry Truman
Harry Truman's father, John, was a largely unsuccessful entrepreneur with a temper, Angelo writes. Growing up in Missouri, Truman formed a close bond with his mother, Martha Ellen Young Truman.  She lived to see her son's appointment to the White House following President Roosevelt's death, but told reporters that her son's death was no cause for celebration in the wake of a national tragedy.  

In her book, Angelo writes that after Truman's 1948 election, he lamented: "I wish my mother had lived long enough to see me sworn in as an elected president. When I succeeded Franklin Roosevelt, my mother so wisely said it was no occasion for her to rejoice. But now that I have been elected president in my own right, it would have been a great thrill for her to be present as her son took the oath."

His mother had passed away one year earlier. Truman had been keeping vigil by his dying mother's bed for two weeks in 1947 before he had to briefly go back to Washington. On his way back from the White House to return to Martha Ellen Young Truman's side, his mother appeared to him in a dream. Shortly after he awoke, he was handed a message the pilot received over the radio. Without even reading it, Truman said he knew its contents. "I knew she was gone when I saw her in that dream. She was saying good-bye to me," he recalled. Her parting words, he said, were, "Goodbye, Harry. Be a good boy." 

John F. Kennedy
President John F. Kennedy's father, Joe, is largely credited with building the family's political dynasty. But his mother, Rose Kennedy, turned out to be one of JFK's best allies on the campaign trail. She was an avid campaigner during her son's 1960 presidential run, and biographers note her interest in the back-room deals and nuts and bolts of politics. 

Julian Wasser / Time & Life Pictures/Getty Image

President John F. Kennedy and his mother, Rose.

Rose Kennedy's interest in politics stemmed from a passion for history. The well educated mother of nine made it point to ensure her children loved learning in the same way she did. In her memoir "Times to Remember," she wrote, "I looked at child rearing not only as a work of love and duty, but as a profession that was fully as interesting and challenging as any honorable profession in the world."   

Some historians have noted her to have been cold and removed, notions her children have since rejected. Angelo described her as "the strong spine of that family." 

But she remained engaged with JFK during his presidency, at times to a fault. In 1962 she wrote to Soviet Premier Khrushchev asking for a signed photo. It prompted a response from her president son asking that she check with him before reaching out to other heads of state.

"When I ask for Castro's autograph, I will let you know in advance," she replied.

Richard Nixon
He didn't go out on top, but in his farewell address, Nixon made sure to give proper thanks to the woman who reared him: "Nobody will ever write a book, probably, about my mother. Well, I guess all of you would say this about your mother -- my mother was a saint. And I think of her, two boys dying of tuberculosis, nursing four others in order that she could take care of my older brother for three years in Arizona, and seeing each of them die, and when they died, it was like one of her own. Yes, she will have no books written about her. But she was a saint."

The Bushes
Wead, who served as a special assistant to President George H.W. Bush, recalled an emotional moment in the Oval Office when someone asked the president how his ailing mother, Dorothy Walker Bush, was doing. "He had a weird expression on his face, almost as if he was choking. Then he just burst out and started sobbing, and we all scattered," he said. She passed in 1992, just 16 days after Bush lost re-election to Bill Clinton.

AP

First lady Barbara Bush is shown here with son George in 1989 at the family home in Kennebunkport, Maine.

In a statement, the senior Bush said his mother, "Was the beacon in our family -- the center, the candle around which all the moths fluttered -- she was there, the strength, the center, the power but never arrogance, just love was her strength, kindness her main virtue."

His wife, Barbara Bush -- mother to President George W. Bush -- once said in an interview that her mother-in-law had "10 times more" influence on her son than his father. 

Barbara formed a close bond with Dorothy, and developed a relationship with son George similar to the one her husband had with his mother.  Angelo writes that at a commencement address at Southern Methodist in 1999 during his presidential campaign, Bush jokingly told the graduates: "Remember that no matter how old you are or what your job is, you can never escape your mother." Throughout his presidential run, Barbara continued to give her son motherly advice -- like stand up straight and to make sure his socks were pulled up during an appearance on Jay Leno's "Tonight Show."

First lady Laura Bush would later say her husband is much more like his mother than his father. "Both are feisty," she said.

Barack Obama
Mothers continue to have an indelible impact on their politician sons. In his book "Dreams From My Father," President Barack Obama called his mom, Ann Dunham, "The kindest, most generous spirit I have ever known, and that what is best in me I owe to her." She had him as a teenager, and Obama was raised both by her and his grandparents.

She passed away in 1995, but in an interview with the Chicago Tribune during his 2008 campaign, Obama said she was "the dominant figure in my formative years. . . . The values she taught me continue to be my touchstone when it comes to how I go about the world of politics."

Rick Bowmer / AP file

Jose Lopez, points to a undated photo of Riccardo Portillo, center, his brother-in-law, following a news conference Thursday, May 2, 2013, at Intermountain Medical Center, in Murray, Utah.

A 17-year-old boy accused of delivering a fatal punch to a soccer referee after being penalized during a game in Utah was charged with homicide by assault on Wednesday.

Though the teen was charged in a juvenile court, Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill said in a statement that his office will seek to prosecute him as an adult. The teen was not named in the formal charges.

The third-degree felony carries a lesser charge than manslaughter, with a sentence of up to five years in prison for adults.

"We did not believe we could demonstrate the premeditation or intent to justify those charges," Gill told The Associated Press on Wednesday. "Those other charges require another type of mental state. We did not believe that type of mental state was present."

Ricardo Portillo, 46, was refereeing a youth soccer match near Salt Lake City when he called a penalty against the goalie. He issued the teen a yellow card, and the player retaliated by punching Portillo in the jaw, NBC's Salt Lake City affiliate KSL reports.

Portillo died after being in a week-long coma. Court records obtained by KSL state that an autopsy revealed his death was "a result of injuries related to the blow to his head."

The teen has remained in juvenile detention since the April 27 attack. He is five months shy of his 18th birthday.

A juvenile court judge will decide if the suspect will be tried as an adult. He is currently being held on $100,000 bail.

Funeral services for Portillo, who leaves behind three daughters and four grandchildren, were set for Wednesday.

Cliff Owen / AP

Jaycee Dugard, who was abducted as a child and held for eighteen years, right, and her mother Terry Probyn appear with their Hope Award at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children annual Hope Awards in Washington, Tuesday, May 7, 2013.

WASHINGTON — A day after the discovery of three kidnapped Cleveland women who had been missing for nearly a decade, former captive Jaycee Dugard and her mother said they are feeling the same joy they felt when the two were reunited after 18 years of being held hostage.

The mother and daughter were being honored here Tuesday at the annual Hope Awards Gala, sponsored by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The event just happened to be held 24 hours after one of the biggest recent victories for those committed to finding missing children — the rescue of Amber Berry, Michelle Knight and Gina DeJesus, who were all kidnapped as youths in the early 2000s.

"Another miracle happened yesterday and three girls are alive and I feel the same joy and relief I felt when Jaycee was returned to me after 18 hellish years," Terry Probyn, Jaycee's mother, told the audience.

"We must never lose hope. Keeping hope alive is what got me through the 18 years," she added. 

Jaycee Dugard spoke briefly before her mother, thanking her family along with the Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which helped her transition back into society after her abduction that last nearly 20 years.

"It's hard to believe that that story is me," Dugard said. "Thank you for tonight and I want to say what an amazing time to be talking about hope, with everything that's happening."

When she was 11-years-old, Dugard was abducted by strangers at a bus stop in her hometown of Lake Tahoe, Calif. For 18 years, she was help captive and sexually assaulted by a married couple at their home outside Antioch, Calif., eventually having two of her captures children. 

She was discovered in 2009 when her kidnapper, Phillip Garrido, raised the suspicions of University of California at Berkeley campus police while applying to hold a religious event on school grounds. In 2011, Garrido was sentenced to 431 years in prison.

Tuesday's gala was largely a celebration of Monday's news from Ohio. But while those who devote their lives to finding missing children were ecstatic about recent  developments, they also cautioned that the recovery for the newly freed Cleveland women will not be quick or easy.

Katie Beers, who at 10-years-old was held captive in an underground cell by a family "friend" for 17 days in New York, said getting professional help and the continued support of family was what helped her recover. Maintaining her privacy in the days and weeks after her release was also key in Beers recovery, she said.

"I would most certainly suggest to them seek out counseling right away, even if they don't want to talk about their captivity, if they just want to talk about what's going on in their life that day, for themselves and their family," she told reporters before the dinner. "And also I would suggest they stay out of the public eye as they need to recover, they need to assimilate back into a normal so called life."

Beers dropped out of the public eye until the 20-year anniversary of her 1992 rescue when she released a book about her ordeal titled "Buried Memories." 

Beers was taken captive near her Long Island home by a man she knew and trusted. The women on the west side of Cleveland were held by suspects that neighbors described as friendly, unlike anyone else in the area.

The descriptions of seemingly normal, well-meaning people committing these types of crimes should no long surprise people,  America's Most Wanted host John Walsh told media before the event.

"These guys live amongst us, they hide in plain sight, they are sociopaths that believe it is OK to kidnap women and children," Walsh said. "They are cunning, smart and they don't operate like we do. They don't have a moral code, they dont have empathy, they dont have compassion." 

Walsh praised neighbor Charles Ramsey, credited for helping save the women, for acting quickly and allowing Berry to make the emergency call that would lead her, Knight and DeJesus to the freedom they had long yearned for.

Walsh, whose son was abducted and murdered in 1981, said he hopes the men who are accused of imprisoning the women in Ohio "never see the light of day again."

And while the experts in attendance shifted focus to the next steps for the Ohio women's long road to recovery, they also called it a major breakthrough for those families with missing children.

"Breaking Bad" star Bryan Cranston was still smiling late Tuesday from news of the rescue.   "It's fortuitous to have this [Ohio rescue] the night before the Hope Awards, because that's what we're celebrating — hope," Cranston told reporters. "And the message to all the parents out there that have missing children is that there is still hope."

Related:

Five missing-child cases with happy endings

Residents of a Houston neighborhood are being warned to stay away from giant African land snails after a woman found one in her garden and snapped a photo of it.

The snails, researchers warn, are potentially dangerous to touch, in part because they can carry meningitis. Scientists have warned anyone who comes in contact with them to wash their hands thoroughly.

"They also carry a parasitic disease that can cause a lot of harm to humans and sometimes even death," Autumn Smith-Herron, director of the Institute for the Study of Invasive Species at Sam Houston State University, told NBC Houston affiliate KPRC.

A woman gardening in the Briar Forest neighborhood of Houston found the snail and notified workers at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center who deal with invasive plants. It is the first reported sighting of the mollusk in Texas, and no one seems to know how it got there.

The giant snails can lay 100 eggs per month, and though only one has been found, it is believed more are in the area.

Jack Fendrick, who lives near where the slimy giant was discovered, said he will do his part to warn of the potentially deadly snails.

"I think most kids especially would look at a big snail and want to touch it," he said. "That's scary."

A 26-year-old Missouri mother died Saturday after falling out of a "party bus" when the vehicle's emergency doors flew open while driving on a busy highway en route to what was supposed to be a fun night out with friends.

Jamie Frecks was out celebrating a friend's bachelorette party when she fell out of the bus and was struck by at least three vehicles, NBC Kansas City affiliate KSHB reports.

She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Frecks's aunt Cynthia Matteson said the family is devastated over the young mother's death and is demanding answers as to how the accident occurred.

"Why wasn't it secured?" Matteson told KSHB. "A person hires a person for safety, to get you there and back home. Why wasn't she brought back home safe?"

Eddy Goetz, one of the owners of Midnight Express party bus, which operates the vehicle, said the company has "no idea" how the doors could have come open.

In a statement to KSBH, Goetz said:  "On behalf of the owners and employees of Midnight Express party bus, we want to express our sincere sympathy for the family and friends touched by Saturday night’s tragic accident that took the life of Jamie Frecks. We are trying to find out how the tragic accident could have happened. We will cooperate fully with everyone to find out the cause of this accident."

Frecks leaves behind a 5-month-old child.

Charles Krupa / AP

Rhode Island House Speaker Gordon Fox, right, embraces his partner, Marcus LaFond, after a vote to pass a gay marriage bill at the State House in Providence, R.I., Thursday, May 2, 2013.

Rhode Island became the final state in New England and the 10th in the country to legalize gay marriage after independent Gov. Lincoln Chafee on Thursday signed a bill that will allow same-sex marriage.

"I know that you have been waiting for this day to come," Chafee said to the state's gay and lesbian community at a bill-signing ceremony in front of hundreds. "I know you have loved ones that dreamed this would happen but did not live to see it. But I am proud to say that now at long last, you are free to marry the person you love."

In a New York Times op-ed Wednesday, Chafee outlined his support for gay marriage not only on moral grounds, but also economic.

"The talented workers who are driving the new economy — young, educated and forward-looking — want to live in a place that reflects their values. They want diversity, not simply out of a sense of justice, but because diversity makes life more fun," he wrote. "Why would any state turn away the people who are most likely to create the economies of the 21st century?"

As a Republican U.S. senator in 2004, Chafee voiced his support for gay marriage when most members of his party were staunchly opposed to it. He was ousted from his Senate seat in 2006 but won the governor's race in the Ocean State in 2010 as an independent.

Chafee is now calling on fellow governors to push for similar legislation to what passed in Rhode Island on Thursday, and calling for the Supreme Court to overturn the Defense of Marriage Act. Though public opinion continues to turn in favor of same-sex marriage, legalizing it is still a heavy lift for many states. 

Even in Rhode Island, which sits in the country's friendliest territory for gay-marriage supporters, opposition from the state's heavy Catholic population put the prospects of passage in jeopardy for years. The legislation has been introduced in the House every session since 1997.

But last fall, more gay-marriage supporters were elected to the state legislature, and the bill's passage was the result of a highly energized and coordinated campaigning from those equal rights groups, business leaders, community organizers and politicians.

The bill overcame its biggest hurdle last week when it passed the Senate by a comfortable 26-12 vote after Senate President Teresa Paiva Weed, D-Newport, allowed a vote despite her opposition to gay marriage. The House easily passed the legislation in January but needed to approve the final language in a procedural vote Thursday that passed 56-15. The session was largely a celebration in which legislators reflected on the significance of the bill and thanked those who fought for its passage.

"We are truly social creatures, and that is the essence of this legislation," House Speaker Gordon Fox, D-Providence, said before the bill was signed. "You are free to love and commit to the person of your choice no matter what your gender may be.... And the foundation of that is a very simple, yet probably the most powerful word in the English language: Love," said Fox, who is gay.

Along with the five other New England states, Rhode Island joins Iowa, Maryland, Washington, New York and Washington, D.C., in recognizing same-sex marriage. Minnesota, Illinois and Delaware are also expected to come to decisions about the issue soon.

Charles Krupa / AP

Lise Iwon, right, and Julie Smith celebrate after a gay marriage bill passed in the Rhode Island House at the State House in Providence, R.I., Thursday, May 2, 2013.

Opponents to gay marriage argued passing the legislation would lessen religious liberty for churches and certain faith-based organizations

A day before the bill passed, the National Organization for Marriage called on the House to reject the legislation, which they say contains "a shocking lack of religious liberty protections, potentially ghettoizing people of faith unless they compromise and remain silent in the public square."

"When marriage is redefined into a genderless institution, it presents a range of legal conflicts for people of faith and the small businesses and charitable organizations they operate to serve the public," Christopher Plante, regional director for the organization, said in a statement.

The first same-sex marriages could take place Aug. 1, when the new law takes effect. Civil unions, which the state approved two years ago, will no longer be available to gay couples, though existing civil unions will still be recognized.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.