Today in
History ~ May 20
Events
0526 - Earthquake kills 250,000 in Antioch, Syria
1303 - Treaty of Paris restores Gascony to British in Hundred Years War
1310 - Shoes were made for both right & left feet
1347 - Rienzi calls Rome for people's tribunal
1498 - Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama arrives at Calcutta India
1501 - Joao da Nova Castell discovers Ascension Islands
1521 - Ignatius Loyola seriously wounded by a cannon ball
1571 - Venice, Spain & Pope Pius form anti-Turkish Saint League
1631 - German army under earl Johann Tilly conquerors Maagdenburg
1639 - Dorchester Mass, forms 1st school funded by local taxes
1690 - England passes Act of Grace, forgiving followers of James II
1704 - Elias Neau forms school for slaves in NY
1775 - Citizens of Mecklenburg County, NC declare independence from Britain
1825 - Charles X becomes King of France
1830 - 1st railroad timetable published in newspaper (Baltimore American)
1830 - Dr Hyde patents fountain pen
1861 - Kentucky proclaims its neutrality in Civil War
1861 - North Carolina becomes 11th & last state to secede from Union
1861 - The capital of the Confederacy was moved from Montgomery, Ala., to Richmond, Virginia.
1861 - US marshals appropriate previous year's telegraph dispatches, to reveal
pro-secessionist evidence
1862 - Lincoln signs the Homestead Act; provides cheap land for settlement of West
[H]
1864 - Battle at Ware Bottom Church, Virginia, 1,400 killed or injured
1864 - Spotsylvania-campaign ends after 10,920 killed/injured person
1867 - British parliament rejects John Stuart Mills law on women suffrage
1868 - Republican National Convention, meets in Chicago, nominates Grant
1874 - Levi Strauss markets blue jeans with copper rivets, price $13.50 doz
1882 - Henrik Ibsen's "Ghosts" (Gengangere) premieres in Chicago
1882 - St Gotthard-railroad tunnel between Switzerland & Italy opens
1892 - George Sampson patents clothes dryer
1895 - 1st commercial movie performance (153 Broadway, NYC)
1899 - Jacob German, operator of a taxicab for the Electric Vehicle Company, became the first driver to be arrested for speeding when he was stopped by Bicycle Roundsman Schueller for driving at the "breakneck" speed of twelve miles per hour on Lexington Avenue in Manhattan.
1902 - The United States ended its three-year (since Jan 1, 1899) military presence in Cuba as the Republic of Cuba was established under its first elected president, Tomas Estrada Palma.
1910 - Funeral for Britain's King Edward VII
1916 - Codell, Kansas hit by tornado (tornados also on same date in 1917 & 1918)
1916 - Norman Rockwell's first cover on "The Saturday Evening Post"
1917 - Turkish government authorizes Jews to return to Tel Aviv & Jaffa
1918 - 1st electrically propelled warship (New Mexico)
1919 - Volcano Keluit on Java, erupts killing 550
1920 - Policemen raid the Cubs' bleachers & arrest 24 fans for gambling
1926 - Thomas Edison says Americans prefer silent movies over talkies
1927 - At 7:52am, Charles Lindbergh took off from Roosevelt Field in Long Island, N.Y., aboard the Spirit of St. Louis on his historic solo flight to France.
1927 - Saudi Arabia becomes independent of Great Britain (Treaty of Jedda)
1930 - 1st airplane catapulted from a dirigible, Charles Nicholson, pilot
1930 - University of California dedicates $1,500 to research on prevention & cure of athlete's foot
1932 - Amelia Earhart took off from Newfoundland, landed 13 1/2 hours later near Londonderry, Ireland
to become the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic.
1939 - 1st regular transatlantic airmail began as a Pan American Airways plane, the Yankee Clipper, took off from Port Washington,
N.Y. to Marsseille France
1940 - Gen Guderian's tanks reach The Channel (British expeditionary army)
1940 - Igor Sikorsky unveils his helicopter invention
1941 - Germany invades Crete
1942 - US Navy 1st permitted black recruits to serve
1942 - Glenn Miller and His Orchestra recorded "(I've Got a Gal in) Kalamazoo" at Victor Studios in Hollywood.
1943 - French, British & US victory parade in Tunis Tunisia
1944 - US Communist Party dissolves
1948 - 1st use of Israeli Air Force & 1st war victory, defeating Syrian army
1954 - Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek becomes presidentissimo of Nationalist China
1955 - Argentine parliament accepts separation of church & state
1959 - Ford wins battle with Chrysler to call its new car "Falcon"
1959 - Japanese-Americans regain their citizenship
1961 - White mob attacks "Freedom Riders" in Montgomery, Alabama, prompting the federal government to send in U.S. marshals to restore order.
1963 - Sukarno appointed president of Indonesia
1967 - 10,000 demonstrate against war in Vietnam
1967 - BBC bans Beatle's "A Day in the Life" (drug references)
1969 - U.S. and South Vietnamese forces captured Apbia Mountain, (Hill 937) referred to as "Hamburger Hill" by the Americans, following one of the bloodiest battles of the Vietnam War.
1970 - 100,000 march in NY supporting US policies in Vietnam
1973 - "2 Gentlemen of Verona" closes at St James Theater NYC after 613 performances
1973 - 25th Emmy Awards: Waltons, All in the Family & Mary Tyler Moore
1974 - Judge John Sirica ordered President Nixon to turn over tapes and other records of 64 White House conversations on the Watergate affair.
1980 - 710 families in Love Canal area (Niagara Falls NY) are evacuated
1980 - Fire in nursing home in Kingston Jamaica, kills 157
1980 - In a referendum, 59.5% of Quebec voters reject separatism
1984 - "On Your Toes" closes at Virginia Theater NYC after 505 performances
1985 - FBI arrests John A Walker Jr, convicted of spying for USSR
1985 - Israel exchanges 1,100+ Arab prisoners for 3 Israeli soldiers
1985 - US began broadcasts to Cuba on Radio Marti
1986 - Flintstones 25th Anniversary Celebration airs on CBS-TV
1989 - Chinese Premier Li declared martial law in Beijing in response to heightened student demonstrations in Tiananmen Square.
1990 - Hubble Space Telescope sends 1st photograph's from space
1991 - Soviet parliament approves law allowing citizens to travel abroad
1991 - National elections in India sparked political violence that left 40 dead and hundreds injured.
1992 - Amy Fisher, the so-called "Long Island Lolita," is arrested for shooting Mary Jo Buttafuoco on the front porch of her Massapequa, New York, home.
1992 - Proclaiming his innocence to the end, Roger Keith Coleman, who waged an unprecedented media blitz to win a new trial but failed to pass a lie detector test in his final
hours, was executed in Virginia's electric chair for the 1981 rape-murder of his sister-in-law, Wanda McCoy.
1992 - Thailand's much-revered monarch (King Bhumibol Adulyadej) called for an end to violent clashes between troops and pro-democracy protesters.
1992 - VP Quayle attacks Murphy Brown for being a single mother
1993 - 274th & final "Cheers" on NBC
1993 - President Clinton signed the so-called "motor voter" bill, making it easier to register to vote.
1994 - Bobcat Goldthwait charged with misdemeanors for fire on Tonight Show
1995 - CBS News fires co-anchor Connie Chung
1995 - The two-block stretch of Pennsylvania Ave. in front of the White House was closed to traffic.
1996 - The U.N. agreed to let Iraq sell oil for the first time since the Gulf War if it complied better with the terms of the cease-fire.
1997 - The Senate approved legislation to ban certain late-term abortions, but fell three votes shy of the total needed to override President Clinton's threatened veto.
1998 - Errors caused by a faulty telecommunications satellite caused tens of millions of pager customers across the country to lose service
1999 - A High school student in Georgia opened fire on his classmates, wounding six of them before surrendering to school authorities. The same day, the President and Mrs. Clinton met in Littleton, Colo., with students, teachers and families of the victims of the previous month's deadly shootings at Columbine High School.
2001 - President Bush, in an address to graduating Notre Dame students, urged a new generation of American voters to "revive the spirit of citizenship" and carry on the work of two Democratic presidents: Lyndon Johnson's war on poverty and welfare reforms under Bill Clinton.
Birthdays
Today
1364 - Henry Percy, [Harry Hotspur], British soldier/politican
1537 - Hieronymus Fabricius Ab, Aquapend Italy, physician (De Formato Foetu)
1547 - Melchior Bischoff, composer
1743 - [Francois D] Toussaint L'Ouverture, (^Å Breda), leader (Haiti)
1750 - Stephen Girard, bailed out US bonds during War of 1812
1759 - William Thornton, architect (Capitol building, Wash DC)
1772 - William Congreve, English officer (design fire rocket)
1799 - Honore de Balzac, France, novelist (Pere Goriot, Human Comedy)
1806 - John Stuart Mill (leader of the utilitarian movement: editor: Westminster Review; philosopher: System of Logic, Principles of Political Economy, Utilitarianism, On Liberty, The Subjection of Women)
1818 - William George Fargo, helped to found Wells, Fargo & Co.
1844 - Henri Julien Felix Rousseau, French ambassador/painter (Dream)
1851 - Emil Berliner,
1851 - Emile Berliner, Germany, telephone and recording pioneer, inventor of the
flat phonograph record
1851 - Rose Hawthorne Lathrop, US, nun/daughter of Nathaniel Hawthorne
1856 - Henri E Cross [Delacroix], French painter
1889 - Felix Arndt, composer
1890 - Beniamino Gigli, Italy, tenor (Enzo-La Gioconda)
1899 - John M Harlan, Chicago, 91st Supreme Court justice (1955-71)
1908 - Jimmy Stewart (Academy Award-winning actor: Philadelphia Story [1940], The Glenn Miller Story, It's a Wonderful Life, Harvey, Rear Window, Anatomy of a Murder, Bell, Book and Candle, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Vertigo, The Man from Laramie)
1912 - Joseph Proce, 3rd victim of NYC's Zodiac killer (survives)
1913 - William Hewlett, co-founder of Hewlett-Packard Co.
1915 - Moshe Dayan, Israeli general/minister of Defense
1916 - Patricia Ellis (O'Brien) (actress: Three on a Match, Back Door to Heaven, The Case of the Lucky Legs, Postal Inspector)
1920 - 'Lonesome' George Gobel (Emmy Award winning personality [1954], comedian: "Well I'll be a dirty bird.": The George Gobel Show, The Eddie Fisher Show; actor: Better Late than Never, The Fantastic World of D.C. Collins, Harper Valley
P.T.A.)
1923 - Edith Fellows (actress: The Grace Kelly Story, In the Mood)
1926 - Bob Sweikert (auto racer: Indianapolis 500 winner [1955])
1926 - Vic Ames (Urick) (singer: group: The Ames Brothers: You, You, You are the One, Rag Mop, Sentimental Me, Undecided, You, You, You, The Man with the Banjo, The Naughty Lady of Shady Lane, Tammy, Melodie
d'Amour)
1927 - Bud (Henry) Grant (Pro Football Hall of Famer: Philadelphia Eagles; player & coach: Winnipeg Blue Bombers; Minnesota Vikings coach; basketball: Minneapolis Lakers: forward)
1928 - David Hedison (actor: Licence to Kill, Live and Let Die)
1930 - James McEachin (actor: The Dead Don't Die, Double Exposure)
1931 - Kenton Boyer (baseball) (St. Louis Cardinals third baseman: Baseball Writer's Award [1964]; NY Mets, Chicago White Sox, LA Dodgers)
1933 - Constance Towers (actress: Naked Kiss, On Wings of Eagles)
1933 - Danny Aiello, NYC, actor (Moonstruck, Do the Right Thing)
1937 - Dave Hill (golfer)
1937 - Teddy Randazzo (singer: Way of a Clown)
1940 - Stan Mikita (hockey: Chicago Blackhawks: Hart Memorial Trophy Winner [1967, 1968])
1944 - Joe (John Robert) Cocker (singer, songwriter: With a Little Help from My Friends, She Came in Through the Bathroom Window, The Letter, Up Where We Belong [w/Jennifer Warnes], You are So Beautiful, When the Night Comes, Cry Me a River)
1946 - Bobby Murcer (baseball: NY Yankees)
1946 - Cher (Cherilyn Sarkisian) LaPiere (singer: group: Sonny & Cher: I Got You Babe, The Beat Goes on, All I Really Want to Do; solo: Bang Bang, Gypsys, Tramps and Thieves, The Way of Love, Dark Lady; Academy Award-winning actress: Moonstruck [1987], The Witches of Eastwick, Silkwood, Mask)
1951 - Cullen Bryant (football: Los Angeles Rams: running back: Super Bowl XIV)
1958 - Ronald Prescott Reagan (dancer; talk show host; son of former U.S. President Ronald Reagan)
1964 - Earl Charles Spencer, Sandringham England, brother of Princess Diana
Famous
deaths
1444 - Bernardinus van Siena, Italian saint, dies at 63
1471 - Henry VI, king of England (1422-61, 70-71)/France (1431-71), dies
1506 - Christopher Columbus, explorer, dies in Spain at 55 [H]
1509 - Catharina Sforza ("La Sforza del Destino"), Italian duchess of Forli, dies at 45
1795 - Ignacc Martinovics, Hungarian physicist/revolutionary, beheaded
1834 - Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert de Motier, Marquis de Lafayette nobleman and French General, dies
1847 - Mary Lamb, writer, dies
1896 - Clara Josephine Wieck Schumann, composer/pianist, dies at 76
1956 - Max Beerbohm, caricturist/writer (Yet Again), dies
1972 - Walter Winchell, columnist/narrator (Untouchables), dies at 75
1984 - Peter Bull, British actor (Dr Doolittle), dies of a heart attack at 72
1989 - Gilda Radner, comedienne (SNL, Haunted Honeymoon), dies at 42 of uterine cancer
1993 - Max Klein, inventor (paint by numbers), dies at 77
1996 - John Pertwee, actor (Dr Who), dies at 76
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