Today in
History ~ May 24
Events
1153 - Malcolm IV becomes king of Scotland
1689 - English Parliament guarantees freedom of religion for Protestants
1738 - Methodist Church forms
1809 - Dartmoor Prison opens to house French prisoners of war
1818 - Gen Andrew Jackson captures Pensacola Florida
1822 - Battle of Pichincha, Bolivar secures independence of Quito from Spain
1830 - "Mary Had A Little Lamb," is written
1830 - The first passenger railroad in the United States began service between Baltimore and Elliott's Mills, Md.
1844 - Samuel F.B. Morse transmitted the message, "What hath God wrought!" from Washington to Baltimore as he formally opened America's first telegraph line.
1846 - Gen Zachary Taylor captures Monterey in Mexican War
1856 - In retaliation for the sacking of the abolitionist town of Lawrence, Kansas, by pro-slavery forces, militant abolitionist John Brown led a raid against a pro-slavery settlement along Pottawatomie Creek
1861 - Maj Gen Benjamin Butler declares slaves "contraband of war"
1862 - Westminster Bridge across Thames opens
1863 - Henry Plummer is elected sheriff of Bannack,
Montana [H]
1866 - Berkeley named (for George Berkeley, Bishop of Cloyne).
1873 - Leo Delibes' opera "Le Roi l'a Dit," premieres in Paris
1881 - Canadian ferry Princess Victoria sinks near London Ontario, 200 die
1883 - The Brooklyn Bridge was opened to the public, linking Brooklyn and Manhattan
Island by Pres. Arthur & Gov. Cleveland. [H]
1899 - In Boston, the 1st auto repair shop opens as a "stable for renting, sale, storage, and repair of motor vehicles."
1915 - The Pan-American Financial Conference
1915 - Thomas Edison invents telescribe to record telephone conversations
1916 - US pilot William Thaw shoots down a German Fokker
1926 - Paavo Nurmi runs world record 3000 m (8:25.4)
1933 - Dmitri Shostakovitch's Preludes, premieres in Moscow
1935 - The first major league baseball game to be played at night under lights saw the Cincinnati Reds beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 2-1, at Crosley Field in Cincinnati.
1940 - First successful helicopter flight Igor Sikorsky, an emigrant to America from the Ukraine, developed the modern helicopter.
1940 - German tanks reach Atrecht France
1940 - Hitler affirms Gen von Rundstedts "Stopbevel"
1941 - Bismarck sinks British dreadnought HMS Hood in the North Atlantic, 1,416 die 3 survive
1943 - Admiral Donitz stops U-boat in Atlantic Ocean
1944 - Icelandic voters severe all ties with Denmark
1951 - Racial segregation in Wash DC restaurants ruled illegal
1958 - Pres Batista opens offensive against Fidel Castro's rebellion
1958 - UP & International News Service merge into United Press International
1961 - 27 Freedom Riders arrested in Jackson, Mississippi
1962 - Mercury astronaut, M Scott Carpenter became the second American to orbit the Earth as he flew aboard Aurora 7.
1965 - Supreme Court declares federal law allowing post office to intercept communist propaganda is unconstitutional
1966 - "Mame" opens at Winter Garden Theater NYC for 1508 performances
1968 - Pres De Gaulle proposes referendum & students set fire to Paris
1976 - 1st commercial SST flight to North America (Concorde to Wash DC)
1976 - Britain and France opened transatlantic Concorde service to Washington.
1977 - In a surprise move, the Kremlin ousted Soviet President Nikolai Podgorny from the Communist Party's ruling Politburo.
1980 - Iran rejected a call by the World Court in The Hague to release the American hostages.
1983 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled private religious schools that practice racial discrimination are not eligible for church-related tax benefits.
1989 - "Indiana Jones & Last Crusade" premieres
1989 - French war criminal Paul Touvier arrested in monastery in Nice
1990 - The Navy reopened the much-criticized probe of the USS Iowa explosion that killed 47 sailors, citing a test that showed the blast could have been an accident.
1991 - Israel began airlifting 15,000 Ethiopian Jews to safety as Ethiopian rebels continued to advance on Addis Ababa.
1991 - The remains of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, assassinated by a suicide bomber, were cremated.
1991 The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to deplore Israel's deportation of four Palestinians from the occupied territories.
1991 - Israel began a mass evacuation of 14,500 Ethiopian Jews from Ethiopia to Israel. The operation took 36 hours.
1992 - President Bush authorized the Coast Guard to return directly home all Haitian refugees picked up at sea.
1992 - Al Unser Jr. became the first second-generation winner of the Indianapolis 500; his father, four-time winner Al Unser, finished third.
1993 - Eritrea achieved independence from Ethiopia after 30-year civil war
1993 - The archbishop of Guadalajara, Mexico, was shot to death at Guadalajara's airport when his car was caught in a shootout between rival drug cartels.
1993 - The Senate approved the appointment of Roberta Achtenberg as assistant secretary for fair housing and equal opportunity in the Dept. of Housing and Urban Development. She was the first openly homosexual person to be appointed to a position requiring Senate approval.
1996 President Clinton underwent his annual physical at Bethesda Naval Medical Center, where he had a
pre-cancerous lesion removed from his nose. On the plus side, his weight was the same as the year before - 216 - and his cholesterol count had improved from 203 to 191.
1997 - The space shuttle Atlantis returned to Earth, bringing with it NASA astronaut Jerry Linenger, who'd spent four months aboard the Russian Mir space station.
2000 - Gunmen killed five people in a robbery attempt at a Wendy's restaurant in Queens, N.Y.
2000 - Isiah Thomas, Bob McAdoo and Tennessee women's coach Pat Summitt were elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame.
2000 - Israeli troops pulled out unilaterally from south Lebanon, ending 18 years of occupation.
2000 - The state of Maryland dismissed its wiretapping case against Linda Tripp after a judge disallowed most of Monica Lewinsky's testimony.
2001 - Democrats gained control of the U.S. Senate for the first time since 1994 when Vermont Sen. James Jeffords abandoned the Republican Party and declared himself an independent.
2001 - Twenty-three people died when the floor of a Jerusalem wedding hall collapsed beneath dancing guests in a horrifying scene captured on videotape.
Birthdays
Today
0015 - Julius Caesar Germanicus, Roman commandant
1650 - John Churchill, 1st duke of Marlborough, English general strategist
1738 - George III, king of Great-Britain (1760-1820)
1743 - Jean-Paul Marat, France, revolutionist
1803 - Charles LJL Bonaparte, Corsican/French prince of Canino/Musignano
1816 - Emanuel Leutze (artist: Washington Crossing the Delaware, Washington Rallying the Troops at Monmouth, Columbus Before the Queen)
1819 - Victoria Alexandrine, Queen of Great Britain (1837-1901)
1854 - Louis Mountbatten, admiral (WW I)
1883 - Elsa Maxwell (actress, writer)
1895 - Samuel I. Newhouse (billionaire in communications & publishing industry: 31 newspapers, 7 magazines, 6 TV & 20 cable TV & 5 radio stations)
1905 - Mikhail Sholokhov, USSR, writer (And Quiet Flows the Don, Nobel 1965)
1914 - Lilli Palmer (Peiser) (actress: Chamber of Horrors, Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Boys from Brazil)
1918 - Coleman A Young, civil rights leader (Mayor-D-Detroit)
1937 - Tim Brown (football: Baltimore Colts running back: Super Bowl III)
1938 - Tommy Chong (comedian: half of comedy team: Cheech and Chong) [H]
1940 - Joseph Brodsky, USSR, author (Less than 1, Nobel 1987)
1941 - Bob (Robert Allen) Dylan, [Zimmerman], Minn, singer/songwriter (Blowin' in Wind)
1943 - Gary Burghoff (Emmy Award-winning actor: M*A*S*H; Casino, Small Kill)
1944 - Bob Leduc (hockey)
1944 - Frank Oz (puppeteer: voice of Miss Piggy)
1944 - Patti LaBelle (Holt) (singer: Down the Aisle, Lady Marmalade, On My Own, New Attitude)
1945 - Priscilla Beaulieu Presley (actress: Dallas, The Naked Gun, The Naked Gun 2 1/2; mother of Lisa Marie Presley, was married to Elvis Presley)
1946 - Ellie Rodriguez (baseball)
1948 - Judy Kahan (actress)
1950 - Jo Ann Washam (golfer)
1951 - Dwight McDonald (football)
1955 - Roseanne Cash (singer: Seven Year Ache; daughter of Johnny Cash)
Famous
deaths
1543 - Nicolas Copernicus, astronomer, dies in Poland
1879 - William Lloyd Garrison, abolitionist (Liberator), dies at 73
1881 - Samuel Palmer, landscape painter, dies
1974 - Duke Ellington, blues singer, dies of cancer at 75 [H]
1993 - Jesus Posadas Ocampo, Mexican cardinal/archbishop, shot dead at 66
1995 - Harold Wilson, British PM (1964-70, 74-76), dies of cancer at 79
1997 - Edward Mulhare, actor (Ghost & Mrs Muir), dies of lung cancer at 74
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