TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS SUNDAY, MAY 20, the 140th day of 2018. There are 225 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 1899, taxi driver Jacob German was pulled over and arrested by a police officer riding a bicycle for speeding down Manhattan’s Lexington Avenue in his electric car at 12 miles an hour at a time when the speed limit was 8 mph; it was the first recorded speeding arrest in U.S. history.
In 1521, Ignatius of Loyola was wounded by a cannonball while defending Pamplona against the French; during his convalescence, he turned to religion, becoming a leader of the Counter-Reformation and the founder of the Jesuits.
In 1873, Levi Strauss and tailor Jacob Davis received a U.S. patent for men’s work pants made with copper rivets.
In 1927, 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.
In 1948, Chiang Kai-shek was inaugurated as the first president of the Republic of China, Taiwan.
In 1959, nearly 5,000 JapaneseAmericans had their U.S. citizenship restored after choosing to renounce it during World War II.
In 1961, a white mob attacked a busload of Freedom Riders in Montgomery, Ala., prompting the federal government to send in U.S. marshals to restore order.
In 1988, a 30-year-old woman walked into a Winnetka, Ill., elementary school classroom, where she shot to death 8-year-old Nicholas Corwin and wounded several other children. After wounding a young man at his home, the shooter took her own life.
In 1993, an estimated 93 million people tuned in for the final first-run episode of the sitcom “Cheers” on NBC.
In 1998, the government unveiled the design for the new $20 bill, featuring a larger and slightly off-center portrait of Andrew Jackson.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Actor-author James McEachin is 88. Actor David Proval is 76. Singer-actress Cher is 72. Actor-comedian Dave Thomas is 70. Rock musician Warren Cann is 68. TV-radio personality Ron Reagan and rock musician Jane Wiedlin (The Go-Go’s) are 60. Actor Bronson Pinchot and singer Susan Cowsill are
59. Actors John Billingsley and Tony Goldwyn are 58. Singer Nick Heyward is 57. TV personality Ted Allen is 53. Actress Mindy Cohn, rock musician Tom Gorman (Belly) and actress Gina Ravera are 52. Actor Timothy Olyphant is 50. Race car driver Tony Stewart is
47. Actress Daya Vaidya is 45. Rock musician Ryan Martinie is 43. Actresssinger Naturi Naughton is 34. Country singer Jon Pardi is 33.