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 May 20, 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.
On this date:
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 1712, the original version of Alexander Pope’s satirical mock-heroic poem “The Rape of the Lock” was published anonymously in Lintot’s Miscellany.
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, New York, aboard the Spirit of St. Louis on his historic solo flight to France.
In 1932, Amelia Earhart took off from Newfoundland to become the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. (Because of weather and equipment problems, Earhart set down in Northern Ireland instead of her intended destination, France.)
In 1948, Chiang Kaishek was inaugurated as the first president of the Republic of China (Taiwan).
In 1959, nearly 5,000 Japanese-Americans had their U.S. citizenships restored after choosing to renounce them during World War II.
In 1961, a white mob attacked a busload of Freedom Riders in Montgomery, Alabama, prompting the federal government to send in U.S. marshals to restore order.
In 1978, Japan’s Narita International Airport began operations after years of protests over its construction by local residents.
In 1988, a 30-year- old woman walked into a Winnetka, Illinois, elementary school classroom, where she shot to death 8-yearold 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 offcenter portrait of Andrew Jackson.
Ten years ago: Sen. Edward Kennedy was diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor; some experts gave the Massachusetts Democrat less than a year to live. (Kennedy died in August 2009.) Candidate Barack Obama defeated Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Oregon primary, moving to within 100 delegates of the total he needed to clinch the Democratic presidential nomination; Clinton won in Kentucky. President Jimmy Carter’s White House chief of staff, Hamilton Jordan (JUR’- dun), died in Atlanta at age 63. Olympic gold medal figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi and her professional dance partner, Mark Ballas, won ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars.”