Today in history
On May 24, 1775, John Hancock was unanimously elected President of the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, succeeding Peyton Randolph.
In 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.
In 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge, linking Brooklyn and Manhattan, was dedicated by President Chester Alan Arthur and New York Gov. Grover Cleveland.
In 1935, the first major league baseball game to be played at night took place at Cincinnati’s Crosley Field as the Reds beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 2-1.
In 1937, in a set of rulings, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Social Security Act of 1935.
In 1941, the German battleship Bismarck sank the British battle cruiser HMS Hood in the North Atlantic, killing all but three of the 1,418 men on board.
In 1962, astronaut Scott Carpenter became the second American to orbit the Earth as he flew aboard Aurora 7.
In 1976, Britain and France opened trans-Atlantic Concorde supersonic transport service to Washington.
In 1977, in a surprise move, the Kremlin ousted Soviet President Nikolai Podgorny from the Communist Party’s ruling Politburo.
In 1994, four Islamic fundamentalists convicted of bombing New York’s World Trade Center in 1993 were each sentenced to 240 years in prison.
Ten years ago: Bowing to President George W. Bush, Congress passed an emergency war spending bill that did not include a provision ordering troops home from Iraq beginning in the fall of 2007.
Five years ago: President Barack Obama doubled down on criticism of rival Mitt Romney’s background as a venture capitalist, telling a rally at the Iowa State Fairgrounds there might be value in such experience but “not in the White House.” Brian Banks, a former high school football star whose dreams of a pro career were shattered by what turned out to be a false rape accusation, burst into tears as a judge in Long Beach, California, threw out the charge that had sent Banks to prison for more than five years.
“It is the weakness and danger of republics, that the vices as well as virtues of the people are represented in their legislation.” — Helen Maria Hunt Jackson, American author (1830-1885).