Today In History
Today is Monday, May 20, the 140th day of 2019. There are 225 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT
› 1927: Charles Lindbergh took off from Roosevelt Field on Long Island, New York, aboard the Spirit of St. Louis on his historic solo flight to France.
ON THIS DATE
› 1873: Levi Strauss and tailor Jacob Davis received a U.S. patent for men’s work pants made with copper rivets.
› 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.
› 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.)
› 1939: Regular trans-Atlantic mail service began as a Pan American Airways plane, the Yankee Clipper, took off from Port Washington, New York, bound for Marseille, France.
› 1948: Chiang Kaishek was inaugurated as the first president of the Republic of China (Taiwan).
› 1959: Nearly 5,000 Japanese-Americans had their U.S. citizenships restored after choosing to renounce them during World War II.
› 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.
› 1985: Radio Marti, operated by the U.S. government, began broadcasting; Cuba responded by attempting to jam its signal.
› 1993: An estimated 93 million people tuned in for the final first-run episode of the sitcom “Cheers” on NBC.
› 1998: The government unveiled the design for the new $20 bill, featuring a larger and slightly off-center portrait of Andrew Jackson.
› 2009: A commission published a damning report on decades of rapes, humiliation and beatings at Catholic Church-run reform schools in Ireland.
› 2014: Pennsylvania’s ban on gay marriage was overturned by a federal judge. A group of retired professional football players filed suit against the NFL, accusing the league of cynically supplying them with powerful painkillers and other drugs that kept them in the game but led to serious complications later in life.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS
Actor-author James McEachin is 89. Actor Anthony Zerbe is 83. Actor David Proval is 77. Singer-actress Cher is 73. Actor-comedian Dave Thomas is 71. Rock musician Warren Cann is 69. Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, is 68. Former New York Gov. David Paterson is
65. Delaware Gov. John Carney is 63. Actor Dean Butler is 63. TV-radio personality Ron Reagan is 61. Rock musician Jane Wiedlin (The Go-Go’s) is 61. Actor Bronson Pinchot is 60. Singer Susan Cowsill is 60. Actor John Billingsley is 59. Actor Tony Goldwyn is 59. Singer Nick Heyward is 58. TV personality Ted Allen is 54. Actress Mindy Cohn is 53. Rock musician Tom Gorman (Belly) is 53. Actress Gina Ravera is 53. Actor Timothy Olyphant is 51. Former race car driver Tony Stewart is 48. Rapper Busta Rhymes is
47. Actress Daya Vaidya is
46. Rock musician Ryan Martinie is 44. Actor Matt Czuchry is 42. Actress Angela Goethals is 42. Actress-singer Naturi Naughton is 35. Country singer Jon Pardi is 34.