TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is Wednesday, May 24, the 144th day of 2023. There are 221 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On May 24, 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.
On this date:
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 rul- ings, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutional- ity 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 1961, a group of Free- dom Riders was arrested after arriving at a bus ternient Truth,” a documentary Five years ago: After a minal in Jackson, Missisabout former Vice President Justice Department briefsippi, charged with breach- Al Gore’s campaign against ing, Rep. Adam Schiff, the ing the peace for entering global warming, went into top Democrat on the House white-designated areas. limited release. Intelligence Committee, (They ended up serving In 2011, Oprah Winfrey said there was no evidence 60 days in jail.) taped the final episode of to support claims that there
In 1962, astronaut Scott her long-running talk show. was a government spy in Carpenter became the secTen years ago: President President Donald Trump’s ond American to orbit the Barack Obama addressed campa gn. The presiEarth as he flew aboard the sexual assault epidemic dent abruptly canceled a Aurora 7. staining the military, telling planned summit with North
In 1974, American jazz U.S. Naval Academy grad- Korea’s Kim Jong Un, blamcomposer and bandleader uates to remember their ing “open hostility” from Duke Ellington, 75, died in honor depended on what North Korea. (A week later, New York. they did when nobody was Trump announced that the
In 1976, Britain and looking and said the crime summit would take place in France opened trans-At- had “no place in the greatmid-June.) Trump granted lantic Concorde supersonic est military on earth.” Brit- a rare posthumous pardon transport service to Wash- ish fighter jets intercepted a to boxing’s first black heavyington. Pakistan International Air- weight champion, Jack John- wounding three patrons. ing at a U.S. grade school
In 1980, Iran rejected a lines Boeing 777 carrying son, more than 100 years Jerry Maren, the last sursince the attack in Sandy call by the World Court in more than 300 people from after what many see as a viving Munchkin from the Hook, Connecticut, almost The Hague to release the Pakistan and diverted it to racially-charged convic1939 film “The Wizard of a decade earlier. Russia’s American hostages. an isolated runway at Lontion for violating the Mann Oz,” died at a San Diego invasion of Ukraine reached
In 1994, four Islamic fun- don-Stansted Airport, where Act by traveling with his nursing home; he was 99. the three-month mark, with damentalists convicted of two British passengers who white girlfriend. The presiOne year ago: An 18-year- Moscow bogged down in bombing New York’s World had allegedly threatened dent signed into law a meaold gunman opened fire what increasingly appeared Trade Center in 1993 were to destroy the plane were sure loosening restraints at an elementary school to be a war of attrition, with each sentenced to 240 years arrested. Toronto Mayor for banks imposed after in Uvalde, Texas, killing no end in sight and few sucin prison. Rob Ford denied that he the 2008 financial crisis. 19 children and two teachcesses on the battlefield. An
In 1995, former British smoked crack cocaine and A gunman was shot and ers. The gunman, Salvador Iraqi man living in Ohio was Prime Minister Harold Wilsaid he was not an addict killed by two bystanders Ramos, a former student at arrested on a charge of plotson died in London at age 79. after a video purported to after opening fire at an Okla- the school, was also killed. ting to assassinate former
In 2006, “An Inconve- show him using the drug. homa City restaurant and It was the deadliest shoot- President George W. Bush.
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