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 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 1961, a group of Freedom Riders was arrested after arriving at a bus terminal in Jackson, Miss., charged with breaching the peace for entering White-designated areas. (They ended up serving 60 days in jail.)
In 1962,
astronaut Scott Carpenter became the second American to orbit the Earth as he flew aboard Aurora 7.
In 1974,
American jazz composer and bandleader Duke Ellington, 75, died in New York.
In 1976, Britain and France opened trans-Atlantic Concorde
supersonic transport service to Washington.
In 1980, Iran rejected a call by the World Court in The Hague to release the American hostages.
In 1994,
four Islamic fundamentalists convicted of bombing New York’s World Trade Center in 1993 were each sentenced to 240 years in prison.
In 1995,
former British Prime Minister Harold Wilson died in London at age 79.
In 2006, “An Inconvenient Truth,” a documentary about former Vice President Al Gore’s campaign against global warming, went into limited release.
In 2011, Oprah Winfrey taped the final episode of her longrunning talk show.
One year ago: An 18-year-old gunman opened fire at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, killing 19 children and two teachers. The gunman, Salvador Ramos, a former student at the school, was also killed.
Today’s birthdays
Comedian Tommy Chong is 85. Singer Bob Dylan is 82. Actor Gary Burghoff is 80. Singer Patti LaBelle is 79. Actor Priscilla Presley is 78. Singer Mike Reid is 76. Actor Jim Broadbent is 74. Actor Alfred Molina is 70. Singer Rosanne Cash is 68. Actor Cliff Parisi is 63. Actor Kristin Scott Thomas is 63. Actor John C. Reilly is 58. Actor Dana Ashbrook is 56. Actor Eric Close is 56. Actor Carl Payne is 54. Former MLB pitcher Bartolo Colon is 50.