Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Today in history
On May 20, 1506, Christopher Columbus died at 54 in Valladolid, Spain.
In 1768 Dolley Madison, wife of President James Madison, was born Dolley Payne in Guilford County, N.C.
In 1799 French author Honore de Balzac was born in Tours, France.
In 1806 philosopher and political economist John Stuart Mill was born in London.
In 1861 the capital of the Confederacy was moved from Montgomery, Ala., to Richmond, Va. Also in 1861 North Carolina voted to secede from the Union.
In 1881 Polish soldier and statesman Wladyslaw Sikorski was burn in Tuszow Narodowy in present-day Poland.
In 1886 John Jacob Astor, English journalist and proprietor of The Times of London for 44 years, was born in New York.
In 1902 the United States ended a three-year military presence in Cuba as the Republic of Cuba was established under its first elected president, Tomas Estrada Palma. In 1908 actor James Stewart was born in Indiana, Pa.
In 1915 Israeli soldier and statesman Moshe Dayan was born in Deganya, Palestine.
In 1925 Aleksei Tupolev, the Russian aircraft designer behind many of the Soviet Union’s most successful jet airplanes, was born in Moscow.
In 1927 Charles Lindbergh took off from Roosevelt Field in Long Island, N.Y., aboard the Spirit of St. Louis on his historic solo flight to France.
In 1932 Amelia Earhart took off from Newfoundland for Ireland to become the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic.
In 1939 regular trans-Atlantic air service began as a Pan American Airways plane took off from Port Washington, N.Y., bound for Europe.
In 1942 Glenn Miller and His Orchestra recorded “(I’ve Got a Gal in) Kalamazoo” at Victor Studios in Hollywood.
In 1946 singer and actress Cher was born Cherilyn Sarkisian in El Centro, Calif.
In 1961 a white mob attacked a busload of Freedom Riders in Montgomery, Ala., prompting the federal government to send in U.S. marshals to restore order.
In 1969 U.S. and South Vietnamese forces captured Apbia Mountain, referred to as Hamburger Hill by the Americans, following one of the bloodiest battles of the Vietnam War.
In 1970 about 100,000 people demonstrated in New York’s Wall Street district in support of U.S. policy in Vietnam and Cambodia.
In 1971 the album “What’s Going On” by Marvin Gaye was released.
In 1988 30-year-old Laurie Dann walked into a Winnetka elementary school classroom, where she shot to death 8-year-old Nicholas Corwin and wounded several other children. (After wounding a young man at his home, Dann took her own life.)
In 1989 comedian Gilda Radner died at 42 in Los Angeles.
In 1991 lawmakers in the Soviet Union voted to liberalize foreign travel and emigration. Also in 1991 the American Red Cross announced measures aimed at screening blood more carefully for the virus that causes AIDS.
In 1993 an estimated 93 million people tuned in for the final first-run episode of the sitcom “Cheers” on NBC.
In 1995 President Bill Clinton announced that the twoblock stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue outside the White House would be closed permanently to motor vehicles as a security measure.
In 1996 the Supreme Court struck down, 6-3, a Colorado measure banning laws that protect homosexuals from discrimination. In another decision, the court curtailed, 5-4, huge jury awards aimed at punishing or deterring misconduct.
In 1997 the Senate approved legislation to ban certain late-term abortions, but fell three votes shy of the total needed to override President Bill Clinton’s threatened veto.
In 1998 the House voted overwhelmingly to block future satellite exports to China. Also in 1998 the government unveiled the design for the new $20 bill, featuring a larger and slightly offcenter portrait of Andrew Jackson.
In 2000 the five nuclear powers on the U.N. Security Council agreed to eventually eliminate their nuclear arsenals, as part of a new disarmament agenda approved by 187 countries. Also in 2000 Red Bullet won the Preakness Stakes, outpacing Kentucky Derby winner Fusaichi Pegasus. In 2002 East Timor became an independent nation.
In 2003 the United States banned all beef imports from Canada after a lone case of mad cow disease was discovered in the heart of Canada’s cattle country.