DAILY ALMANAC
Today is Tuesday, May 24, the 144th day of 2022. There are 221 days left in the year. On this date 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.
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.
1937: In a set of rulings, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Social Security Act of 1935.
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.
1961: A group of Freedom Riders was arrested after arriving at a bus terminal in Jackson, Mississippi, charged with breaching the peace for entering whitedesignated areas. (They ended up serving 60 days in jail.)
1962: Astronaut Scott Carpenter became the second American to orbit the Earth as he flew aboard Aurora 7.
1974: American jazz composer and bandleader Duke Ellington, 75, died in New York.
1976: Britain and France opened trans-atlantic Concorde supersonic transport service to Washington.
1980: Iran rejected a call by the World Court in The Hague to release the 52 Americans being held hostage by militants.
1994: Four Islamic fundamentalists convicted of bombing New York’s World Trade Center in 1993 were each sentenced to 240 years in prison.
1995: Former British Prime Minister Harold Wilson died in London at age 79.
2006: “An Inconvenient Truth,” a documentary about former Vice President Al Gore’s campaign against global warming, went into limited release.
2011: Oprah Winfrey taped the final episode of her long-running talk show.
2017: Setting past differences and rude comments aside, President Donald Trump and Pope Francis put a determinedly positive face on their first meeting at the Vatican.
Jazz saxophonist Archie Shepp is 85. Comedian Tommy Chong of Cheech and Chong is 84. Musician Bob Dylan is 81. Actor Gary Burghoff (“MASH”) is 79. Singer Patti Labelle is 78. Actor Priscilla Presley is 77. Country singer-songwriter Mike Reid is 75. Actor Jim Broadbent (“Moulin Rouge,” “Iris”) is 73. Actor Alfred Molina is 69. Singer Rosanne Cash is 67. Actor Cliff Parisi (“Call the Midwife”) is 62. Actor Kristin Scott Thomas is 62. Bassist Jimmy Ashhurst of Buckcherry is 59. Keyboardist Vivian Trimble (Luscious Jackson) is 59. Actor John C. Reilly (“Chicago,” “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story”) is 57. Actor Dana Ashbrook (“Twin Peaks”) is 55. Actor Eric Close (“Nashville,” “Without A Trace”) is 55. Actor Carl Payne (“Martin,” “The Cosby Show”) is 53. Guitarist Rich Robinson (The Black Crowes) is 53. Actor Dash Mihok (“Silver Linings Playbook”) is 48. Actor Bryan Greenberg (film’s “Bride Wars,” TV’S “One Tree Hill”) is 44. Actor Billy L. Sullivan (“Something So Right”) is 42. Actor-rapper Big Tyme is 41. Drummer Cody Hanson of Hinder is 40. Country singer Billy Gilman is 34.