Today in History – Wilmington News Journal

Today is Wednesday, May 24, the 144th day of 2023. There are 221 days left in the year.

Today’s highlight in the story:

On May 24, 1844, Samuel FB Morse carried the message “What has God done” from Washington to Baltimore as he officially opened the first American telegraph line.

To this date :

In 1935, the first major league baseball game to be played at night took place at Crosley Field in Cincinnati as the Reds defeated the Philadelphia Phillies, 2-1.

In 1937, in a series of decisions, the United States Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Social Security Act of 1935.

In 1941, the German battleship Bismarck sank the British battlecruiser HMS Hood in the North Atlantic, killing all but three of the 1,418 men on board.

In 1961, a group of Freedom Riders were arrested after arriving at a bus terminal in Jackson, Mississippi, accused of 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 Earth while flying on Aurora 7.

In 1974, American jazz composer and bandleader Duke Ellington, 75, died in New York.

In 1976, Britain and France opened the Concorde transatlantic supersonic ferry service to Washington.

In 1980, Iran rejected an appeal from the World Court in The Hague to release the American hostages.

In 1994, four Islamic fundamentalists convicted of the 1993 New York World Trade Center bombing were each sentenced to 240 years in prison.

In 1995, former British Prime Minister Harold Wilson died in London at the age of 79.

In 2006, “An Inconvenient Truth”, a documentary about former Vice President Al Gore’s campaign against global warming, was released in limited release.

In 2011, Oprah Winfrey taped the final episode of her long-running talk show.

Ten years ago: President Barack Obama addressed the sexual assault epidemic staining the military, telling US Naval Academy graduates to remember their honor depended on what they did when no one else looked on and said crime had “no place in the greatest army in the world. British fighter jets intercepted a Pakistan International Airlines Boeing 777 carrying more than 300 people from Pakistan and diverted it to an isolated runway at London Stansted Airport, where two British passengers who allegedly threatened to destroy the plane were stopped. Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has denied smoking crack and said he is not a drug addict after a video purporting to show him using drugs.

Five years ago: After a Justice Department briefing, Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said there was no evidence to back up claims he There was a government spy in President Donald Trump’s campaign. The president abruptly canceled a planned summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, blaming North Korea’s “open hostility”. (A week later, Trump announced the summit would take place in mid-June.) Trump granted a rare posthumous pardon to boxing’s first black heavyweight champion, Jack Johnson, more than 100 years after what many believe as a racially charged conviction for violating Mann’s Law while traveling with his white girlfriend. The president signed into law a measure easing restrictions on banks after the 2008 financial crisis. A gunman was shot dead by two bystanders after he opened fire on an Oklahoma City restaurant and injured three customers. Jerry Maren, the last surviving Munchkin from the 1939 film ‘The Wizard of Oz’, died in a San Diego nursing home; he was 99 years old.

A year ago: An 18-year-old gunman opened fire at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, killing 19 children and two teachers. The shooter, Salvador Ramos, a former student of the school, was also killed. It is the deadliest shooting at an American elementary school since the attack in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, nearly a decade earlier. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine reached the three-month mark, with Moscow bogged down in what increasingly appeared to be a war of attrition, with no end in sight and little success on the battlefield. . An Iraqi living in Ohio has been arrested for plotting to assassinate former President George W. Bush.

Today’s birthdays: Actor-comedian-impressionist Stanley Baxter turns 97. Jazz musician Archie Shepp is 86 years old. Comedian Tommy Chong is 85 years old. Singer Bob Dylan is 82 years old. Actor Gary Burghoff is 80 years old. Singer Patti LaBelle is 79 years old. Actress Priscilla Presley is 78 years old. Country singer Mike Reid is 76 years old. Actor Jim Broadbent is 74 years old. Actor Alfred Molina is 70 years old. Singer Rosanne Cash is 68 years old. Actor Cliff Parisi is 63 years old. Actor Kristin Scott Thomas is 63 years old. Actor John C. Reilly is 58 years old. Actor Dana Ashbrook is 56. Actor Eric Close is 56. Actor Carl Payne is 54 years old. Rock musician Rich Robinson is 54 years old. Former MLB pitcher Bartolo Colon is 50 years old. Actor Dash Mihok is 49 years old. Actor Bryan Greenberg is 45 years old. Actor Owen Benjamin is 43 years old. Actor Billy L Sullivan is 43 years old. Actor-rapper Jerod Mixon (aka Big Tyme) is 42 years old. Rock musician Cody Hanson (Hinder) is 41 years old. Dancer-choreographer-singer Mark Ballas is 37 years old. Country singer Billy Gilman is 35. Eazy is 34 years old. Actor Brianne Howey is 34 years old. Actor Cayden Boyd is 29 years old.