History of 20 May
1902 – The U.S. military occupation of Cuba ended.
1902 – Cuba gained its independence from Spain.
1916 – Norman Rockwell’s first cover on “The Saturday Evening Post” appeared.
1926 – The U.S. Congress passed the Air Commerce Act. The act gave the Department of Commerce the right to license pilots and planes.
1927 – Charles Lindbergh took off from New York to cross the Atlantic for Paris aboard his airplane the “Spirit of St. Louis.” The trip took 33 1/2 hours.
1930 – The first airplane was catapulted from a dirigible.
1932 – Amelia Earhart took off to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She became the first woman to achieve the feat.
1933 – “Charlie Chan” was heard for the final time on the NBC Blue radio network, after only six months on the air.
1939 – The first telecast over telephone wires was sent from Madison Square Garden to the NBC-TV studios at 30 Rockefeller Center in Manhattan. The event was a bicycle race.
1939 – The first regular air-passenger service across the Atlantic Ocean began with the take-off of the “Yankee Clipper” from Port Washington, New York.
1941 – Germany invaded Crete by air.
1942 – Japan completed the conquest of Burma.
1961 – A white mob attacked the Freedom Riders in Montgomery, AL. The event prompted the federal government to send U.S.marshals.
1969 – U.S. and South Vietnamese forces captured Apbia Mountain, which was referred to as Hamburger Hill.
1970 – 100,000 people marched in New York supporting U.S. policies in Vietnam.
1978 – Mavis Hutchinson, at age 53, became the first woman to run across America. It took Hutchinson 69 days to run the 3,000 miles.
1980 – The submarine Nautilus was designated as a National Historic Landmark by the U.S. Secretary of the Interior.
1982 – TV’s “Barney Miller” was seen for the last time on ABC-TV.
1985 – The Dow Jones industrial average broke the 1300 mark for the first time. The Dow closed at 1304.88.
1985 – The FBI arrested U.S. Navy Chief Petty Officer John Walker. Walker had begun spying for the Soviet Union in 1968.
1985 – Radio Marti was launched.
1990 – The Hubble Space Telescope sent back its first photographs.
1993 – The final episode of “Cheers” was aired on NBC-TV.
1996 – The U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Colorado measure banning laws that would protect homosexuals from discrimination.
1999 – At Heritage High School in Conyers, GA, a 15-year-old student shot and injured six students. He then surrendered to an assistant principal at the school.
2010 – Scientists announced that they had created a functional synthetic genome.
2010 – Five paintings worth 100 million Euro were stolen from the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris.
2012 – At least 27 people are killed and 50 others injured when a 6.0-magnitude earthquake strikes northern Italy.
2013 – An EF5 tornado strikes the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore, killing 24 people and injuring 377 others.
Celebrating Birthday Today
- 1981 – Iker Casillas, Spanish footballer
- 1981 – Rachel Platten, American singer, and songwriter
- 1981 – Lindsay Taylor, American basketball player
- 1981 – Mark Winterbottom, Australian race car driver
- 1982 – Petr Čech, Czech footballer
- 1982 – Imran Farhat, Pakistani cricketer
- 1982 – Jessica Raine, English actress
- 1982 – Daniel Ribeiro, Brazilian director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1983 – Óscar Cardozo, Paraguayan footballer
- 1983 – Matt Langridge, English rower
- 1984 – Mauro Rafael da Silva, Brazilian footballer
- 1984 – Patrick Ewing, Jr., American basketball player
- 1984 – Keith Grennan, American football player
- 1985 – Chris Froome, Kenyan-English cyclist
- 1985 – Brendon Goddard, Australian footballer
- 1986 – Dexter Blackstock, English footballer
- 1986 – Stéphane Mbia, Cameroonian footballer
- 1986 – Jiřina Svobodová, Czech pole vaulter
- 1987 – Mike Havenaar, Japanese footballer
- 1987 – Julian Wright, American basketball player
- 1988 – Joel Moon, Australian rugby league player
- 1989 – Siosia Vave, Australian-Tongan rugby league player
- 1991 – Bastian Baker, Swiss singer, songwriter, and performer
- 1991 – Emre Colak, Turkish footballer
- 1992 – Cate Campbell, Malawian-Australian swimmer
- 1992 – Jack Gleeson, Irish actor
- 1992 – Enes Kanter, Turkish basketball player
- 1993 – Caroline Zhang, American figure skater
- 1996 – Brian Kelly, Australian rugby league player
- 1998 – Jamie Chadwick, English race car driver
- 1998 – Nam Nguyen, Canadian figure skater