1498 Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama arrives at Calicut, India becoming the first European to reach India by sea
1609 Shakespeare’s Sonnets are first published in London, perhaps illicitly, by publisher Thomas Thorpe
1862 US President Abraham Lincoln signs into law the Homestead Act to provide cheap land for the settlement of the American West (80 million acres by 1900)
1864 Spotsylvania campaign in US Civil War ends after 10,920 killed or injured
1927 At 7:40 AM, Charles Lindbergh takes off from New York to cross the Atlantic for Paris, aboard Spirit of St Louis in the 1st solo nonstop transatlantic flight
1927 Treaty of Jeddah is signed between the United Kingdom and Ibn Saud recognizing the independence of the Kingdom of Hejaz and Nejd, the forerunner of Saudi Arabia
1990 Hubble Space Telescope sends its 1st photographs from space
Historical Events Today Events in 2023
Today in Film & TV
1891 1st public display of Thomas Edison’s prototype kinetoscope to members of the National Federation of Women’s Club
Today in Music
1983 “Every Breath You Take” single released by The Police (Billboard Song of the Year, 1983)
Today in Sport
1900 Second modern Summer Olympics (Games of the II Olympiad) opens in Paris and continues for 5 months
Other Facts…
1873 Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis patent the first blue jeans with copper rivets
1896 The six ton chandelier of the Palais Garnier opera house in Paris falls on the crowd resulting in the death of one and the injury of many others
Famous Weddings
491 New Byzantine Emperor Anastasius I Dicorus marries Ariadne, widow of previous Emperor Zeno and daughter of Leo I
1756 Prime Minister of Great Britain Frederick North (24) weds heiress Anne Speke
1968 “The Who” guitarist and songwriter Pete Townshend (23) weds Karen Astley in England
This was a day to remember for Eliza Doolittle, the ‘My Fair Lady’ of the stage and film musical that won and broke hearts – May 20, 1956
