|
Epic Idiot's what happened
On This Day
May 23Copyright 1989-2007 epicidiot.com
1988 Gun Control: Maryland becomes the first U.S. state to ban the sale of cheap hand guns, commonly called "Saturday night specials."
1986 Cobra premiers.
1985 Mother Teresa and Frank Sinatra receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Pres. Reagan.
1962 First successful reimplantation of a human limb: The right arm of a 12-year-old boy is reattached by doctors in Boston.
1955 Ordination of women ministers is approved by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church.
1934 Nylon is invented, by the du Pont Company. Its first commercial use was bristles for toothbrushes.
1934 Bonnie and Clyde: The Barrow gang is ambushed and killed while headed to their Bienville Parish, Louisiana, hideout.
|
1924 Rayon is officially adopted as the name for artificial silk, by the National Retail Dry Goods Association.
1900 First black to receive the U.S. Medal of Honor: Sergeant William Harvey Carney for bravery in 1863.
1876 First National League no-hitter: Pitched by Joe Borden of Boston. (Source: Famous First Facts)
1788 South Carolina becomes the 8th state.
1785 Bifocals are invented: Ben Franklin makes a pair of glasses the lenses consist of an upper and lower part, each with a different focusing power.
1954 "Marvelous" Marvin Hagler, American boxer, middleweight champion (1980-87).
1934 Robert Arthur Moog, American inventor, the first music synthesizer (1964).
1933 Joan Collins, British actress. TV: Batman (Siren) and Dynasty (Alexis).
1931 Barbara Barrie, American actress. TV: Barney Miller (Barney Miller's wife).
1928 d. 2002 Rosemary Clooney, American singer, actress. The 1978 TV movie Escape From Madness dramatized her confinement in a California mental hospital.
1920 Sid Melton, American actor. TV: Green Acres ("handyman" Alf Monroe).
1920 d. 1993 Helen O'Connell, American big band singer, popularized the songs Green Eyes, Tangerine, and I Remember You. She hosted the Miss Universe pageant for nine years.
1919 Betty Garrett, American actress. TV: All in the Family (Irene Lorenzo) and Laverne & Shirley (Edna Babish).
1910 Artie Shaw (Arthur Arshawsky), American band leader. Music: Begin the Beguine (1938, #1).
1908 d. 1991 John Bardeen, American Nobel-winning physicist, co-inventor of the transistor.
1883 d. 1939 Douglas Fairbanks (Douglas Elton Ullman), American actor, first of the Hollywood swashbucklers. He co-founded United Artists (1919).
1875 d. 1966 Alfred Pritchard Sloan Jr., American industrialist. As president (1923-37) and chairman (1937-56) of General Motors, he made it one of the greatest industrial enterprises in history.
1848 d. 1896 Otto Lilienthal, German aviation pioneer, inventor of the first successful gliders. He died in a gliding accident.
1828 d. 1911 Edward Hitchcock, American physician, the first U.S. professor of physical education and hygiene (1861). He was appointed by Amherst College of Massachusetts.
1810 d. 1850 Sarah Margaret Fuller, American writer, critic, Woman in the Nineteenth Century (1845), the first American book on feminism. She was the first American woman foreign correspondent (1846 for the Tribune)
1733 d. 1815 Franz Mesmer, German physician, created the theory of mesmerism, a form of hypnotism.
1975 b. 1894 Jackie "Moms" Mabley (Loretta Mary Aiken), American comedienne. She was one the most successful entertainers of the black vaudeville stage and was billed as "The Funniest Woman in the World."
1960 b. 1870 Georges Claude, French physicist, inventor of the neon light (1910).
1945 b. 1900 Heinrich Himmler, German Nazi official, Hitler's second in command. He organized and led the S.S. (1929), headed the Gestapo (1936), and was German interior minister (1943). He committed suicide after he was captured by the Allies.
1941 b. 1866 Lord Herbert Austin, English automaker. He founded the Austin Motor Co. (1905), which became one of Britain's largest automakers.
1934 b. 1909 Clyde Barrow, American bank robber, of Bonnie and Clyde fame. He and Bonnie Parker were killed by a Texas ranger and his posse, who riddled their car with hundreds of bullets.
1934 b. 1911 Bonnie Parker, American bank robber, killed with Clyde Barrow.
1868 b. 1809 Kit Carson (Christopher Carson), American frontiersman.
1752 b. 1663 William Bradford, American colonial printer, founder of the New York Gazette (1725), the first New York newspaper.
1701 b. 1645 Capt. William Kidd, pirate, was commissioned by the King to hunt pirates, but instead became one, for which he was hanged in London.
1125 b. 1081 Henry V, King of Germany and Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (1106-25).
230 b. ???? Saint Urban I, Italian religious leader, 17th Pope (222-230).
Please send Corrections and Omissions to
epicidiot.com |