Epic Idiot's what happened
On This Day

May 23

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.

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).

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