This Week in History

USPA NEWS - American outlaws Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, Bonnie and Clyde, are killed by police in an ambush near Sailes, Louisiana, IBM announces vacuum tube “electronic” brain that could perform 10 million operations an hour, A SpaceX Dragon becomes the first commercial spacecraft to dock at the International Space Station, and White House “plumbers” first break in at the Democratic National Headquarters and install listening devices at Watergate Complex in Washington, D.C. All this and more happened this week in history.

May 23 (1785) Benjamin Franklin announces his invention of bifocals. (1845) New York City Police Department (NYPD) is formed, replacing an old night watch system. (1903) First automobile trip across the US leaves San Francisco for New York. Arrives July 26. (1922) Walt Disney incorporates his first film company Laugh-O-Gram Films. (1934) American outlaws Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, Bonnie and Clyde, are killed by police in an ambush near Sailes, Louisiana. (1949) Federal Republic of West Germany created out of the American, British and French occupation zones. (1960) Israel announces the capture of Nazi Adolf Eichmann in Argentina. (1969) The Who release the rock opera “Tommy”. (1980) Horror film “The Shining” released. Directed by Stanley Kubrick, starring Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall, based on book by Stephen King. (2019) Fifty children rescued from an international pedophile ring on the dark web in Thailand, Australia and the US by Interpol, under Operation Blackwrist. The main organizer was sentenced to 146 years.

May 24 (1844) Samuel Morse taps out “What hath God wrought” in the world’s first telegraph message. (1899) The first auto repair shop opens, it is located in Boston. (1930) Amy Johnson becomes the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia. (1954) IBM announces vacuum tube “electronic” brain that could perform 10 million operations an hour. (1959) The first house with a built-in bomb shelter is exhibited in Pleasant Hills, Pennsylvania. (1983) US Supreme Court rules government can deny tax breaks to schools that racially discriminated against students. (1987) Golden Gate Bridge 50th anniversary: Over 800,000 people show up. 300,000 walk on bridge at the same time and the span temporarily flattens from the weight (San Francisco, California). (1988) John Moschitta set record for fast talking, 586 words per minute. (2018) Record US fentanyl seizure of 120lbs (54kg) confirmed by police in Nebraska in April, enough to kill 26 million people. One of the largest drug busts in US history. (2020) Millions of cicadas in a once in 17-year event about to emerge from the earth in the US south, posing crop danger and noise issues, according to scientists from Virginia Tech.

May 25 (1720) The ship “Le Grand St Antoine” reaches Marseille, bringing Europe’s last major plague outbreak. Kills around 100,000. (1937) The first airmail letter to circle the globe returns to New York. (1953) First atomic cannon electronically fired at Frenchman Flat, Nevada. (1961) JFK announces US goal of putting a man on the Moon before the end of the decade. (1973) US launches the first Skylab crew - Commander Charles “Pete” Conrad, Pilot Paul J. Weitz, and Science Pilot Joseph P. Kerwin. (1979) American Airlines DC-10 crashes on takeoff from Chicago killing 273, including two on the ground. (1985) Cyclone ravages Bangladesh, 11,000 killed. (1986) Hands Across America: 6.5 million people hold hands from California to New York. (2002) China Airlines Flight 611: A Boeing 747-200 breaks apart in mid-air and plunges into the Taiwan Strait killing 225 people. (2012) A SpaceX Dragon becomes the first commercial spacecraft to dock at the International Space Station.

May 26 (1897) “Dracula” by Irish author Bram Stoker is published by Archiblad Constable and Company in London. (1908) At Masjed Soleyman in southwest Persia, the first major commercial oil strike in the Middle East is made, rights acquired by the United Kingdom. (1930) US Supreme Court rules that buying liquor does not violate the Constitution. (1940) First successful helicopter flight in US: Vought-Sikorsky US-300 designed by Igor Sikorsky. (1966) Buddhist sets himself on fire at US consulate in Hue, South Vietnam. (1979) First legal gambling casino opens in Atlantic City, New Jersey. (2006) Java earthquake kills over 5,700 people and leaves 200,000 homeless. (2019) Nine climbers die in a week on Mt. Everest after overcrowding leads to a huge queue to reach the summit. (2020) Twitter adds warning labels to warn about inaccuracies in US President Donald Trump’s tweets for the first time. (2021) In a landmark case, oil giant Royal Dutch Shell is ordered by a Hague court to cut its global carbon emissions by 45% by 2030.

May 27 (1692) Court of Oyer and Terminer (to hear and determine) established by Governor of Massachusetts to hear accusations of witchcraft. (1907) Bubonic Plague breaks out in San Francisco. (1930) Richard Drew invents masking tape. (1942) Nazi leader Reinhard Heydrich is mortally wounded by a grenade throw by Czech rebels in Prague, during Operation Anthropoid. He would die a week later. (1961) The first black light is sold. (1971) John Lennon records the song “Imagine” at his Ascot Sound home studio at Tittenhurst Park, England. (1981) John Hinckley, who attempted to assassinate Ronald Reagan, attempts suicide by overdosing on Tylenol. (1991) Austrian Boeing 767-300 explodes at Bangkok, 223 die. (1997) Russian President Boris Yeltsin signs a historic treaty with NATO. (2012) A NATO airstrike kills a family of eight, including six children, in Afghanistan.

May 28 (1830) US President Andrew Jackson signs the Indian Removal Act, a key law leading to the forced removal of the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole tribes out of Georgia and surrounding states, setting the stage for the Cherokee Trail of Tears. (1929) First all color talking picture “On With the Show” exhibited in New York City. (1946) US Patent filed for a hydrogen bomb. (1956) US President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs farm bill allows government to store agricultural surplus. (1961) Amnesty International founded in London. (1972) White House “plumbers” first break in at the Democratic National Headquarters and install listening devices at Watergate Complex in Washington, D.C. (1984) George Soros founds the Soros Foundation Budapest, to help countries free themselves from communism. (2002) NATO declares Russia a limited partner in the Western alliance. (2018) Coco-Cola launches its first alcoholic drink – Lemon-Do on island of Kyushu, Japan. (2021) Discovery of a mass grave with the remains of 215 children from Kamloops Indian Residential School announced by First Nation in British Columbia, Canada.

May 29 (1849) Abraham Lincoln says “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.” (1886) American chemist John Pemberton begins to advertise Coca-Cola. (1919) Charles Strite files patent for the automatic pop-up toaster. (1953) Edmund Hillary (NZ) and Tenzing Norgay (Nepal) are first to reach the summit of Mt. Everest as part of a British Expedition. (1982) Pentagon plans first strategy to fight a nuclear war. (1987) Michael Jackson attempts to buy Elephant Man’s remains. (1989) Student pro-democracy protesters in Tienanmen Square, China construct a replica of the Statue of Liberty, name it the Goddess of Democracy. (2004) The World War II Memorial is dedicated in Washington, DC. (2012) Indonesian police make the biggest drug bust in 10 years, after seizing over a million ecstasy pills valued at $45 million. (2019) Transgender no longer classified as a mental health illness by the World Health Organization.

Thank you for reading my article. These are merely my thoughts and insights based on the facts. I use only verified sources. No fake news here. I write about a variety of subjects, mainly things I want to research and know more about. You can check out my website – Small Village Life at smallvillagelife.com, where I share useful articles and news.

Wendy writes for the United States Press Agency and is a former columnist with the Fulton County Expositor, Wauseon, Ohio.