TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON: MAY 24
1543 Nicolaus Copernicus publishes proof of a sun-centered solar system. He dies just after publication.
1610 Sir Thomas Gates institutes “laws divine moral and marshal, ” a harsh civil code for Jamestown.
1624 After years of unprofitable operation Virginia’s charter was revoked and it became a royal colony.
1689 The English Parliament passes the Act of Toleration, protecting Protestants. Roman Catholics are specifically excluded from exemption.
1738 John Wesley is converted, launching the Methodist movement; celebrated annually by Methodists as Aldersgate Day
1764 Boston lawyer James Otis denounces “taxation without representation,” calling for the colonies to unite in opposition to Britain’s new tax measures.
1830 Mary had a little lamb is published. Sarah Josepha Hale’s poem is one of the best-known English language nursery rhymes.
1844 Samuel Morse taps out “What hath God wrought” in the world’s first telegraph message
1863 Bushwackers led by Captain William Marchbanks attack a Federal militia party in Nevada, Missouri.
1884 Anti-Monopoly party & Greenback Party form People’s Party in the US
1915 Thomas Edison invents telescribe to record telephone conversations
1941 German battleship Bismarck sinks the British battle cruiser HMS Hood; 1,416 die, 3 survive
1951 Racial segregation in Washington DC restaurants ruled illegal
1958 The United Press and the International News Service merged to form United Press International (UPI).
1959 1st house with built-in bomb shelter exhibited (Pleasant Hills PA)
1965 Supreme Court declares federal law allowing post office to intercept communist propaganda is unconstitutional
1970 Engineers begin drilling the world’s deepest hole. The Kola Superdeep Borehole had reached the unsurpassed depth of 12,262 meters (40,230 feet) before the project was abandoned due to a lack of funding.
1983 Supreme Court rules government can deny tax breaks to schools that racially discriminated against students
1988 Section 28 passed as law by Parliament in the United Kingdom prohibiting the promotion of homosexuality. Repealed 2001/2004
1993 Roman Catholic Cardinal Juan Jesus Posada Ocampo and six other people were killed at the Guadalajara, Mexico, airport in a shootout that involved drug gangs.
1994 The four men convicted of bombing the New York’s World Trade Center were each sentenced to 240 years in prison.
2000 Israeli troops pulled out of Lebanon after 18 consecutive years of occupation.
2000 Five people were killed and two others wounded when two gunmen entered a Wendy’s restaurant in Flushing, Queens, New York. The gunmen tied up the victims in the basement and then shot them.
2001 Vermont senator James Jeffords quit the Republican Party and became an Independent, giving Democrats control of the Senate.
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
