May 23rd
Today in America's Present Past
1752 | Publisher William Bradford died.
1783 | Politician James Ottis died.
1785 | Benjamin Franklin announced his invention of bifocals.
1788 | Statehood: South Carolina granted statehood.
1824 | General Ambrose Burnside was born.
1845 | The New York City Police Department (NYPD) is formed.
1856 | Indian Wars: Pottawatomie massacre.
1863 | Civil Rights: The Seventh-day Adventist Church forms in Battle Creek, Michigan.
1868 | Frontiersman Kit Carson died.
1883 | Actor Douglas Fairbanks was born.
1900 | William Harvey Carney became the first African-American soldier awarded the Medal of Honor.
1903 | America’s first transcontinental auto trip starts (San Francisco to NYC).
1903 | Wisconsin adopts the nation’s first “primary” election law.
1934 | Outlaws Bonnie and Clyde are ambushed and killed by law enforcement.
1937 | Entrepreneur John D. Rockefeller died.
1958 | Comedian Drew Carey was born.
1958 | Author Mitch Albom was born.
1974 | Musician “Jewel” was born.
1985 | POTUS: Republican President Reagan awarded Jimmy Stewart a Presidential Medal of Freedom.
2015 | Mathematician John Nash died.