May 20
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Events on This Day
1830 - The first timetables of the Baltimore and Ohio (B&O) Railroad were published in the Baltimore American newspaper. All aboard!1830 - H.D. Hyde of Reading, Pennsylvania patented the fountain pen. And a messy contraption it was.
1875 - The International Bureau of Weights and Measures was established.
1899 - Jacob German of New York City became the first driver to be arrested for speeding. Mr. German, a taxi driver, was arrested after being caught doing 12 mph on Lexington Avenue. (The speed limit was 8 mph.)
1916 - Norman Rockwell’s first cover on The Saturday Evening Post appeared. The illustration was of a young boy having to care for his baby sibling while his little buddies left him and went off to play ball. The forlorn child pushing a baby carriage tugged at the heart strings of all who saw it. Norman Rockwell drew over 300 covers for The Saturday Evening Post plus covers for Collier’s, American Boy, The Literary Digest, LIFE and others. He also painted the Boy Scouts of America calendar pictorials for 45 years. Four of his famous paintings are The Four Freedoms, used as patriotic posters during WWII.
1927 - ‘Lucky’ Lindbergh took off from Roosevelt Field in New York aboard the small airplane Spirit of St. Louis, en route to Paris, France. Thirty-three and one-half hours later, Charles A. Lindbergh arrived at his destination -- and flew into history.
1933 - Charlie Chan was heard for the final time on the NBC Blue radio network after only six months on the air. Not to worry. Several revivals of the Chinese detective were on the air years later ... and in the movies and seen on TV.
1939 - The first telecast over telephone wires was sent from Madison Square Garden to the NBC-TV studios at 30 Rockefeller Center in midtown Manhattan. A bicycle race was the event broadcast to a breathless audience.
1939 - The Yankee Clipper took off from Port Washington, NY, bound for Europe. The plane, the flagship of Pan American Airways, established the first regular air-passenger service across the Atlantic Ocean.
1941 - Harry James and his orchestra recorded the classic You Made Me Love You for Columbia Records.
1942 - Glenn Miller and His Orchestra recorded (I’ve Got a Gal In) Kalamazoo at Victor Studios in Hollywood.
1942 - Japan completed its conquest of Burma in World War II. Said U.S. General Joseph Stilwell, “We got a hell of a beating ... and it is as humiliating as hell.”
1944 - The U.S. Communist Party was dissolved.
1959 - Japanese-Americans regained the U.S. citizenship that had been taken away in WW II.
1961 - U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy dispatched marshals to Montgomery, Alabama to restore order after a white mob attacked a busload (both black and white) of ‘Freedom Riders’. The protestors were attempting to test segregation barriers in interstate buses and terminals.
1965 - A Pakistan International Airlines Boeing 720-B crashed at Cairo Egypt, killing 124. Four people survived the crash.
1969 - U.S. and South Vietnamese forces captured Dong Ap Bia Mountain, referred to as ‘Hamburger Hill’ (suggesting that those who fought on the hill were “ground up like hamburger meat”), following one of the bloodiest battles of the Vietnam War. (The hill was abandoned on May 27 that same year).
1973 - Ken Moore beat 4,030 competitors to win the 63rd Bay-to-Breakers footrace in San Francisco, CA. Moore, winning for the 6th time, stepped his way to the finish line in 37 minutes, 15 seconds over a course measured at 7.8 miles. Cheryl Flanagan led the women racers (her second win) with a time of 45 minutes, 20 seconds.
1978 - Mavis Hutchinson, 53, made it to New York City to become the first woman to run across the U.S.. The 3,000-mile trek took her 69 days. She ran an average of 45 miles each day. Now that’s what we call a daily workout.
1978 - The U.S. launched the Pioneer Venus 1, also known as Pioneer 12. The space probe produced the first global radar map of Venus.
1982 - TV’s Barney Miller was seen for the last time in its original network run on ABC-TV. Hal Linden as Barney, Abe Vigoda as Fish and a talented cast continue to bring the fictional 12th Precinct to TV screens through syndication.
1985 - The Dow Jones industrial average broke the 1300 mark for the first time. The Dow gained 19.54 points to close at 1304.88.
1985 - Larry Holmes retained the heavyweight boxing title of the International Boxing Federation at Reno, NV by defeating Carl Wilson in 15 rounds. The fight marked the first, heavyweight title fight in Reno since Jack Johnson and Jim Jeffries duked it out in 1910.
1989 - Actress/comedienne Gilda Radner died in a Los Angeles hospital after a two-year battle with ovarian cancer. She was 42. The Emmy Award-winning entertainer was known for her characters Roseanne Roseannadanna, Emily Litella, and Baba Wawa on Saturday Night Live.
1990 - The Hubble Space Telescope sent back its first photographs.
1991 - The movie Barton Fink won the top prizes at the 44th annual Cannes Film Festival.
1993 - Max S. Klein, inventor of the paint by numbers system, died at 77 years of age.
1993 - An estimated 93 million people tuned in for the final (273rd, 274th and 275th) episodes of Cheers on NBC-TV.
1994 - U.S. President Bill Clinton said of former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, who had died the previous day, “She captivated our nation and the world with her intelligence, her elegance and her grace. Even in the face of impossible tragedy, she carried the grief of her family and our entire nation with a calm power that somehow reassured all the rest of us.”
1995 - U.S. President Clinton announced that the two-block stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House would be permanently closed to motor vehicles as a security measure.
1996 - The U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Colorado constitutional amendment banning laws that protect homosexuals from discrimination.
1996 - Actor John Pertwee (the third Doctor Who in the BBC sci-fi TV series) died. He was 76 years old.
1998 - Godzilla opened in the U.S. The sci-fi monster movie stars Matthew Broderick, Jean Reno, Hank Azaria, Maria Pitillo, Arabella Field, Kevin Dunn, Doug Savant, Harry Shearer, Michael Lerner, Vicki Lewis and Malcolm Danare. As of May 2002, Godzilla, which cost around $160 million to make, had brought in $136,142,003 in the U.S.
1999 - Robbie Knievel jumped a 200-foot-wide chasm of the Grand Canyon with his motorcycle. The 37-year-old’s previous world record was 223 feet.
2000 - Red Bullet won the Preakness Stakes, beating Kentucky Derby winner Fusaichi Pegasus.
2000 - Classical flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal died in Paris at 78 years of age.
2001 - The Italian film La stanza del figlio (The Son’s Room) won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
2002 - East Timor became the world’s newest independent nation.
2003 - The TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer had its finale. Set in the fictional California town of Sunnydale, Buffy depicted high school as a literal Hell. The series began in 1997 -- based on a 1992 movie.
2003 - Japan, the United States and Mexico banned all beef imports from Canada after a lone case of mad cow disease was discovered in the heart of Canada’s cattle country. The ban cost beef producers about $11 million (Canadian) dollars a day.
2004 - U.S. President George Bush (II) visited Capitol Hill in an attempt to ease Republican lawmakers’ concerns over the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
2005 - US Airways and America West merged in a $1.5 billion deal.
2006 - Barbaro, winner of the Kentucky Derby, fractured an ankle at the start of the Preakness Stakes in Maryland. The bay colt was euthanized Jan 29, 2007, due to medical complications from the fracture.
2007 - San Francisco’s 96th annual Bay to Breakers race drew some 60,000 runners. The race follows a 7.46-mile course from the Embarcadero to the Ocean Beach. Finishing first was Kenya’s John Korir.
2007 - U.S. gas prices hit a record high (to that time) of $3.18 per gallon.
2008 - Two rival groups (related to an underworld war between drug cartels) opened fire at each other with pistols and assault rifles on a highway in Mexico’s Durango state. Eight people were killed in the melee. And officials also confirmed that the Mexican military had taken over the police department of Villa Ahumada because all 20 officers on the force had either been killed, run out of town, or had quit.
2008 - Senator Barack Obama won the Oregon primary 58% to 42%. In Kentucky Hillary Clinton won 65% to 30%. Obama’s delegate count rose to 1,956 with 1,776 for Clinton and 2,026 delegates needed to win the Democratic nomination.
2009 - An Indonesian C-130 Hercules military transport plane, carrying troops and their families, crashed into a row of houses in East Java and burst into flames. The conflagration killed 99 people.
2009 - The U.S. Congress approved legislation allowing people to bring concealed and loaded guns into U.S. national parks. President Barack Obama signed the legislation into law on May 22.
2010 - U.S. researchers announced that they had produced a living cell powered by manmade DNA. They said the world’s first synthetic cell, JCV1-syn1.0, was more a re-creation of existing life, changing one simple type of bacterium into another, than the built-from-scratch kind. Genome-mapping pioneer J. Craig Venter said his team’s project paved the way for designing organisms that work differently from the way nature intended for a wide range of uses.
2011 - New movies in the U.S.: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, starring Johnny Depp, Penélope Cruz, Geoffrey Rush, Ian McShane, Gemma Ward and Judi Dench; Bloodworth, starring Val Kilmer, Kris Kristofferson, Hilary Duff, Reece Thompson, Dwight Yoakam and Frances Conroy; Cost of a Soul, with Chris Kerson, Will Blagrove, Mark Borkowski, Judy Jerome, Maddie Morris Jones, and Gregg Almquist; and Midnight in Paris, with Tom Hiddleston, Rachel McAdams, Michael Sheen, Marion Cotillard, Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, Alison Pill and Kathy Bates.
2011 - Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper toured the town of Slave Lake, Alberta, where hundreds of homes, businesses and public buildings had been destroyed by raging wildfires. 56 fires continued to burn across the north of Canada’s biggest energy producing province. Ten of the fires were out of control.
2012 - Robin Gibb, one of the three Bee Gees, died in London of colon cancer. He was 62 years old. Robin Gibb sang lead vocals on the Bee Gees’ first British number one, "Massachusetts", in 1967, before the group switched styles to disco in the 1970s.
2012 - A 70 million-year-old skeleton of Tyrannosaurus bataars was sold by Heritage Auctions for over $1 million. But hold on for this late-breaking bulletin: On June 22 the U.S. government seized the dinosaur skeleton in New York City, saying it had been brought into the U.S. from Britain with erroneous claims that it had originated in Britain and was worth only $15,000. Experts agreed that the skeleton was from Mongolia.
2013 - A 1.3 mile-wide EF5 (Enhanced Fujita Scale) tornado with winds of up to 210 mph (340 km/h) tore through Moore, a suburb of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Seven children were among the 24 people killed, with another 377 injured. Damage was estimated at $2 billion. Despite the fact that the storm followed a roughly similar track to the even deadlier 1999 Bridge Creek–Moore tornado (similar in size and severity), very few homes and neither of the schools damaged by this storm were equipped with tornado shelters.
2014 - Police in Iran confirmed the arrest of six young people for posting an online video of them dancing to Pharrell Williams’ hit song Happy. Authorities showed the six on state TV as a public warning to youth in the Islamic Republic. On Sep 17 the six were given suspended sentences of 91 lashes and six months in prison for obscene behavior. Sure makes you want to live in Iran, doesn’t it?
2015 - JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Barclays and The Royal Bank of Scotland announced a settlement with the U.S. Justice Department, agreeing to pay $2.5 billion in fines and plead guilty to criminally manipulating global currency market going back to 2007. UBS agreed to plead guilty to manipulating key interest rates and pay a separate $203 million criminal penalty.
2015 - After 33 years and 6,028 episodes of the The Late Show, David Letterman ended his late-night TV career. The star-studded, emotional finale featured Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock, Tina Fey and a musical performance by the Foo Fighters. The episode opened with a video clip from former Gerald Ford’s inaugural address: “Our long national nightmare is over,” Ford said. George Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and President Obama followed in pre-taped appearances to repeat Ford’s statement. “Our long national nightmare is over -- Letterman is retiring,” President Obama said. Letterman joked about being passed over to replace Johnny Carson on “Tonight Show” in the early 1990s, with Jay Leno getting the job instead -- and Letterman moving to CBS, where he had been since 1993. “I’ll be honest with you: It’s beginning to look like I won’t get the Tonight Show!” Letterman said.
2016 - Motion pictures debuting in the U.S. included: the animated The Angry Birds Movie, featuring the voices of Peter Dinklage, Tituss Burgess, Jason Sudeikis, Keegan-Michael Key, Kate McKinnon, Sean Penn, Maya Rudolph and Bill Hader; Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising, with Chloë Grace Moretz, Zac Efron and Rose Byrne; The Nice Guys, starring Ryan Gosling, Matt Bomer and Kim Basinger; Maggie’s Plan, with Travis Fimmel, Ethan Hawke and Julianne Moore; and Manhattan Night, starring Yvonne Strahovski, Adrien Brody and Jennifer Beals.
2016 - Israel’s defense minister Moshe Yaalon resigned, saying the nation was being taken over by “extremist and dangerous elements” after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu moved to replace him with a far-right politician in an effort to strengthen Netanyahu’s coalition.
2018 - The New York Times reported the Chinese government had “systematically dismantled” CIA spying operations in China starting in late 2010. And China killed or imprisoned at least a dozen CIA sources over the next two years. In an apparent attempt by China to intimidate serving or would-be spies, one source was reportedly shot in front of his colleagues in the courtyard of a government building. The Times cited 10 current and former U.S. officials, who described the intelligence breach as one of the worst ever.
2018 - POTUS Donald Trump began a visit to Saudi Arabia. Trump and Saudi King Salman signed a series of agreements cementing the countries’ military and economic partnerships. The two leaders also signed a joint vision agreement at the Saudi Royal Court and sealed it with a handshake.
2018 - A group of Islamic State fighters left their final stronghold in Damascus, Syria The evacuations came a day after an apparent deal was reached to put an end to a ferocious month-long offensive to oust IS from its last positions in southern Damascus.
2018 - A stream of lava blocked a Hawaii highway that serves as an escape route for coastal residents, while the first known serious injury was reported from fresh explosive eruptions from the Kilauea volcano. And a homeowner who was on a third-floor balcony had his leg shattered from his shin to his foot when hit by lava spatter, said Janet Snyder, a spokesperson for the Office of the Mayor, County of Hawaii.
2019 - The San Francisco Civil Service Commission approved a 12% raise for city supervisors. The $15,016 pay hike brought member salaries to $140,148.
2019 - On this World Bee Day, the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization warned that plunging populations of bees worldwide threatened the future of agriculture and food security. World Bee Day was approved by the United Nations General Assembly in 2017 and celebrated for the first time in 2018.
2020 - Google secured a deal with the United States Department of Defense to help detect and respond to cyber threats. The deal allowed the Defense Innovation Unit to run applications across platforms including Google Cloud, Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure while being managed through the Google Cloud Console, the company said.
2020 - COVID-19 news:
1)Bolivia’s health minister, Marcelo Navajas, was arrested on charges he paid millions over the going rate for 170 substandard ventilators. The IDB (Inter-American Development Bank) said it was concerned about “possible irregularities in the purchase of respirators” by Bolivia’s health ministry using financing from the bank.
2)England-based airline engine maker Rolls-Royce announced plans to cut 9,000 workers as it grapples with the collapse in air travel due to the pandemic.
3)Iran said it was close to curbing its coronavirus outbreak. 2,346 new infections had been confirmed across the country in the past 24 hours.2021 - The Biden administration stopped using immigration detention facilities in Massachusetts and Georgia that were the subject of abuse allegations. The shutdown order came four months after the Massachusetts Attorney General found that the sheriff’s office used excessive force against detainees at the center in North Dartmouth, MA – such as flash bang grenades, pepper-ball launchers and canines – in a clash over coronavirus testing at a facility in May 2020. And a gynecologist who worked at the ICE facility in Ocilla, GA was accused by multiple women of performing unnecessary procedures on them, including hysterectomies. The ACLU, which had been pushing for the closure of the two facilities as well as three dozen others, praised the move.
2021 - The World Health Organization’s regional director said COVID-19 vaccines being deployed in the fight against the pandemic in Europe appeared able to protect against all variants that were circulating and causing concern.
2021 - Movies scheduled to open in U.S. theatres included: Downton Abbey: A New Era, starring Michelle Dockery, Tuppence Middleton and Maggie Smith; Emergency, with RJ Cyler, Donald Elise Watkins and Sebastian Chacon; Good Mourning, starring Megan Fox, Pete Davidson and Dove Cameron; and Men, with Jessie Buckley, Rory Kinnear and Gayle Rankin.
2022 - President Biden arrived in South Korea, starting a five-day tour of Asia -- the first of his presidency. Biden used the trip to assure allies in the region of his administration’s support in response to China’s increasing pressure. His first speech in South Korea called for Congress to approve a bill seeking to boost U.S. competitiveness against China. The administration was trying to show “that America is back as a global leader,” said Georgetown scholar Evan Medeiros, who served as an Asia adviser to President Barack Obama. “It’s, ‘Hey, I’m not going to forget about you; this is not a choice between Europe and Asia.’”
2022 - The Senate gave final approval to a $40 billion package of military, economic and food aid for Ukraine and U.S. allies. “I applaud the Congress for sending a clear bipartisan message to the world that the people of the United States stand together with the brave people of Ukraine as they defend their democracy and freedom,” Biden said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked the United States, saying, “This is a demonstration of strong leadership and a necessary contribution to our common defense of freedom.”
2023 - The Middle Jewel of the Triple Crown -- the Preakness Stakes -- ran at Pimlico Race Course. National Treasure won it -- and fended off a late surge by Blazing Sevens in the process. Mage, the Kentucky Derby winner, was caught in traffic early but managed to finish a respectable third.
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Birthdays on This Day May 20
1768 - Dolley Madison (Payne)
U.S. First Lady, wife of 4th U.S. President James Madison; died July 12, 18491799 - Honore de Balzac
novelist: The Human Comedy, Droll Stories, The Chouans; died Aug 18,18501806 - John Stuart Mill
leader of the utilitarian movement: editor: Westminster Review; philosopher: System of Logic, Principles of Political Economy, Utilitarianism, On Liberty, The Subjection of Women; died May 8, 18731851 - Emile Berliner
inventor: gramophone; died Aug 3, 19291908 - James Stewart
Academy Award-winning actor: Philadelphia Story [1940]; The Glenn Miller Story, It’s a Wonderful Life, Harvey, Rear Window, Anatomy of a Murder, Bell, Book and Candle, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Vertigo, The Man from Laramie; died July 2, 19971911 - Milt Gabler
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame producer: worked with Louis Jordan, Bill Haley, Billie Holiday, Peggy Lee, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, the Weavers, The Ink Spots; died Jul 20, 20011913 - Bill Hewlett
U.S. engineer and businessman: co-founder of Hewlett-Packard); died January 12, 20011918 - Patricia Ellis (Leftwich)
actress: Three on a Match, Back Door to Heaven, The Case of the Lucky Legs, Postal Inspector; died Mar 26, 19701919 - ‘Lonesome’ George Gobel
Emmy Award winning personality [1954], comedian: “Well I’ll be a dirty bird.”: The George Gobel Show, The Eddie Fisher Show, Hollywood Squares; actor: Better Late than Never, The Fantastic World of D.C. Collins, Harper Valley P.T.A.; died Feb 24, 19911920 - Vic Ames (Urick)
singer: group: The Ames Brothers: You, You, You are the One, Rag Mop, Sentimental Me, Undecided, You, You, You, The Man with the Banjo, The Naughty Lady of Shady Lane, Tammy, Melodie d’Amour; killed in car crash Jan 23, 19781921 - Harold Newhouser
Baseball Hall of Famer [pitcher: Detroit Tigers: record: 207-150, the only pitcher to win back-to-back MVP awards; died Nov 10, 19981923 - Edith Fellows
actress: The Grace Kelly Story, In the Mood; died Jun 26, 2011; more1924 - Herman ‘Duke’ Wedemeyer
National Football Foundation College Hall of Famer: St. Mary’s College [California]: All-America [1945]; actor: Hawaii Five-O; died Jan 25, 19991926 - Bob Sweikert
auto racer: Indianapolis 500 winner [1955]; killed in race at Salem IN June 17, 19561927 - Bud (Henry) Grant
Pro Football Hall of Famer: Philadelphia Eagles; player & coach: Winnipeg Blue Bombers; Minnesota Vikings coach; basketball: Minneapolis Lakers: forward; died Mar 11, 20231927 - David Hedison (Ara David Heditsian)
actor: Licence to Kill, Live and Let Die; died Jul 18, 2019; more1930 - James McEachin
actor: The Dead Don’t Die, Double Exposure1931 - Ken (Kenton Lloyd) Boyer
baseball: St. Louis Cardinals [all-star: 1956, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964/World Series: 1964/Baseball Writer’s Award: 1964]; NY Mets, Chicago White Sox, LA Dodgers; died Sep 7, 19821933 - Constance Towers
actress: Naked Kiss, On Wings of Eagles; Broadway: The King and I; TV: General Hospital1936 - Anthony Zerbe
Emmy Award-winning actor: Harry-O [1975-76]; The Young Riders, North and South, Book II, Centennial; Licence to Kill, Onassis, Opposing Force, Dead Zone, Rooster Cogburn, The Parallax View, Papillon, Omega Man, They Call Me Mr. Tibbs, Cool Hand Luke, Harry-O1937 - Dave Hill
golf: SPGA tour: champ: 1987 Fairfield Barnett Senior Classic [1987], MONY Senior Tournament of Champions [1987], MONY Syracuse Senior Classic [1987], Paine Webber Invitational [1987]; “The golf swing is like sex. You can’t be thinking about the mechanics of the act while you are performing.”; died Sep 27, 20111940 - Stan Mikita
hockey: NHL: Chicago Blackhawks: Hart Memorial Trophy Winner [1967, 1968]; died Aug 7, 20181942 - Jill Jackson
singer: Paula of 1960s duo Paul and Paula: Hey Paula1942 - Leroy Kelly
Football Hall of Famer [running back]; Cleveland Browns: rushed for 7,274 yards, caught for 2,281 yards1942 - David Proval
actor: The Circle, Just Desserts, 13 Moons, Zigs, James Dean, The Siege, Dumb Luck in Vegas, The Relic1944 - Joe (John Robert) Cocker
singer, songwriter: With a Little Help from My Friends, She Came in through the Bathroom Window, The Letter, Up Where We Belong [w/Jennifer Warnes], You are So Beautiful, When the Night Comes, Cry Me a River; died Dec 22, 20141946 - Cher (Cherilyn Sarkisian LaPierre)
singer: group: Sonny [Bono] & Cher: I Got You Babe, The Beat Goes On, All I Really Want to Do; solo: Bang Bang, Gypsys, Tramps and Thieves, The Way of Love, Dark Lady; Academy Award-winning actress: Moonstruck [1987]; The Witches of Eastwick, Silkwood, Mask1946 - Bobby (Ray) Murcer
baseball: NY Yankees [all-star: 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974/World Series: 1981], SF Giants [all-star: 1975], Chicago Cubs; died Jul 12, 20081949 - Mary Pope Osborne
author: Magic Tree House book series [translated into 30+ languages and sold more than 100 million copies worldwide]1951 - Cullen Bryant
football: Los Angeles Rams: running back: Super Bowl XIV; died Oct 13, 20091952 - Warren Cann
musician: drums: group: Ultravox: Vienna, All Stood Still, The Thin Wall, The Voice, Reap the Wild Wind, Hymn, Visions in Blue1954 - David Paterson
55th Governor of state of New York [2008-2010]1958 - Ronald Prescott Reagan
dancer; talk show host; son of former U.S. President Ronald Reagan1958 - Jane Wiedlin
musician: guitar; songwriter, singer: group: The Go-Go’s: Our Lips Are Sealed, We Got the Beat, Lust to Love, Skidmarks on My Heart, This Town, Can’t Stop the World, Fading Fast; actress: Mission Hill, The Wild Thornberrys, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home1959 - Susan Cowsill
singer: At the End of the Day, groups: Continental Drifters, Psycho Sisters, The Cowsills: We Can Fly, Ask the Children, Heather Says, Yellow Pills, Vol I1959 - Bronson Pinchot
actor: Courage Under Fire, Beverly Hills Cop series, The Flamingo Kid, Risky Business, Perfect Strangers, Sara, Stephen King’s The Langoliers1960 - Tony Goldwyn
actor: Scandal, The Boys Next Door, Truman, Pocahontas: The Legend, Nixon, The Pelican Brief, Ghost, Gaby: A True Story1961 - Nick Heyward
musician: guitar, singer, songwriter: Favourite Shirts [Boy Meets Girl], Love Plus One, Fantastic Day, The Day It Rained Forever, Whistle Down the Wind, Take That Situation; group: Haircut 1001963 - Brian ‘Nasher’ Nash
musician: guitar: group: Frankie Goes to Hollywood: Relax!, Two Tribes, The Power of Love, Welcome to the Pleasure Dome1963 - David Wells
baseball [pitcher]: Toronto Blue Jays, Detroit Tigers, Cincinnati Reds, Baltimore Orioles, Chicago White Sox, NY Yankees, SD Padres, Boston Red Sox1965 - Stu Grimson
hockey [left wing]: Calgary Flames, Chicago Blackhawks, Anaheim Mighty Ducks, Detroit Red Wings, Hartford Whalers, Carolina Hurricanes, LA Kings, Nashville Predators1965 - Todd Stottlemyre
baseball [pitcher]: Univ Nevada-Las Vegas; Toronto Blue Jays, Oakland Athletics, SL Cardinals, Texas Rangers, Arizona Diamondbacks1966 - Mindy Cohn
actress: The Facts of Life, The Third Wish, Swing, The Employee of the Month, Alone With a Stranger, The Boy Who Could Fly, Table Settings; voice actress: Scooby Doo TV series1968 - Phil Hansen
football [defensive end]: North Dakota State Univ; NFL: Buffalo Bills1968 - Timothy Olyphant
actor: Justified, Deadwood, Damages, Scream 2, Gone in 60 Seconds, Go, The Broken Hearts Club: A Romantic Comedy, Dreamcatcher, Live Free or Die Hard/Die Hard 4.0, The Girl Next Door, A Perfect Getaway, The Crazies, Hitman, I Am Number Four, Rango1970 - Terrell Brandon
basketball [guard]: Univ of Oregon; Cleveland Cavaliers, Milwaukee Bucks, Minnesota Timberwolves1970 - Jason York
hockey: Detroit Red Wings, Anaheim Mighty Ducks, Ottawa Senators, Nashville Predators, Boston Bruins1971 - Tony Stewart
NASCAR and Indy race car driver: Nascar Winston Cup Series Rookie of the Year [1999], Nascar Winston Cup Champion [2002], finished second to Dale Earnhardt Jr. in 2004 Daytona 500; NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Champion in 2002, 2005, 20111972 - Busta Rhymes
rapper known for his rapid rhyming: Woo Hah!! Got You All in Check, Dangerous, Turn It Up/Fire It Up, What’s It Gonna Be?! (featuring Janet Jackson); I Know What You Want (w/Mariah Carey featuring The Flipmode Squad), Touch It; more1975 - Tahmoh Penikett
actor: Battlestar Galactica, Cold Squad, Dollhouse, Supernatural, Criminal Minds, Man of Steel1976 - Ramon Hernandez
baseball [catcher]: Oakland Athletics, SD Padres1977 - Matt Czuchry
actor: The Resident, The Good Wife, Gilmore Girls, I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell, Dark Shadows, A Midsummer Night’s Rave, Slap Her... She’s French1977 - Angela Goethals
actress: 24, Phenom, Home Alone, Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon, Spanglish, Stealing Christmas, Changing Lanes, Jerry Maguire1979 - Jayson Werth
baseball: right, left field: Toronto Blue Jays [2002-2003], Los Angeles Dodgers [2004-2005], Philadelphia Phillies [2008-2010]: 2008 World Series champs; Washington Nationals [2011-2017]1981 - Iker Casillas
Spanish footballer [goalkeeper]: Spanish national [2000- ]: 2010 World Cup champs1982 - Candace Bailey
actress: Robot Chicken, Sixty Minute Man, Taylor Made, Nick Takes Over the Superbowl, U-Pick Live, As the World Turns, Jericho1982 - Sierra Boggess
actress: Broadway: The Little Mermaid, Love Never Dies, Phantom of the Opera1983 - Michaela McManus
actress: One Tree Hill, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Awake, The Vampire Diaries, The Last Ship1984 - Naturi Naughton
singer: group: 3LW; actress: Notorious, Fame, Mad Men, The Client List1985 - Chris Froome
Kenyan/British road racing cyclist: rides for UCI ProTeam Israel–Premier Tech; won seven Grand Tours: Tour de France [2013, 2015, 2016, 2017], Giro d'Italia [2018], Vuelta a España twice [2011, 2017]; won Vélo d’Or three times; two Olympic bronze medals in road time trials [2012, 2016]; won bronze in the 2017 World Championships
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Hit Music on This Day May 20
1948Now Is the Hour (facts) - Bing Crosby
Baby Face (facts) - The Art Mooney Orchestra
1957
1966
1975
1984
1993
2002
2011
2020
and even more...
Those were the days, my friend. We thought they’d never end...
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