Today in History

Today in History Today is Monday, May 24, the 144th day of 2021. There are 221 days left in the year. Today’s Highlight in History: On May 24, 1935, the first major league baseball game to be played at night took place at Cincinnati’s Crosley Field as the Reds beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 2-1. On this date: In 1844, Samuel F.B. Morse transmitted the message ‘œWhat hath God wrought’� from Washington to Baltimore as he formally opened America’s first telegraph line. In 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge, linking Brooklyn and Manhattan, was dedicated by President Chester Alan Arthur and New York Gov. Grover Cleveland. In 1941, the German battleship Bismarck sank the British battle cruiser HMS Hood in the North Atlantic, killing all but three of the 1,418 men on board. In 1961, a group of Freedom Riders was arrested after arriving at a bus terminal in Jackson, Mississippi, charged with breaching the peace for entering white-designated areas. (They ended up serving 60 days in jail.) In 1962, astronaut Scott Carpenter became the second American to orbit the Earth as he flew aboard Aurora 7. In 1974, American jazz composer and bandleader Duke Ellington, 75, died in New York. In 1976, Britain and France opened trans-Atlantic Concorde supersonic transport service to Washington. In 1980, Iran rejected a call by the World Court in The Hague to release the American hostages. In 1991, the feminist film drama ‘œThelma & Louise,’� starring Susan Sarandon (as Louise) and Geena Davis (as Thelma), was released by MGM. In 1994, four Islamic fundamentalists convicted of bombing New York’s World Trade Center in 1993 were each sentenced to 240 years in prison. In 1995, former British Prime Minister Harold Wilson died in London at age 79. In 2001, 23 people were killed when the floor of a Jerusalem wedding hall collapsed beneath dancing guests, sending them plunging several stories into the basement. Ten years ago: Egyptian authorities ordered former President Hosni Mubarak tried on charges of corruption as well as conspiracy in the deadly shooting of protesters who’d driven him from power. (An appeals court cleared Mubarak in the deaths of the protesters; he would be sentenced to three years in prison on the corruption charges.) President Barack Obama was honored with a state dinner in London as he continued his visit to Britain. Oprah Winfrey taped the final episode of her long-running talk show. Five years ago: Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton and presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump each won primaries in Washington state. Protests outside a Donald Trump rally in Albuquerque, New Mexico, turned violent as demonstrators threw burning T-shirts, plastic bottles and other items at police officers, overturned trash cans and knocked down barricades. One year ago: The White House broadened its travel ban against countries hard hit by the coronavirus, saying it would deny admission to foreigners who had recently been in Brazil. The New York Times devoted its Sunday front page to a long list of names of those who had died of the coronavirus in the United States. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu went on trial on corruption charges, becoming the country’s first sitting prime minister to be tried. (The trial resumed in April.)