This Day in History – May 19, 2011

1506 Columbus selects his son Diego as sole heir 1643 Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, Connecticut & New Harbor form United Colonies of New England 1780 About midday, near-total darkness descends on much of New England to this day its cause is still unexplained 1796 Game protection law restricts encroachment on Indian hunting grounds 1848 México gives Texas to US, ending the war 1857 William Francis Channing & Moses G Farmer patents electric fire alarm 1862 Homestead Act becomes law provides cheap land for settlement of West 1863 Siege of Vicksburg, investment of city complete 1884 Ringling Brothers circus premieres 1885 1st mass production of shoes (Jan Matzeliger in Lynn MA) 1892 Charles Brady King invents pneumatic hammer 1892 National Society of Colonial Dames of America founded 1898 Post Office authorizes use of postcards 1906 Federated Boys’ Club (Boys’ Club of America) organizes 1911 Philadelphia Athletics are 12½ games back in American League, & win the World Series 1912 American League president Ban Johnson tells Tigers if they continue protest of Ty Cobb’s suspension, they will be banned from baseball 1913 Webb Alien Land-Holding Bill passes, forbidding Japs from owning land 1921 Congress sharply curbs immigration, setting a national quota system 1928 51 frogs enter 1st annual “Frog Jumping Jubilee” (Angel’s Camp CA) 1929 Cloudburst causes stampede in Yankee Stadium; 2 people crushed to death 1934 Sherlock Holmes crossword puzzle in “Saturday Review of Literature”; Males who solved puzzle become members of Baker Street Irregulars 1935 NFL adopts an annual college draft to begin in 1936 1943 Churchill pledges England’s full support to US against Japan 1953 Nuclear explosion in Nevada (fall-out in St George UT) 1954 Postmaster General Summerfield approves CIA mail-opening project 1958 US & Canada form North American Air Defense Command (NORAD) 1964 US diplomats find at least 40 secret microphones in the Moscow embassy 1977 “Smokey & the Bandit” premieres 1988 Carlos Lehder Rivas, of Colombia’s Medellín drug cartel, is convicted in Florida for smuggling more than 3 tons of cocaine into US 1989 Dow Jones average passes 2,500 mark for 1st time, closes at 2,501.1 1992 27th Amendment ratified, prohibits Congress from raising its salary 1992 Amy Fisher shoots Mary Jo Buttafuoco in Massapequa Long Island New York 1992 Englishman Dave Gauder, 224 lbs, pulls 196 ton jumbo jet, 3 inches 1992 Vice President Dan Quayle sites Murphy Brown as a poor example of family values 1993 Dow Jones closes above 3,500 for 1st time (3,500.03) 1994 Final Episode of LA Law after 8 year run 1995 World’s youngest doctor, Balamurali Ambati, 17, graduates Mount Sinai 2161 Syzygy: all the planets aligned on same side of sun]]]]> ]]>