Today in History - History - May 20th

1927At 7:40 AM, pilot Charles Lindbergh takes off from NY to cross Atlantic for Paris

1926Thomas Edison says Americans prefer silent movies over talkies

1922Babe Ruth & Bob Meusel, suspended on October 16, 1921, by Judge Kennesaw Mountain Landis, return to the NY lineup & go hitless

1997US President Clinton signs an executive order barring new US investment in Burma (also known as Myanmar), effective May 21 and renewable annually

1609Shakespeare's Sonnets are first published in London, perhaps illicitly, by the publisher Thomas Thorpe.

1988Mike Schmidt hits his 535th HR, moving into 8th place

1873Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis patent first blue jeans with copper rivets

197325th Emmy Awards: Waltons, All in the Family & Mary Tyler Moore win

201220th Billboard Music Awards: Adele, 21 win

1983Larry Holmes beats Tim Witherspoon in 12 for heavyweight boxing title

1944Joe Cocker, Sheffield England, rock vocalist (Little Help From My Friends)

1970Louis Theroux, Singapore, English television broadcaster (Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends, When Louis Met....)

1908Jimmy Stewart [James], Indiana Pennsylvania, American actor (Mr Smith Goes to Washington, It's a Wonderful Life)

1806John Stuart Mill, UK, philosopher/political economist/Utilitarian

2012Robin Gibb, British singer song-writer, dies from colon and liver cancer at 62

1506Christopher Columbus, explorer, dies in poverty, in Spain at 55