Today in History - History - May 23rd

1958Mao Zedong starts "Great leap forward" movement in China

1785Benjamin Franklin announces his invention of bifocals

2000Eminem releases 3rd studio album 'The Marshall Mathers LP', is fastest ever selling studio album (Grammy - Best Rap Album 2001)

1962Joe Pepitone 2nd Yankee to hit 2 HRs in 1 inning (Joe DiMaggio)

1941Joe Louis beats Buddy Baer on DQ in 7 for heavyweight boxing title

1982Pope John Paul II declares "Peerke" Donders a saint

1867Jesse James gang robs bank in Richmond, Missouri (2 die, $4,000 taken)

1701Captain William Kidd is hanged in London after being convicted of piracy and of murdering William Moore.

1939Hitler proclaims he wants to move into Poland

1576Tycho Brahe given Hveen Island to build Uraniborg Observatory

1974Jewel Kilcher, Payson, Utah, American singer-songwriter (Pieces of You)

1052King Philip I of France (d. 1108)

1911Betty Nuthall, Surbiton England, tennis player (1930 U.S. Open champion)

1707Carolus Linnaeus, Swedish botanist and the Father of Taxonomy (d. 1778)

1958Drew Carey, Cleveland, Ohio, American actor & comedian (Drew-Drew Carey Show)

1974Ken Jennings, American game show contestant

1942Comic book artist Jack Kirby (24) weds Roz Goldstein

1953John F. Kennedy's sister Eunice Kennedy (31) weds activist and attorney Sargent Shriver at Saint Patrick's Cathedral in New York City

1533King Henry VIII & Catherine of Aragon's marriage declared null & void by authority English clergy not the Pope

1934First wife Marguerite Van Kessel divorces NFL player Curly Lambeau (36) after 14 years of marriage

1934Clyde Barrow, outlaw (Bonnie & Clyde), killed in police ambush

1701William Kidd, Scottish pirate, hanged at London's Execution Dock

1937John D Rockefeller, American industrialist and philanthropist, dies at 97

1934Bonnie Parker, American outlaw (Bonnie & Clyde), killed in police ambush at 23