Today in History - History - May 23rd

1785Benjamin Franklin announces his invention of bifocals

1430Joan of Arc is captured at Compiegne & sold to the English

1862Valley Campaign: Stonewall Jackson takes Fort Royal, Virginia

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

1911NY Public Library building at 5th Avenue dedicated by President Taft

1948Joe DiMaggio hits 3 consecutive HRs

1965Mickey Wright wins LPGA Dallas Civitan Golf Open

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

1939Hitler proclaims he wants to move into Poland

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

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

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

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

1052King Philip I of France (d. 1108)

1908John Bardeen, US, physicist (transistor, Nobel 1956, 1972)

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

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

2002Sam Snead, American golfer (b. 1912)

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

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

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