Today is Tuesday, May 20, the 140th day of 2014. There are 225 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On May 20, 1939, regular trans-Atlantic mail service began as a Pan American Airways plane, the Yankee
Clipper, took off from Port Washington, New York, bound for Marseille, France.
On this date:
In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act, which was intended to encourage settlements
west of the Mississippi River by making federal land available for farming.
In 1902, the United States ended a three-year military presence in Cuba as the Republic of Cuba was
established under its first elected president, Tomas Estrada Palma.
In 1927, Charles Lindbergh took off from Roosevelt Field in Long Island, New York, aboard the Spirit of
St. Louis on his historic solo flight to France.
In 1932, Amelia Earhart took off from Newfoundland to become the first woman to fly solo across the
Atlantic.
In 1942, during World War II, the Office of Civilian Defense was established.
In 1959, nearly 5,000 Japanese-Americans had their U.S. citizenship restored after renouncing it during
World War II.
In 1961, a white mob attacked a busload of Freedom Riders in Montgomery, Alabama, prompting the federal
government to send in U.S. marshals to restore order.
In 1969, U.S. and South Vietnamese forces captured Ap Bia Mountain, referred to as "Hamburger
Hill" by the Americans, following one of the bloodiest battles of the Vietnam War.
In 1970, some 100,000 people demonstrated in New York’s Wall Street district in support of U.S. policy in
Vietnam and Cambodia.
Ten years ago: President George W. Bush made a rare visit to Capitol Hill, where he sought to ease
Republican lawmakers’ concerns over the Iraq campaign.
Five years ago: In a rare, bipartisan defeat for President Barack Obama, the Senate voted overwhelmingly,
90-6, to keep the prison at Guantanamo Bay open for the foreseeable future and forbid the transfer of
any detainees to facilities in the United States. A commission published a damning report on decades of
rapes, humiliation and beatings at Catholic Church-run reform schools in Ireland.
One year ago: An EF5 tornado struck Moore, Oklahoma, killing at least 24 people and flattening 1,100
homes. Ray Manzarek, 74, a founding member of the 1960s rock group the Doors, died in Rosenheim,
Germany.