Monday, May 2

This Day In History

• 1519   Artist Leonardo da Vinci died at Cloux, France.
• 1670   The Hudson Bay Co. was chartered by England's King Charles II.
• 1863   Confederate Gen. Thomas ''Stonewall'' Jackson was accidentally wounded by his own men at Chancellorsville, Va. He died eight days later.
• 1887   Hannibal W. Goodwin of Newark, NJ applied for a patent for celluloid photographic film -- the stuff from which movies are shown.
• 1890   The Oklahoma Territory was organized.
• 1932   NBC radio introduced an entertainer this night. The comic genius started working for a salary of $1,400 a week. His name: Jack Benny.
• 1939   New York Yankees first baseman Lou Gehrig's streak of 2,130 consecutive games played came to an end.
• 1941   The Federal Communications Commission agreed to let regular scheduling of TV broadcasts by commercial TV stations begin on July 1, 1941. It was the start of what would become network television.
• 1957   Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy, the controversial Republican from Wisconsin, died at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland.
• 1972   J. Edgar Hoover, head of the FBI for 48 years, died at age 77.
• 1974   Former Vice President Spiro T. Agnew was disbarred by the Maryland Court of Appeals.
• 1994   Nelson Mandela claimed victory in South Africa's first democratic elections.
• 1997   Tony Blair became, at age 44, Britain's youngest prime minister in 185 years.

Happy Birthday To

• 1729   Catherine the Great (Catherine II) (Ekaterina Alekseevna) (Russian leader [1762-1796]; died in 1796)
• 1837   Henry M. (Martyn) Robert (U.S. Army General; author: Robert's Rules of Order, the standard for parliamentary procedure; died May 11, 1923)
• 1903   Benjamin Spock (baby doctor, author: The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care; died Mar 15, 1998)
• 1936   Engelbert Humperdinck (Arnold George Dorsey) (singer: After The Lovin', Release Me, There Goes My Everything, The Last Waltz, A Man Without Love, Winter World of Love, Les Bicyclettes de Belsize)