White mob attacked busload of Freedom Riders

Today is May 20. On this date in:

1506

Italian explorer Christopher Columbus died in Spain. 

1521

Ignatius of Loyola was wounded by a cannonball while defending Pamplona against the French; during his convalescence he turned to religion, becoming a leader of the Counter-Reformation and the founder of the Jesuits.

1873

Levi Strauss and tailor Jacob Davis received a U.S. patent for men’s work pants made with copper rivets.

1899

Taxi driver Jacob German was pulled over and arrested by a police officer riding a bicycle for speeding down Manhattan’s Lexington Avenue in his electric car at 12 miles an hour at a time when the speed limit was 8 mph; it was the first recorded speeding arrest in U.S. history.

1927

Charles Lindbergh took off from Roosevelt Field on Long Island, New York, aboard the Spirit of St. Louis on his historic solo flight to France.

1932

Amelia Earhart took off from Newfoundland to become the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. (Because of weather and equipment problems, Earhart set down in Northern Ireland instead of her intended destination, France.)

Our history:Female pilot competed with Amelia Earhart in Powel Crosley’s plane

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.