Today is May 24. On this date in:
1775
John Hancock was unanimously elected President of the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, succeeding Peyton Randolph.
1844
Samuel F.B. Morse transmitted the message “What hath God wrought” from Washington to Baltimore as he formally opened America’s first telegraph line.
1883
The Brooklyn Bridge, designed by Washington Roebling and his father, John A. Roebling – the man who designed Cincinnati’s Roebling Suspension Bridge – opened to traffic in New York.
1935
The first night game in Major League Baseball history was held at Crosley Field in Cincinnati, won by the Cincinnati Reds over the Philadelphia Phillies, 2-1.
1937
In a set of rulings, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Social Security Act of 1935.
1941
The German battleship Bismarck sank the British battle cruiser HMS Hood in the North Atlantic, killing all but three of the 1,418 men on board.
1962
Astronaut Scott Carpenter became the second American to orbit the Earth as he flew aboard Aurora 7.
1964
A riot broke out at National Stadium in Lima, Peru, over a referee’s call in a soccer match between Peru and Argentina; more than 300 fans were killed and another 500 people were injured.
1974
American jazz composer and bandleader Duke Ellington, 75, died in New York.
1976
Britain and France opened trans-Atlantic Concorde supersonic transport service to Washington.
1991
The feminist film drama “Thelma & Louise,” starring Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis, was released by MGM.
1994
Four Islamic fundamentalists convicted of bombing New York’s World Trade Center in 1993 were each sentenced to 240 years in prison.
2001
Twenty-three people were killed when the floor of a Jerusalem wedding hall collapsed beneath dancing guests, sending them plunging several stories into the basement.
2014
A lone gunman opened fire at the Jewish Museum in Brussels, killing four people.
2018
President Donald Trump granted a rare posthumous pardon to boxing’s first black heavyweight champion, Jack Johnson, more than 100 years after what many see as a racially-charged conviction for violating the Mann Act by traveling with his white girlfriend.
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