Today is Tuesday, May 20, the 140th day of 2025 with 225 to follow.
The moon is waning. Morning stars are Mars, Mercury, Neptune, Saturn and Venus. Evening stars are Jupiter and Mars.
Those born on this date are under the sign of Taurus. They include architect William Thornton in 1759; U.S. first lady Dolley Madison in 1768; writer Honore de Balzac in 1799; philosopher/economist John Stuart Mill in 1806; inventor Emile Berliner in 1851; actor James Stewart in 1908; comedian/actor George Gobel in 1919; actor Anthony Zerbe in 1936 (age 89); Hockey Hall of Fame member Stan Mikita in 1940; Baseball Hall of Fame member Sadaharu Oh in 1940 (age 85); musician Joe Cocker in 1944; musician/actor Cher in 1946 (age 79); actor Dave Thomas in 1949 (age 76); Ronald Prescott Reagan, broadcaster/son of U.S. President Ronald Reagan, in 1958 (age 67); musician Jane Wiedlin (Go-Go's) in 1958 (age 67); actor Bronson Pinchot in 1959 (age 66); musician Israel Kamakawiwoʻole in 1959; actor John Billingsley in 1960 (age 65); actor Tony Goldwyn in 1960 (age 65); TV personality Ted Allen in 1965 (age 60); actor Mindy Cohn in 1966 (age 59); actor Timothy Olyphant in 1968 (age 57); Motorsports Hall of Fame of America member Tony Stewart in 1971 (age 54); musician Busta Rhymes in 1972 (age 53); actor Matt Czuchry in 1977 (age 48); musician Rachel Platten in 1981 (age 44); actor Josh O'Connor in 1990 (age 35); actor Jack Gleeson in 1992 (age 33); soccer player Trinity Rodman in 2002 (age 23).
On this date in history:
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In 526, up to 300,000 people were killed in an earthquake in Syria and Antioch.
In 1873, Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis were granted a patent for blue jeans with copper rivets.
In 1927, Charles Lindbergh took off from New York in his single-engine monoplane, "The Spirit of St. Louis," bound for Paris. While he winged his way across the Atlantic, his mother taught her chemistry class at Cass Technical High School as usual.
In 1940, German forces punched through the Allied lines in Abbeville, France, to reach the English Channel. The Battle of Abbeville one week later culminated in the evacuation of Dunkirk.
In 1969, in one of the more infamous and bloody battles of the Vietnam War, U.S. troops seized Dong Ap Bia mountain, commonly known as Hamburger Hill.
In 1974, Judge John Sirica ordered U.S. President Richard Nixon to turn over tapes and other records of 64 White House conversations on the Watergate affair.
In 1989, Chinese Premier Li Peng declared martial law in Beijing in response to heightened student demonstrations in Tiananmen Square.
In 1995, President Bill Clinton permanently closed Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House after more than 200 years of mostly unimpeded traffic.
In 2002, East Timor, a small Pacific Coast nation, gained independence from Indonesia. It is called Timor Leste.
In 2013, a tornado struck the Moore, Okla., area near Oklahoma City, killing 24 people, injuring more than 300 and destroying many buildings, including two elementary schools.
In 2018, King Mswati III announced he was changing the name of his country, Swaziland, to eSwatini, which means "land of the Swazis."
In 2024, a New Zealand auction house sold a single feather from an extinct huia bird for $28,417, making it the most expensive feather in history. The bird, the last recorded sighting of which was in 1907, was considered sacred by the Māori people.
A thought for the day: "Greatness comes from fear. Fear can either shut us down and we go home, or we fight through it." -- American singer Lionel Richie
