History for May 20

History for May 20 - On-This-Day.com:
William Thornton 1759 - Inventor, painter, designed the United States Capitol, first Superintendent of the United States Patent Office, Dolley Payne Madison 1768 - U.S. First Lady, wife of 4th President James Madison, Honore de Balzac 1799 - Novelist 


John Stuart Mill 1806 - Editor, philosopher, Jimmy Stewart 1908 - Actor (Philadelphia Story [1940]; The Glenn Miller Story, It’s a Wonderful Life, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington), Joe Cocker 1944 - Singer, songwriter 


1506 - In Spain, Christopher Columbus died in poverty.


1520 - Hernando Cortez defeated Spanish troops that had been sent to punish him in Mexico.


1774 - Britain's Parliament passed the Coercive Acts to punish the American colonists for their increasingly anti-British behavior


1873 - Levi Strauss began marketing blue jeans with copper rivets.


1899 - Jacob German of New York City became the first driver to be arrested for speeding. The posted speed limit was 12 miles per hour.


1927 - Charles Lindbergh took off from New York to cross the Atlantic for Paris aboard his airplane the "Spirit of St. Louis." The trip took 33 1/2 hours.

1932 - Amelia Earhart took off to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She became the first woman to achieve the feat.


1939 - The first regular air-passenger service across the Atlantic Ocean began with the take-off of the "Yankee Clipper" from Port Washington, New York.