Today in History: May 24

Today is Friday, May 24, the 145th day of 2024. There are 221 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On May 24, 1935, the first Major League Baseball game to be played at night took place at Cincinnati’s Crosley Field as the Reds beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 2-1.

On this date:

In 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.

In 1937, in a set of rulings, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Social Security Act of 1935.

In 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.

In 1961, a group of Freedom Riders was arrested after arriving at a bus terminal in Jackson, Mississippi, charged with breaching the peace for entering white-designated areas. (They ended up serving 60 days in jail.)

In 1962, astronaut Scott Carpenter became the second American to orbit the Earth as he flew aboard Aurora 7.

In 1974, American jazz composer and bandleader Duke Ellington, 75, died in New York.

In 1976, Britain and France opened trans-Atlantic Concorde supersonic transport service to Washington.

In 1980, Iran rejected a call by the World Court in The Hague to release the American hostages.

In 1994, four Islamic fundamentalists convicted of bombing New York’s World Trade Center in 1993 were each sentenced to 240 years in prison.

In 1995, former British Prime Minister Harold Wilson died in London at age 79.

In 2006, “An Inconvenient Truth,” a documentary about former Vice President Al Gore’s campaign against global warming, went into limited release.

In 2011, Oprah Winfrey taped the final episode of her long-running talk show.

In 2017, Ariana Grande suspended her Dangerous Woman world tour and canceled several European shows due to the deadly bombing at her concert in Manchester, England, two days earlier.

In 2018, Jerry Maren, the last surviving Munchkin from the 1939 film “The Wizard of Oz,” died at a San Diego nursing home; he was 99.

In 2022, an 18-year-old gunman opened fire at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, killing 19 children and two teachers. The gunman, Salvador Ramos, a former student at the school, was also killed. It was the deadliest shooting at a U.S. grade school since the attack in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, almost a decade earlier.

In 2023, Tina Turner died at age 83. She teamed with husband Ike Turner for a dynamic run of hit records and live shows and survived her horrifying marriage to triumph in middle age with the chart-topping “What’s Love Got to Do With It.”

Today’s Birthdays: Actor-comedian-impressionist Stanley Baxter is 98. Jazz musician Archie Shepp is 87. Comedian Tommy Chong is 86. Singer Bob Dylan is 83. Actor Gary Burghoff is 81. Singer Patti LaBelle is 80. Actor Priscilla Presley is 79. Country singer Mike Reid is 77. Actor Jim Broadbent is 75. Actor Alfred Molina is 71. Singer Rosanne Cash is 69. Actor Cliff Parisi is 64. Actor Kristin Scott Thomas is 64. Actor John C. Reilly is 59. Actor Dana Ashbrook is 57. Actor Eric Close is 57. Actor Carl Payne is 55. Rock musician Rich Robinson is 55. Former MLB pitcher Bartolo Colon is 51. Actor Dash Mihok is 50. Actor Bryan Greenberg is 46. Actor Owen Benjamin is 44. Actor Billy L. Sullivan is 44. Actor-rapper Jerod Mixon (aka Big Tyme) is 43. Rock musician Cody Hanson (Hinder) is 42. Dancer-choreographer-singer Mark Ballas is 38. Country singer Billy Gilman is 36. Rapper/producer G-Eazy is 35. Actor Brianne Howey is 35. Actor Cayden Boyd is 30.