Today is Thursday, May 24, the 145th day of 2012. There are 221 days left in the year.

1689 ― English Parliament guarantees freedom of religion for Protestants

1726 ― People's revolt due to increase in gin/brandy tax

1899 ― First auto repair shop opens (Boston)

1915 ― Thomas Edison invents telescribe to record telephone conversations

1941 ― Bismarck sinks British battle cruiser HMS Hood, 1,416 die, three survive

1964 ― Panic in Lima Peru soccer stadium, kills 300

1965 ― Supreme Court declares federal law allowing post office to intercept communist propaganda is unconstitutional

1968 ― Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithfull arrested for drug possession

1980 ― Iran rejects a call to the World Court to release U.S. hostages

1986 ― Margaret Thatcher becomes first British P.M. to visit Israel