TUESDAY, MAY 20, 2008

Today is May 20, the 141st day of 2008. There are 225 days left in the year.

1293 _ Earthquake strikes Kamakura Japan, 30,000 killed

1498 _ Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama arrives at Calcutta India

1870 _ Second Chamber abolishes capital punishment

1874 _ Levi Strauss markets blue jeans with copper rivets, price $13.50 per dozen

1926 _ Thomas Edison says Americans prefer silent movies over talkies

1927 _ At 7:40 a.m., Lindbergh takes off from New York to cross Atlantic for Paris

1927 _ Saudi Arabia becomes independent of Great Britain (Treaty of Jedda)

1944 _ U.S. Communist Party dissolves

1954 _ Chiang Kai-shek becomes president of Nationalist China

1991 _ Chicago Bull Michael Jordan, named NBA's MVP