WEDNESDAY, MAY 20, 2009

Today is Wednesday, May 20, the 140th day of 2009. There are 225 days left in the year.

1293 _ Earthquake strikes Kamakura Japan, 30,000 killed

1310 _ Shoes were made for both right & left feet

1498 _ Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama arrives at Calcutta India

1862 _ Homestead Act provides cheap land for settlement of the West

1867 _ British parliament rejects John Stuart Mills law on women suffrage

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

1895 _ First commercial movie performance (153 Broadway, NYC)

1900 _ Second modern Olympic games opens in Paris France (lasted five months)

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

1944 _ U.S. Communist Party dissolves