FRIDAY, MAY 22, 2009

Today is Friday, May 22, the 142nd day of 2009. There are 223 days left in the year.

1570 _ First atlas, with 70 maps, published

1761 _ First life insurance policy in U.S., issued in Philadelphia

1856 _ Violence in Senate, South Carolina Representative Brooks used a cane on Massachusetts Senator Sumner

1892 _ Washington Sheffield invents toothpaste tube

1900 _ Associated Press organizes in NYC as nonprofit news cooperative

1906 _ Wright Brothers patent an airplane

1926 _ Chiang Kai-shek replaces communists in Guomindang, China

1939 _ Hitler and Mussolini sign ``Pact of Steel"

1973 _ President Nixon confesses his role in Watergate cover-up

1990 _ North and South Yemen merge to form Republic of Yemen