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