Today is Monday, May 24, the 144th day of 2010. There are 221 days left in the year.
1626 _ Peter Minuit buys Manhattan from Indians for trinkets, valued at $24
1689 _ English Parliament guarantees freedom of religion for Protestants
1738 _ Methodist Church is established
1915 _ Thomas Edison invents telescribe to record telephone conversations
1954 _ IBM announces vacuum tube ``electronic" brain that could perform 10 million operations an hour
1957 _ Anti American riots breakout in Taipei, Taiwan
1958 _ UP & International News Service merge into United Press International
1964 _ Panic in Lima Peru soccer stadium, kills 300
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