Today is Friday, May 24, the 144th day of 2013. There are 221 days left in the year.
1689 ― English Parliament guarantees freedom of religion for Protestants
1899 ― First auto repair shop opens (Boston)
1933 ― Dmitri Shostakovich's “Preludes,” premieres in Moscow
1954 ― IBM announces vacuum tube “electronic” brain that could perform 10 million operations an hour
1957 ― Anti American riots breakout in Taipei, Taiwan
1965 ― Supreme Court declares federal law allowing post office to intercept communist propaganda is unconstitutional
1969 ― Beatles’ “Get Back” single goes No. 1 and stays No. 1 for five weeks
1975 ― Soyuz 18B carries two cosmonauts to space station Salyut 4
1980 ― Iran rejects a call to the World Court to release U.S. hostages
1985 ― Cyclone hits Bangladesh; about 10,000 die