Today in History, 5/20

1521: Ignatius Loyola is seriously wounded at the Battle of Pampeluna.
1570: Cartographer Abraham Ortelius issues the first modern atlas.1609: Shakespeare's Sonnets are first published.
1631: The city of Magdeburg, Germany is seized by the forces of the Holy Roman Empire and most of its population is murdered. It is one of the bloodiest incidents of the Thirty Years War.
1768: Dolley Madison, First Lady is born. I love her snack cakes!1861: During the Civil War, the state of Kentucky declares its neutrality which lasts until September.
1873: Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis receive a US patent for blue jeans with copper rivets.1895: R.J. Mitchell is born. He is best known as the designer of the Supermarine Spitfire which was instrumental in the defense of England during the Battle of Britain.1883: The eruption of Krakatoa begins, although it wouldn't really get going for three months.1908: Jimmy Stewart is born. Boy, they don't make actors like him anymore, do they? Here he is in Harvey, which I just realized I haven't seen in probably 15 years.

1902: The US occupation of Cuba ends.
1913: William Hewlett, cofounder of Hewlett-Packard is born. I use the Hewlett-Packard flavor of Unix (HP-UX, if you're cool) at work and I'm quite fond of it.1916: Saturday Evening Post publishes its first cover with a Norman Rockwell painting ("Boy with Baby Carriage")1919: George Gobel is born. All I know about him is that Colonel Potter on MASH once said, "Well, I'm no George Gobel." He was a comedian and talk show host in the 1950's. Here he is with Angela Lansbury.

1927: Charles Lindbergh takes off from Roosevelt Field in Long Island on the world's first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean.1936: Anthony Zerbe is born. He is one of those "It's that guy!" guys who seemingly has been in a ton of movies and you never remember his name. He played the head mutant/vampire/zombie in The Omega Man, the chief president/shaman/whatever of Zion in the second Matrix movie and played the evil Dr. Abner Devereaux who wants to take over the world with robots in KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park.

1940: The first prisoners arrive at Auschwitz.
1940: Shorty Long is born.

1944: Joe Cocker is born.

1946: Cher is born.

1958: Jane Wiedlin, of The Go-Go's, is born. At the time, I only had eyes for Belinda Carlisle, but now I can see that she had her charms.

1959: Bronson Pinchot is born. He played Latka Gravis on Perfect Strangers but was also good in a small part in True Romance.

1966: Mindy Cohn is born. She played Natalie on The Facts of Life.

Today in History elements mostly cribbed from The History Channel, Wikipedia, The New York Times, The Jewish World Review, The Writer's Almanac and anything else I can dig up.