May 20th

Singer Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees died at age 62.

Suspended NFL star Michael Vick was released after 19 months in prison for running a dogfighting ring.

San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds tied Babe Ruth for second place on the career list with his 714th home run.

East Timor became the what was then the world's newest nation.

In a 6-3 vote, the Supreme Court rejected a Colorado measure banning laws that protect homosexuals from discrimination.

President Bill Clinton announced that the two-block stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House would be permanently closed to traffic as a security measure.

The final first-run episode of 'Cheers' aired on NBC.

Hubble Space Telescope sends its 1st photographs from space.

Comedian Gilda Radner died of cancer at age 42.

In South Africa, a car bomb planted by anti-Apartheid activists kills 19. The Church Street Bombing was carried out by the military wing of the African National Congress (ANC). It was one of the bloodiest chapters in the ANC’s long and difficult struggle against racial segregation and oppression in South Africa.

Mavis Hutchinson, 53, became the first woman to run across America. The 3,000-mile trek took her 69 days. She ran an average of 45 miles each day.

The album 'What's Going On' by Marvin Gaye was released.

U.S. and South Vietnamese forces captured Ap Bia Mountain, referred to as Hamburger Hill by the Americans, following one of the bloodiest battles of the Vietnam War.

A mob attacked a busload of "freedom riders" in Montgomery, Ala., setting the bus on fire.

The first prisoners arrive at Auschwitz concentration camp. Auschwitz was the biggest extermination camp during World War II. From 1940 to 1945, the Nazi regime murdered at least 1.1 million people here.

Regular trans-Atlantic air service began as a Pan American Airways plane took off from Port Washington, N.Y., bound for Europe.

Amelia Earhart took off from Newfoundland for Ireland to become the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.

Charles Lindbergh took off for Paris from Roosevelt Field in Long Island, N.Y., aboard the Spirit of St. Louis on the first nonstop solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean.

The United States ended a three-year military presence in Cuba as the Republic of Cuba was established.

History of cinema: The first public display of Thomas Edison's prototype kinetoscope to members of the National Federation of Women's Club.

Blue jeans are patented. Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis invented the garment, which today represents one of the most popular types of trousers worldwide.

US Homestead Act becomes law which provides cheap land for the settlement of the American West.

The capital of the Confederacy was moved from Montgomery, Ala., to Richmond, Va.

Shakespeare's Sonnets are first published in London, perhaps illicitly, by the publisher Thomas Thorpe.

Christopher Columbus died in Spain.

Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama arrives at Calicut, India becoming the first European to reach India by sea.