May 23
1430
Joan of Arc was captured by the Burgundians and subsequently sold to the English.
1788
South Carolina became the 8th state in United States.
1830
The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad began the first passenger service in the United States.
1873
The North West Mounted Police force was formed in Canada. It would later be known as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
1911
The New York Public Library, at the time the largest marble structure ever built in the United States, was dedicated by President Taft in New York City after 16 years of construction.
1934
Bonnie (Parker) and Clyde (Barrow) were killed in a police shootout.
1945
Heinrich Himmler, head of Adolf Hitler’s Gestapo, committed suicide while in prison.
1949
The German Federal Republic came into existence.
1997
Moderate Mohammad Khatami was elected president of Iran.
Birthdays
Margaret Fuller
1810–50, American writer and lecturer, born in Cambridgeport (now part of Cambridge), Mass.
Carolus Linnaeus
botanist (1707)
Charles Barry
architect (1795)
Alfred Pritchard Sloan, Jr.
businessman and philanthropist (1875)
Douglas Fairbanks
actor (1883)
John Bardeen
physicist (1908)
Anatoly Karpov
chess master (1951)
Jewel
singer, songwriter (1974)