1992 Johnny Carson hosts his last The Tonight Show. He had been host since 1962.

1985 Rambo: First Blood Part II premiers.

1977 First Woman to Compete in the Indianapolis 500 Janet Guthrie qualifies with an average speed of 188.403 mph. She finished 29th of 33 in the actual race on May 27th. Source: Famous First Facts

1972 First U.S. President to Visit Moscow Nixon for a week of summit talks with the leaders of the Kremlin.

1947 First ballistic missile The U.S. successfully launches the Corporal at the White Sands Proving grounds in New Mexico. It had a range of 63 miles.

1943 A Situation of Gravity is published in Liberty Magazine. It was the basis for the movie The Absent Minded Professor (1960).

1891 Motion Pictures Edison gives the first public demonstration of his motion picture camera, the Kinetoscope.

1882 Korea's independence is recognized by the U.S.

1872 Amnesty Act Restored civil rights to the citizens of the South.

1861 Civil War - First Union soldier killed by enemy action Bailey Brown is killed in West Virginia by Confederate pickets.

1849 Presidential Patent U.S. Patent #6469 is issued to future U.S. Pres. Abraham Lincoln for an "Improvement for Buoying Vessels Over Shoals." He is the only U.S. Pres. to hold a patent.

1761 First life insurance policy in America is issued, by a Philadelphia company.

1621 First wedding in New England Governor Edward Winslow marries Susanna White.

1963 Jeremy Gelbwaks American actor. TV: The Partridge Family (the first Chris). He was replaced after the first season when his real-life family moved.

1942 Theodore Kaczynski   American mathematician, Unabomber. He was convicted of killing three people and wounding 29 others by sending mail bombs over a period of almost eighteen years.

1940 Paul Winfield American actor. Film: Sounder (1972). TV: King (1978, as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.) and 227 (the landlord).

1938 Susan Strasberg American actress. Stage: The Diary of Anne Frank (1955, title role).

1938 Richard Benjamin American actor. TV: He & She (Dick). Film: Portnoy's Complaint (1972).

1924 Charles Aznavour French singer. Music: Yesterday When I Was Young.

1920 Thomas Gold Austrian-born astronomer, established the steady-state theory of the universe.

1915 George Baker d. 1975 American cartoonist, creator of Sad Sack (1942).

1908 Horton Smith American golfer. He won the first Masters tournament (1934), and again in 1936.

1907 Sir Laurence Olivier d. 1989 British Oscar and Emmy-winning actor. He starred in and directed Hamlet (1948) which won five Oscars and was the first British film to win a Best Picture Oscar. He was knighted in 1947.

1860 Willem Einthoven d. 1927 Dutch physiologist, his work on the string galvanometer led to the invention of the electrocardiograph, for which he received the 1924 Nobel prize.

1859 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle d. 1930 Scottish physician, author, creator of Sherlock Holmes (1887).  His belief in Spiritualism and the existence of fairies put him at odds with his one-time friend Harry Houdini.

1828 Albrecht von Gräfe d. 1870 German eye surgeon, regarded as the greatest German ophthalmologist of the 19th century. He was the first to successfully treat glaucoma.

1813 Richard Wagner d. 1883 German opera composer, the Ring cycle (1876).

1983 Albert Claude b. 1898 Belgian Nobel-winning biologist, founder of modern cell biology. He was the first to use the electron microscope to study cells (1945).

1885 Victor Marie Hugo b. 1802 French poet, author. Writings: Les Misérables (1862). He was exiled from France (1851) for his opposition to Louis Napoleon.

1868 Julius Plücker b. 1801 German mathematician physicist. He discovered that cathode rays are diverted by magnetic fields, the principal upon which TV pictures tubes are made. He also discovered that spectral lines are unique to each chemical, the principal of spectroscopy.

1802 Martha Dandridge Washington b. 1731 American first lady, wife of Pres. George Washington.

1667 Alexander VII b. 1599 Italian religious leader, 237th Pope (1655-67).

337 Constantine I b. 280 Roman Emperor (312-337). In 312 he became the first Roman Emperor to convert to Christianity, after seeing a cross in the heaven bearing the expression "In this sign conquer."

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