May 20th in History
May 20th
In May 1534 the notoriously anti-Welsh bishop Rowland Lee was appointed President of the Council of Wales and the Marches. Lee claimed to have hanged 5000 Welshmen in his five years in charge, which resulted in him being referred to as the 'hanging Bishop'.
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1891 – History’s first public display of Thomas Edison’s prototype kinetoscope (motion picture machine)Thomas Edison’s prototype of the kinetoscope, an early motion picture exhibition device, was shown to the public for the first time on May 20, 1891. This demonstration in Edison’s laboratory in West Orange, New Jersey, to members of the National Federation of Women’s Clubs, featured a 3-second clip of one of Edison’s employees pretending to sneeze. The kinetoscope created the illusion of movement by conveying a strip of perforated film bearing sequential images over a light source with a high-speed shutter. This invention was crucial in the development of cinema, laying the groundwork for the motion picture industry.
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1902 – Cuba gains independence from the United StatesCuba gained formal independence from the United States on May 20, 1902, with the termination of the American military occupation following the Spanish-American War. Tomás Estrada Palma took office as the first President of the Republic of Cuba. This day, however, marked not just the end of American rule but also the beginning of the Platt Amendment era, whereby the U.S. retained the right to intervene in Cuban affairs and control its finances and foreign relations.
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1958The mayor and corporation of High Wycombe were weighed in, in full view of the public to see whether or not they had been getting fat at the taxpayers' expense!
1965The Chief Inspector of Constabularies announced that Britain's police would be armed with tear gas guns and grenades for use against dangerous criminals, but that it would not be used for crowd control.
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On this day 2009 William Windsor (Billy), the goat of the 1st Battalion of the Royal Welsh, retired due to old age. Soldiers from the battalion lined the route from his pen to the trailer as he left the camp for the last time.
* Billy was not regarded as a mascot but a serving lance corporal. His duty was to march at the head of the battalion on ceremonial occasions.
* The tradition of the goat originated in 1775 when a wild goat walked onto the battlefield during the Battle of Bunker Hill in the American Revolutionary War.
* Billy was demoted to fusilier for a three-month period in 2006 after inappropriate behaviour during the Queen's Official Birthday Celebrations, when he failed to keep in step and tried to headbutt a drummer.
….Music 1960: Liverpool's Silver Beetles (spelt with an 'e') embark on a Scottish tour as backing band for singer Johnny Gentle.
1998: Frank Sinatra's funeral is held Beverly Hills' Church of the Good Shepherd following the 82 year old singer's death the previous week.
Radio1985: Radio Martí, part of the Voice of America service, begins transmitting pro-democracy newscasts to Cuba.
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