24 May: Separated At Birth: Queen Victoria, Bob Zimmerman

Today is Sunday, May 24, the 144th day of 2009. There are 221 days left in the year. AP oddities. A/V. UPI Almanac. Today's Highlight in History: In 1844, Samuel F.B. Morse transmitted the message, "What hath God wrought" from Washington to Baltimore as he formally opened America's first telegraph line.On this date: In 1819, Queen Victoria was born in London. In 1830, the first passenger railroad in the United States began service between Baltimore and Elliott's Mills, Md. One hundred fifty years ago, in 1859, the song "Ave Maria," featuring a melody by French composer Charles Gounod superimposed on a theme from Bach's "Well-Tempered Clavier," was first performed in Paris by opera singer Marie Caroline Miolan-Carvalho. In 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge, linking Brooklyn and Manhattan, was dedicated by President Chester Alan Arthur and New York Gov. Grover Cleveland, and opened to traffic. In 1935, he first major league baseball game played at night took place at Cincinnati's Crosley Field as the Reds beat the Philadelphia Phillies 2-1.In 1941, the German battleship Bismarck sank the British dreadnought Hood in the North Atlantic. In 1958, United Press International was formed through a merger of the United Press and the International News Service. [Now part of the "Rev. Messiah" Moon's Anti-Cjhrist operations. — Ed.] Fifty years ago, in 1959, former U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles died in Washington, D.C., at age 71. In 1962, astronaut Scott Carpenter became the second American to orbit the Earth as he flew aboard Aurora 7. In 1976, Britain and France opened trans-Atlantic Concorde supersonic transport service to Washington. In 1977, in a surprise move, the Kremlin ousted Soviet President Nikolai Podgorny from the Communist Party's ruling Politburo. In 1980, Iran rejected a call by the World Court in The Hague to release the American hostages. In 1994, four men convicted of bombing New York's World Trade Center in 1993 were each sentenced to 240 years in prison. [Holy Crap!! We haven't been holding them in the U. S. for the past 15 yrs. have we? Please tell us they're locked away in the cone of a volcano on an uninhabited South Seas island. Please! — Ed.] In 1995, "Hollywood Madam" Heidi Fleiss was sentenced to three years in prison and fined $1,500 for running a call girl ring that catered to the rich and famous, & former British Prime Minister Harold Wilson died at age 79. Ten years ago: A sharply divided Supreme Court ruled, 5-4, that schools can be sued when officials fail to stop students from sexually harassing each other. The Supreme Court ruled that police violate people's privacy rights when they bring TV camera crews or other journalists into homes during arrests or searches. Mike Tyson walked out of a Rockville, Md., jail after serving 3 1/2 months behind bars for assaulting two motorists after a fender-bender.

In 2001, 23 people died when the floor of a Jerusalem wedding hall collapsed beneath dancing guests in a horrifying scene captured on video. Five years ago: President George W. Bush sought to reassure Americans in a prime-time address that he had a plan to pull Iraq out of the violence and chaos that had marked the year since he declared an end to major combat. A federal court in Portland, Ore., threw out the case brought against Brandon Mayfield, an American lawyer once linked to the Madrid train bombings, and the FBI apologized for a fingerprint-identification error that led to his arrest. Severe storms flooded villages in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, resulting in an estimated 3,000 deaths. One year ago: British actor Rob Knox, 18, who had completed filming a minor role in "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," was stabbed to death during a brawl in London. (His attacker, Karl Bishop, was later sentenced to life in prison.) Comedy performer and director Dick Martin of TV's "Laugh-In" fame died in Santa Monica, Calif., at age 86. Today's Birthdays: Comedian Tommy Chong is 71. Singer Bob Dylan is 68. Actor Gary Burghoff is 66. Singer Patti LaBelle is 65. Actress Priscilla Presley is 64. [Actress? — Ed.] Country singer Mike Reid is 62. Actor Jim Broadbent is 59. Actor Alfred Molina is 56. Singer Rosanne Cash is 54. Actress Kristin Scott Thomas is 49. Rock musician Jimmy Ashhurst (Buckcherry) is 46. Rock musician Vivian Trimble is 46. Actor John C. Reilly is 44. Actor Eric Close is 42. Rapper-recording executive Heavy D is 42. Rock musician Rich Robinson (Black Crowes) is 40. Actor Bryan Greenburg is 31. Houston Rockets star Tracy McGrady is 30. Thought for Today: "It is the weakness and danger of republics, that the vices as well as virtues of the people are represented in their legislation." — Helen Maria Hunt Jackson, American author (1830-1885). Copyright ©2009 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reversed.