MAY 23 | Birthdays and Events

Notable Birthdays for May 23

Margaret Fuller (1810-1859) - Journalist and first U.S. female war correspondent.

James Eads (1820-1887) - Engineer who designed the Eads Bridge (over the Mississippi River in MO).

Douglas Fairbanks (1883-1939) - The first actor to play Zorro.

Jeralean Talley (1899-2015) - Super-centenarian who was the oldest living American at the time of her death in 2015 (116 years, 25 days).

John Bardeen (1908-1991) - Physicist, electrical engineer and co-inventor of the transistor.

Margaret Wise Brown (1910-1952) - Author of the children's books Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny.

S. Donald Stookey (1915-2014) - Physicist and chemist who invented Corning-Ware.

Edward Norton Lorenz (1917-2008) - Founder of modern chaos theory, a form of mathematics focusing on the behavior of dynamical systems that are highly sensitive to initial conditions. Specifically, the theoretical basis of weather and climate predictability.

Ken Jennings (1974-Still Living) - Game show host for Jeopardy!.

Memorable Events for May 23

1785 - Ben Franklin announces his invention of bifocals.

1788 - South Carolina becomes 8th state to join the Union.

1903 - The first automobile trip across the U.S. leaves San Francisco for New York.

1922 - Walt Disney incorporates his first film company (Laugh-O-Gram Films).

1958 - U.S. schools become the first to use Cliff's Notes.