On This Day, May 23: Accordion receives patent
On this date in history:
In 1701, Capt. William Kidd was hanged in London for piracy and murder.
In 1829, Cyrill Demian was granted a patent for his musical instrument called the accordion.
In 1900, U.S. Army Sgt. William H. Carney became the first African American to be awarded the Medal of Honor. He was cited for his efforts during the Civil War battle of Fort Wagner, S.C., in June 1863.
In 1934, Clyde Barrow and his cigar-smoking sweetheart, Bonnie Parker, who lived by violence, died by violence after being ambushed by police in Bienville Parish, La.
File Photo courtesy of the FBI
In 1939, the U.S. Navy submarine Squalus went down off New Hampshire in 240 feet of water. Twenty-six men died. Thirty-three were saved in a daring rescue with a diving bell. The submarine was raised in September 1939 and recommissioned the USS Sailfish.
In 1945, Heinrich Himmler, the former Gestapo chief, killed himself in a British military prison in Luneburg, Germany.
In 1960, Israeli agents captured Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in Argentina and spirited him to Israel. He was tried, convicted and hanged.
In 1963, the Alabama Supreme Court ousted Birmingham Mayor Art Hanes and two city commissioners, including segregationist Police Commissioner Eugene “Bull” Conner.
In 1991, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld federal regulations prohibiting federally funded women’s clinics from discussing or advising abortion with patients.
In 1992, President George H.W. Bush instituted a new Haitian refugee policy, permitting the Coast Guard to immediately return U.S.-bound boat people to their troubled homeland.
File Photo by Martin Jeong/UPI
In 2009, police said South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun, 62, linked to a corruption investigation, died in a leap from a cliff near his home after leaving a suicide note.
In 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling that California’s overcrowded prisons violated the Eighth Amendment banning “cruel and unusual punishment.”
In 2013, the Boy Scouts of America ended a century-old ban on openly gay scouts but still prohibited gay adult scout leaders.
In 2018, the National Football League approved a new policy requiring all players to stand for the national anthem or remain in the locker room. Under the new rule, the league planned to fine teams if players kneel during the anthem.
In 2023, the Illinois attorney general announced that an investigation found that 451 Catholic priests in the state had allegedly abused nearly 2,000 children since 1950.
Pool photo by Samuel Corum/UPI
