By The Associated Press

Today in History

Today is Friday, May 24, the 144th day of 2019. There are 221 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On May 24, 1994, four Islamic fundamentalists convicted of bombing New York’s World Trade Center in 1993 were each sentenced to 240 years in prison.

On this date:

In 1775, John Hancock was unanimously elected President of the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, succeeding Peyton Randolph.

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.

In 1937, in a set of rulings, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Social Security Act of 1935.

In 1941, the German battleship Bismarck sank the British battle cruiser HMS Hood in the North Atlantic, killing all but three of the 1,418 men on board.

In 1962, astronaut Scott Carpenter became the second American to orbit the Earth as he flew aboard Aurora 7.

In 1968, the Rolling Stones single “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” was released in the United Kingdom by Decca Records.

In 1974, American jazz composer and bandleader Duke Ellington, 75, died in New York.