Moments in Time – May 3, 2023

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• On May 20, 1609, Shakespeare’s sonnets were first printed in London by “procurer of manuscripts” and publisher Thomas Thorpe. While it is unclear how he acquired the manuscript, it may have been an illegal copy, and was apparently issued without the Bard’s permission, causing some damage to Thorpe’s reputation.
• On May 17, 1861, the first color photo, of a tartan ribbon, was taken by Thomas Sutton and Scottish mathematical physicist James Clerk Maxwell, by photographing it three times through red, blue and yellow filters before combining the images into a single color composite.
• On May 21, 1881, former schoolteacher, patent clerk and later pioneering nurse Clarissa Harlowe Barton, better known as Clara Barton, founded the American Red Cross. She served as its president for 23 years before retiring in 1904 at the age of 83. She was posthumously inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 1973.
• On May 16, 1947, singer Billie Holiday was arrested at her New York apartment on the charge of narcotics possession. When it came time to appear in court, her attorney advised her to plead guilty, thinking she’d likely be placed on probation and taken to a hospital for addiction treatment. She was instead sentenced to a year and a day in prison.
• On May 18, 1974, India conducted its first successful nuclear bomb test. The mission’s code name was “Smiling Buddha.” The bomb was detonated on the army base Pokhran Test Range under the supervision of several key Indian generals.
• On May 15, 1990, the “Portrait of Dr. Gachet” by Vincent van Gogh was sold for $82.5 million in just three minutes, becoming the most expensive painting ever sold at an auction. The artist had lived with Gachet following a spell in an asylum, and Gachet cared for van Gogh during the last months of his life.
• On May 19, 1996, the Space Shuttle Endeavour launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on its 11th mission. In 10 days and 40 minutes, the shuttle completed 161 revolutions and covered a total distance of more than 4 million miles before landing.

© 2023 King Features Synd., Inc.