Moments in Time – May 16, 2018

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  • On May 30, 1593, playwright Christopher Marlowe, 29, is killed in a tavern brawl. Marlowe, a compatriot of Shakespeare, was nearly denied his master’s degree from Cambridge, until advisers to Queen Elizabeth intervened. Marlowe had been a spy for the Queen.
  • On May 29, 1922, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that organized baseball does not violate antitrust laws as alleged by the Baltimore franchise of the defunct Federal League in 1915. The high court held that organized baseball is not a business, but a sport.
  • On May 28, 1937, Volkswagen is founded in Wolfsburg, Germany. Adolf Hitler’s pet project was the mass production of an affordable vehicle that could sell for less than 1,000 Reich marks (about $140 at the time). The “People’s Car” was based on Austrian automotive engineer Ferdinand Porsche’s design.
  • On June 3, 1956, authorities in Santa Cruz, California, announce a total ban on rock and roll at public gatherings, calling the music “detrimental to both the health and morals of our youth.” A crowded dance party attended by 200 teenagers the previous evening led to the decision.
  • On June 2, 1967, Capt. Howard Levy, 30, a dermatologist, is convicted by a court-martial of disobeying orders for refusing to instruct Green Beret medics on skin disease, calling it a “tool of political persuasion.” Levy was sentenced to three years at hard labor.
  • On June 1, 1990, President George H.W. Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev sign a historic agreement to end production of chemical weapons and begin the destruction of both nations’ reserves.
  • On May 31, 2005, W. Mark Felt’s family ends 30 years of speculation, identifying the former FBI assistant director as “Deep Throat,” the secret source who helped unravel the Watergate scandal that brought down President Richard Nixon.

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