1768
May 20, Dolley Madison, first lady of President James Madison, was born. She was famous as a Washington hostess while her husband was secretary of state and president.

1851
May 20, Rose Hawthorne Lathrop, US nun, daughter of Nathaniel Hawthorne, was born.

1932
May 20, Amelia Earhart took off from Newfoundland to become the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. Because of weather and equipment problems, Earhart set down in Northern Ireland after 13 ½ hours instead of her intended destination, France.

1988
May 20, 30-year-old Laurie Dann walked into a Winnetka, Ill., elementary school classroom, where she shot to death 8-year-old Nicholas Corwin and wounded several other children. After wounding a young man at his home, Dann took her own life.

1994
May 20, Tributes poured in following the death of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. President Clinton said of the former first lady: "She captivated our nation and the world with her intelligence, her elegance and her grace."

2001
May 20, In Iran a woman was stoned to death after her conviction for acting in pornographic films was upheld by the Supreme Court.

2009
May 20, British actress Lucy Gordon (28), an up-and-coming talent who played a role in Spider-Man 3 and will soon appear as Jane Birkin in a Serge Gainsbourg biopic, killed herself in Paris.

2013
May 20, In New York Brooklyn assemblyman Vito Lopez resigned following allegations that he had groped or harassed at least 8 young female staffers.

2014
May 20, Santa Ana, Ca., police arrested Isidro Garcia (41) of Bell Gardens for kidnapping a girl (15) in 2004. He force her to marry him and have his child in a hostage relationship for 10 years.