GOOD MORNING – TODAY IS FRIDAY, May 22, the 142nd day of 2015 with 223 to follow. Sunrise in the Boston area is @ 5:16 and sunset is @ 8:05. The moon is waxing. The morning stars are stars are Neptune Uranus & Saturn. The evening stars are Jupiter, Mars, Mercury & Venus.

ON THIS DAY IN: 1455 – In the opening battle of England’s War of the Roses, the Yorkists defeated King Henry VI’s Lancastrian forces at St. Albans, near London, capturing Henry VI and killing Edmund Beaufort, Duke of Somerset.

1761 – The first life insurance policy in the United States was issued, in Philadelphia.

1819 – The U.S. steamboat Savannah made the first transatlantic crossing.

1843 – A massive wagon train of 1,000 settlers, called the “Great Emigration,” set off down theOregon Trail from Independence, Missouri.

1868 – The “Great Train Robbery” took place in Indiana, as seven members of the Reno gang made off with $98,000.

1902 – Crater Lake National Park was established.

1908 – The Wright brothers registered their flying machine for a U.S. patent.

1939 – Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini signed a “Pact of Steel” forming the Axis powers.

1947 – The Truman Doctrine was enacted, appropriating military and economic aid for Greece and Turkey.
1967 – The children’s program “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” premiered on TV.

1972 – Ceylon became the republic of Sri Lanka.

1979 – Canadians voted in parliamentary elections that put the Progressive Conservative partyin power, ending the 11-year tenure of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.

1990 – After 150 years apart, pro-Western North Yemen and Marxist South Yemen merged to form the Republic of Yemen.

1992 – Johnny Carson hosted his last “Tonight Show,” where he had reigned for nearly 30 years.

2001 – The original manuscript of Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road” was bought at auction for $2,430,000, a world record price.