This Day In History for May 24

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.

1819 - Queen Victoria was born in London.

1830 - the first passenger railroad in the United States began service between Baltimore and Elliott's Mills, Maryland.

1881 - some 200 people died when the Canadian ferry "Princess Victoria" sank near London, Ontario.

1883 - the Brooklyn Bridge, linking Brooklyn and Manhattan, was opened to traffic.

1935 - the first major league baseball game to be played at night took place at Cincinnati's Crosley Field as the Reds beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 2-to-1.

1941 - the German battleship "Bismarck" sank the British dreadnought "Hood" in the North Atlantic.

1962 - astronaut Scott Carpenter became the second American to orbit the Earth as he flew aboard "Aurora Seven."

1976 - Britain and France opened transatlantic Concorde service to Washington.

1977 - in a surprise move, the Kremlin ousted Soviet President Nikolai Podgorny from the Communist Party's ruling Politburo.

1980 - Iran rejected a call by the World Court in The Hague to release the American hostages.