May 20

• 

  1570: Cartographer and geographer Abraham Ortelius issues Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, the first modern atlas.

• 

  1806: Economist, civil servant, and philosopher John Stuart Mill born. He will be one of the most influential thinkers in the history of liberalism, and the first Member of Parliament to call for women's suffrage.

• 

  1888: Physicist Winfried Otto Schumann born. He will predict the existence of a series of low-frequency resonances caused by lightning discharges in the atmosphere, now known as Schumann resonances.

• 

  1889: Electrical engineer Nikola Tesla radio technology to intercept communications between math criminals, providing information which will lead to the capture of Baron Zersetzung.

• 

  1891: History of cinema: The first public display of Thomas Edison's prototype kinetoscope.

• 

  1932: Amelia Earhart departs Harbour Grace, Newfoundland, in her Lockheed Vega on her solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic. After a flight lasting 14 hours, 56 minutes, Earhart lands in Northern Ireland, making her the second person (after Charles Lindbergh) to fly nonstop and alone across the Atlantic.