Today in history—May 16

1532: Sir Thomas More resigns as Chancellor of England, in hopes that he’ll be allowed to have nothing further to do with King Henry VIII’s proposed divorce.  It doesn’t work.

1605: Italian lawyer Camillo Borghese takes office as Pope Paul V. He will turn out to be a stickler on procedural and jurisdictional issues.

1777: Planter Button Gwinnett of Georgia becomes the first signer of the Declaration of Independence to be killed in a duel.  Partly as a result of his early death, his signature is the most valuable ($150,000+) American autograph.

1866: Congress replaces the old half-dime coins with the new five-cent piece. Six of one are worth have a dozen of the other.

1866: Charles Elmer Hires prepares the first commercial root beer. The roots involved are those of the licorice, sassafras, and sarsaparilla plants.

1868: By one vote, the U.S. Senate fails to convict President Andrew Johnson in his impeachment trial.  Shortly thereafter Johnson will make his defense counsel, William Evarts, Attorney General.

1912: Louis “Studs” Terkel (Chicago Law 1934) is born at New York City.

1929: The first Academy Awards are handed out in the Blossom Room at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. Emil Jannings (actor), Janet Gaynor (actress), Frank Borzage (director), Ben Hecht (screenplay) and Paramount-Lasky’s Wings (best picture) are the big winners.

1955: Debra Winger is born at Cleveland Heights, Illinois. After she’s left temporarily paralyzed and half-blind from an auto accident, she’ll realize what’s really important in her life: Moving to L.A. to become an actress.

1990: Muppets creator James Maury Henson dies at age 53.  Who would have believed you could get rich being a puppeteer?

2003: Mark McCormack (Yale Law 1954), the super-agent and founder of the IMG empire who is widely regarded as “most powerful man in sports,” dies anyway.