MOMENTS IN TIME

• On May 21, 1955, Chuck Berry records his hit song "Maybellene." The song rose to No. 5 on the pop charts, one of the first rock 'n' roll songs by an black musician to hit the charts. Berry scored a string of hits throughout the 1950s, including "Johnny B. Goode" in 1958.

• On May 22, 1859, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of master sleuth Sherlock Holmes, is born. Doyle grew weary of writing Holmes, and in "The Final Problem" he killed off Holmes, only to resuscitate him later due to popular demand.

• On May 23, 1934, notorious criminals Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow are shot to death by Texas and Louisiana state police while driving a stolen car near Sailes, La. The Barrow Gang was believed responsible for the deaths of 13 people, including nine police officers.

• On May 24, 1883, after 14 years and 27 deaths during construction, the Brooklyn Bridge opens. The granite foundations of the bridge were built underwater in pressurized chambers. More than a hundred workers suffered from cases of compression sickness, also called the "bends."

• On May 25, 1977, a new sign of political liberalization appears in China when the communist government lifts its decade-old ban on the writings of William Shakespeare, evidence that the Cultural Revolution was over. What the revolution had meant in practice was the banning of any cultural work -- music, literature, film or theater - that did not have the required ideological content.

• On May 26, 1897, the first copies of the classic vampire novel "Dracula," by Irish writer Bram Stoker, appear in London bookshops. Dracula is the story of a vampire who makes his way from Transylvania to England, and preys on innocents there to get the blood he needs to live.

• On May 27, 1941, the German battleship Bismarck sinks in the North Atlantic near France. Three days earlier the British navy engaged the Bismarck in a ferocious battle. The Bismarck sank the battle cruiser Hood and escaped, but was leaking fuel and crippled when British warships finished her off.