Events in History
- 1035 Boudouin V van Rijsel becomes earl of Flanders
Event of Interest
1431 Hundred Years' War: 19 year old Joan of Arc is burned at the stake by an English-dominated tribunal in Rouen, France
Joan of Arc
- 1434 The Battle of Lipany (also called the Battle of Česky Brod), ending Taborites influence
Royal Coronation
1445 Coronation as Margaret of Anjou as Queen Consort of England at Westminster Abbey
Margaret of Anjou
Event of Interest
1498 Christopher Columbus departs with 6 ships for 3rd trip to America
Christopher Columbus
Event of Interest
1510 Portuguese forces under Afonso de Albuquerque abandon Goa after its former ruler Yusuf Adil Shah, the Muslim King of Bijapur reconquers the city
Afonso de Albuquerque
Hernando de Soto's Expedition lands in Florida
1539 Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto's expedition of 10 ships and 700 men lands in Florida
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- 1564 (-31st) The first battle of Öland (between the islands of Gotland and Öland): Lübeck & Denmark beat Sweden
- 1574 Henry III follows brother Charles IX as king of France
- 1574 Sea battle at Lillo Belgium (Adolf Van Haemstede vs Louis de Boisot)
- 1584 Earl Adolf of Nieuwenaar and Meurs becomes viceroy of Gelderland
- 1591 Spanish troops in Zutphen surrender to Dutch and English forces under Maurice of Nassau
- 1626 An explosion at the Wanggongchang Gunpowder Factory in Beijing destroys part of the city and kills 20,000 people
- 1631 The Treaty of Fontainebleau signed between Maximilian I, Elector of Bavaria, and the Kingdom of France, establishing a secret alliance between them during the Thirty Years' War.
- 1635 The Peace of Prague signed between the Habsburg Emperor Ferdinand II and the Electorate of Saxony (representing Protestant states of the Holy Roman Empire). It effectively ended the civil war aspect of the Thirty Years' War
Event of Interest
1806 Future US President Andrew Jackson kills Charles Dickinson in a duel after Dickinson accused Jackson's wife of bigamy
Andrew Jackson
Napoléon Bonaparte
- 1814 Napoleonic Wars: War of the Sixth Coalition - the Treaty of Paris (1814) is signed returning French borders to their 1792 extent.
- 1821 James Boyd patents Rubber Fire Hose
- 1822 George Wilson and Joe LaRoche betray a planned slave revolt organized by Denmark Vesey in Charleston, South Carolina, confirming an earlier warning from Peter Prioleau. 35 Black people are later hanged. (date is approximate)
- 1832 Evariste Galois give his theory on free assembly (dies in duel May 31)
- 1832 The Rideau Canal in eastern Ontario is opened.
Assassination Attempt
1842 John Francis attempts to assassinate Queen Victoria
Queen Victoria
- 1848 Second Battle at Gioto: Sardinia-Piemonte beats Austrians
- 1848 William G Young patents ice cream freezer
- 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo between US and Mexico comes into force, giving New Mexico, California and parts of Nevada, Utah, Arizona and Colorado to the US in return for $15 million
- 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act repeals Missouri Compromise creating the territories of Kansas and Nebraska
- 1858 Hudson's Bay Company's rights to Vancouver Island revoked
- 1862 Battle of Booneville MS - captured Gen Beauregard evacuates Corinth
- 1864 Battle of Bethesda Church [Totopotomoy Creek], cavalry battle fought in Hanover County, Virginia, inconclusive result (US Civil War)
- 1868 "Decoration Day", later called Memorial Day is first observed in Northern US states
- 1876 Ottoman sultan Abd-ul-Aziz is deposed and succeeded by his nephew Murat V.
- 1879 92°F highest temperature ever recorded in Cleveland in May
- 1879 Gilmore Garden (NYC) renamed Madison Square Garden
- 1879 An F4 tornado strikes Irving, Kansas, killing 18 and injuring 60.
- 1883 Stampede caused by a rumor that the Brooklyn Bridge was going to collapse kills 12
- 1890 1st Dodger home run (Dave Foutz)
- 1901 Hall of Fame for Great American on NYU campus dedicated
- 1902 Spanish King Alfonso XII, who was elected as a constitutional monarch, suspends the Cortes, Spain's parliament
- 1904 Frank Chance gets hit by pitch 5 times in a doubleheader
- 1904 The Japanese Army capture the City of Dairen after landing troops along the south coast of Manchuria
Event of Interest
1906 Hersheypark, founded by Milton S. Hershey for the exclusive use of his employees, is opened
Milton S. Hershey
- 1908 1st federal workmen's compensation law approved
- 1908 Aldrich Vineland Currency Act forerunner to Federal Reserve System
- 1908 Paris advocate E Archdeacon is 1st passenger in a airplane
- 1908 US Assay Office in Salt Lake City, Utah authorized
- 1909 Reuben Siegel laid cornerstone of 1st home in Tel-Aviv
- 1912 US Marines sent to Nicaragua
- 1913 Treaty of London signed by the Great Powers, the Ottoman Empire and the victorious Balkan League (Serbia, Greece, Kingdom of Bulgaria, and Montenegro) bringing an end to the First Balkan War
- 1913 John McGraw joins Fred Clarke, Cap Anson, Frank Selee, & Connie Mack as managers who have won 1,000 games
- 1914 The new and then largest Cunard ocean liner RMS Aquitania, 45,647 tons, sets sails on her maiden voyage from Liverpool, England to New York City.
- 1921 Lord Dunsany's "If" premieres in London
- 1921 Memorial to Capt Eddie Grant, killed in WW I, unveiled at Polo Grounds
- 1921 Salzburg, Austria, votes to join Germany
- 1922 Latvia & Vatican sign accord
Event of Interest
1922 Completed Lincoln Memorial dedicated by US Chief Justice William H. Taft in front of 50,000
Henry Bacon
- 1924 Socialist Matteotti falls in Italian parliament by fascists
- 1925 British mariners shoot on demonstrators
- 1925 Peter DePaolo became 1st man to average over 100 mph at Indy
- 1925 Rogers Hornsby replaces Branch Rickey as manager of Cardinals
- 1925 In China protests erupt against the Great Powers infringing on Chinese sovereignty.
- 1932 Yankees dedicate a plaque to Miller Huggins
- 1933 Patent on invisible glass installation
- 1937 Memorial Day Massacre: Chicago Police Department shoot and kill 10 unarmed demonstrators during the "Little Steel Strike" in the United States
- 1941 1st anti semitic measures in Serbia
- 1941 British Army enters Baghdad, chasing pro-German coup government
- 1942 1,047 bombers bomb Cologne in RAF's raid of WW II
Heinrich Himmler
Event of Interest
1943 French general Charles de Gaulle arrives in Algiers
Charles de Gaulle
- 1943 US troops reconquer Attu Aleutians
- 1944 Transport number 75 departs with French Jews to Nazi Germany
- 1946 United flight 521 crashes on takeoff at LaGuardia Airport (NY) 42 die
- 1948 A dike along the flooding Columbia River breaks, obliterating Vanport, Oregon within minutes. Fifteen people die and tens of thousands are left homeless.
- 1949 East German constitution approved
- 1949 NPS/VHP win 1st general election in Suriname
- 1952 Darius Milhaud's "West Point Suite" premieres
- 1954 Emile Zatopek runs world record 5K (13:57.2)
- 1954 Hector Villa-Lobos' "Odisseia de Uma Raca" premieres
- 1955 Said el-Mufti forms Jordan government
- 1955 Tunisia begins domestic self governing
- 1956 Bus boycott begins in Tallahassee Florida
- 1956 US performs nuclear test at Enwetak (atmospheric tests)
- 1958 US performs nuclear test at Enwetak (atmospheric tests)
- 1958 Unidentified soldiers killed in WW II & Korean War buried in Arlington
- 1959 Iraq withdraws from the Baghdad Pact (Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Turkey, and the United Kingdom)
- 1959 President Luis Somoza Debayle ends emergency crisis in Nicaragua
- 1959 President Stroessner disbands Paraguay's parliament
- 1959 The Auckland Harbour Bridge is officially opened in Auckland, New Zealand.
Birthdays in History
- 1010 Emperor Renzong of China, Emperor of the Song dynasty (d. 1063)
Alexander Nevsky
1220 Alexander Nevsky, Prince of Novgorod and Grand Prince of Vladimir, considered the key figure in medieval Rus (1252-63), born in Pereslavl-Zalessky, Vladimir-Suzdal (now Russia) (d. 1263)
Alexander Nevsky
- 1423 Georg von Purbach, Austrian mathematician and astronomer (best known for his streamlined presentation of Ptolemaic astronomy in the Theoricae Novae Planetarum), born in Peuerbach, Austria (d. 1461)
- 1623 Wallerant Vaillant, French painter and engraver, born in Lille, France (d. 1677)
- 1623 John Egerton, 2nd Earl of Bridgewater, English politician (d. 1686)
- 1653 Claudia Felicitas of Austria, Empress consort of Germany, born in Florence, Tuscany (d. 1676)
- 1664 Giulio Alberoni, Spanish-Italian minister and cardinal, born in Piacenza, duchy of Parma (d. 1752)
- 1718 Wills Hill, 1st Marquess of Downshire, British politician, born in Fairford, Gloucestershire (d. 1793)
- 1719 Roger Newdigate, British politician (sat in the House of Commons 1742-80), born in Arbury, Warwickshire (d. 1806)
Henry Addington
1757 Henry Addington, 1st Viscount Sidmouth, British Prime Minister (Tory: 1801-04), born in London (d. 1844)
Henry Addington
- 1800 Karl Wilhelm Feuerbach, German mathematician (Position of Feuerbach), born in Jena, Saxe-Weimar, Holy Roman Empire (d. 1834)
- 1812 John Alexander McClernand, American politician and Major General (Union Army), born in Breckinridge County, Kentucky (d. 1900)
- 1814 Eugène Charles Catalan, French-Belgian mathematician (worked on continued fractions, descriptive geometry, number theory and combinatorics), born in Bruges, Belgium (d. 1894)
- 1819 William McMurdo, British army officer (d. 1894)
- 1820 Pierre-Joseph-Olivier Chauveau, French Canadian politician (1st Premier of Quebec), born in Charlesbourg, Quebec (d. 1890)
- 1829 Levin Goldschmidt, German business law expert, born in Gdańsk, Poland (d. 1897)
- 1830 Edward Winslow Hinks, American Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Bucksport, Maine (d. 1894)
- 1832 George Doherty Johnston, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army), born in Hillsborough, North Carolina (d. 1910)
- 1835 Alfred Austin, English poet laureate of England (Garden), born in Headingley, Yorkshire, England (d. 1913)
- 1845 Amadeus/Amadeo I, duke of Aosta and King of Spain (1870-73), born in Turin, Italy (d. 1890)
- 1846 Peter Carl Fabergé, Russian goldsmith and jeweler (famous for Fabergé eggs), born in Saint Petersburg, Russia (d. 1920)
- 1847 Alice Stopford Green, Irish historian and proponent of Irish independence, born in Kells, Ireland (d. 1929)
- 1859 Pierre Janet, French psychologist and neurologist (contributed to the modern concept of mental and emotional disorders involving anxiety, phobias, and other abnormal behaviour), born in Paris (d. 1947)
- 1867 Arthur Vining Davis, American industrialist and CEO (Alcoa-1910-57), born in Sharon, Massachusetts (d. 1962)
- 1875 Giovanni Gentile, Italian philosopher (The Doctrine of Fascism), born in Castelvetrano, Italy (d. 1944)
- 1881 Georg von Küchler, German field marshal and WWII war criminal, born in Schloss Philippsruh, German Empire (d. 1968)
- 1886 Randolph Bourne, American writer (Education and Living), born in Bloomfield, New Jersey (d. 1918)
- 1887 Alexander Archipenko, Ukrainian-American sculptor and lithographer, born in Kyiv, Russian Empire (d. 1964)
- 1888 James A Farley, postmaster general (1932-38)
- 1891 Iman J van den Bosch, Belgian resistance fighter
- 1892 Fernando Amorsolo, Filipino painter (d. 1972)
- 1894 Hubertus J van Mook, Dutch minister of Colonies (1942-45)
- 1901 Cornelia Otis Skinner, Chic, writer (When Our Hearts Were Young & Gay)
- 1902 Seton Howard Frederick Lloyd, English Archaeologist (Arzawa civilization, Turkey)
- 1903 Countee Cullen, African American poet of the Harlem Renaissance (Black Christ & Other Poems), born in Baltimore, Maryland
- 1903 Ray Howard-Jones, artist
- 1904 Ernesto de la Guardia Jr, President of Panama (1956-60)
- 1906 Bruno Gröning, German faith healer (d. 1959)
- 1907 Elly Beinhorn, German pilot (d. 2007)
- 1907 Germaine Tillion, French anthropologist, member of French Resistance (d. 2008)
- 1912 Alexander Langsdorf, physicist
- 1912 Joseph Stein, American dramatist and playwright (Fiddler on the Roof), born in NYC, New York (d. 2010)
- 1912 Julian Gustave Symons, writer
- 1915 Jerome Bert Weisner, military scientist/disarmer
- 1916 Joseph W Kennedy, scientist (1 of 4 discoverers of plutonium)
- 1918 Guadalupe "Pita" Amor, Mexican poet (d. 2000)
- 1918 Bob Evans, American restaurateur (d. 2007)
- 1919 René Barrientos, President of Bolivia (d. 1969)
- 1922 Hal Clement [Harry Clement Stubbs], US sci-fi author (Needle, Iceworld), born in Somerville, Massachusetts
- 1925 Eddy Bruma, Suriname politician
- 1925 Gerard John Toorenaar, political commissar in Amsterdam (1975-79)
- 1926 Christine Jorgensen, pioneer transsexual (born George William Jorgensen, Jr)
- 1926 James Whitman McLamore, businessman
- 1927 Evelyn Wesler Zemel, American author (American Glass Animals)
- 1928 John Keith Wright, English economist, Assistant Secretary of State (1971-84)
- 1928 Agnès Varda, Belgium-born French director (Vagabond), born in Ixelles, Belgium (d. 2019)
- 1928 Pro Hart, Australian artist (d. 2006)
- 1930 Mark Birley, British nightclub owner (d. 2007)
- 1930 Robert Ryman, American painter
Alexey Leonov
1934 Alexei Leonov, Russian cosmonaut (Voskhod 2, first person to walk in space), born in Listvyanka, Soviet Union (d. 2019)
Alexey Leonov
- 1937 Arthur C. Jacobs, Scottish poet, born in Glasgow (d. 1994)
- 1938 Wilfried de Pree, Dutch politician and theologian (PvdA)/theologist
- 1942 Dan Miller, (Rep-R-Florida)
- 1944 Lenny Davidson, rocker (Dave Clark 5-Glad All Over), born in London, England
- 1946 Candy Lightner, American political activist/founder (MADD), born in Pasadena, California
- 1950 Bertrand Delanoë, French politician
- 1951 Fernando Lugo, Paraguayan politician
Brian Kobilka
1955 Brian Kobilka, American Nobel Prize winning chemistry professor (G protein-coupled receptors), born in Little Falls, Minnesota
Brian Kobilka
- 1956 Jonathan Idema, Poughkeepsie, New York, torturer, kidnapper and con artist (d. 2012)
- 1956 David-Maria Sassoli, Italian politician and journalist, European President (2019-), born in Florence, Italy
- 1957 Allison Roe, marathoner (NYC-1981), born in Auckland, New Zealand
- 1957 Hervé Leroux, French fashion designer and founder of Hervé Léger fashion house, born in Bapaume, France (d. 2017)
- 1958 Michael E Lopez-Alegria, Lt Cmdr/astro (STS 73, sk 92), born in Madrid, Spain
- 1958 Steve Israel, American politician, member of the United States House of Representatives (D-New York)
- 1959 Frank Vanhecke, Belgian politician, born in Bruges, Belgium
- 1959 Claudia Alexander, Canadian-born American NASA Scientist (led Galileo mission to Jupiter), born in Vancouver, British Columbia (d. 2015)
- 1962 Kevin Eastman, American comic book creator
- 1963 Helen Patricia Sharman, Great Britain, cosmonaut (Soyuz TM-12)
- 1968 Zacarias Moussaoui, French citizen found guilty relating to September 11, 2001 attacks
- 1968 Kelley Armstrong, Canadian novelist (Women of the Otherworld), born in Sudbury, Ontario
- 1970 Ness Wadia, Indian industrialist
- 1972 Soichiro Hoshi, Japanese seiyuu
- 1975 Marissa Mayer, American technology executive (CEO of Yahoo, designed Google home page), born in Wausau, Wisconsin
- 1978 Lyoto Machida, Brazilian mixed martial artist
- 1984 Matt Maguire, Australian rules footballer
- 1986 Ashley Slaney, daughter of Olympians Mary Decker & Richard Slaney
Weddings in History
Wedding of Interest
1536 English King Henry VIII marries Jane Seymour, his 3rd wife
Henry VIII
Wedding of Interest
1797 Abolitionist William Wilberforce (37) weds Barbara Spooner (25) at St Swithins Church in Walcot, Bath
William Wilberforce
Deaths in History
- 727 Hubertus, bishop of Tongeren-Maastricht/saint, dies at about 72
- 1035 Boudouin IV, count of Flanders (988-1035), dies
- 1159 Wladislaus II the Exile of Poland (b. 1105)
- 1252 Ferdinand III the holy, King of Castile/Leon, dies
- 1416 Jerome of Prague, Czech radical Christian teacher burned at the stake for heresy by church Council of Constance
Joan of Arc
1431 Joan of Arc, Roman Catholic Saint and national heroine of France (legendary date), executed and burnt at the stake at 19
Joan of Arc
- 1434 Prokop the Great, Hussite general
- 1469 Lope de Barrientos, Spanish bishop
- 1574 Charles IX, King of France (1560-74), dies at 23
- 1576 Harada Naomasa, Japanese retainer and samurai
- 1593 Christopher Marlowe, English dramatist and poet (Tamburlaine the Great), stabbed to death in a pub brawl in Deptford at about 29
- 1640 Andre Duchesne, French historian/genealogy, dies
- 1640 Peter Paul Rubens, Flemish Baroque painter, dies at 62
- 1696 Henry Capell, 1st Baron Capell, English politician and First Lord of the British Admiralty, dies at 58
- 1718 Arnold Joost van Keppel, earl of Albemarle/general, dies at about 48
- 1718 Bernard Nieuwentyt, physician/theologist, dies at 63
- 1730 Arabella Churchill, mistress of James II of England, sister of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough (b. 1648)
Alexander Pope
1744 Alexander Pope, English poet (The Rape of the Lock), dies at 56
Alexander Pope
- 1770 François Boucher, French painter (b. 1703)
Voltaire
1778 Voltaire [Francois-Marie Arouet], French writer, philosopher and playwright (Candide), dies at 83
Voltaire
- 1809 Johan B Scheffer, portrait painter, dies at about 43
- 1840 Dominique J de Eerens, gov-gen of Dutch-Indies, dies at 59
- 1864 James Barbour Terrill, US attorney/Confederate brigadier general, dies at 26
- 1865 William Clarke Quantrill, criminal/Confederate bushwhacker, dies at 27
- 1901 Victor D'Hondt, Belgian mathematician, dies at 60
- 1911 Milton Bradley, American business magnate and game manufacturer, dies at 74
Wilbur Wright
1912 Wilbur Wright, US aviation pioneer, dies at 45
Wilbur Wright
John Singleton Mosby
1916 John S. Mosby, Confederate army cavalry battalion commander in the American Civil War, dies at 82
John Singleton Mosby
- 1918 Georgy Valentinovich Plekhanov, Russian revolutionary theorist, dies at 61
- 1922 David Mendes Chumaceiro, Curacaos poet (Adelfas), dies at 45
- 1925 Arthur Moeller van den Bruck, German historian (The Third Reich), dies at 49
- 1926 Vladimir Steklov, Russian physicist (b. 1864)
- 1934 Tōgō Heihachirō, Imperial Japanese Navy admiral and one of Japan's greatest naval heroes, dies at 86
- 1938 Raden Soetomo, Indonesian freedom fighter, dies at 49
- 1940 Y de Smit-Rog, oldest citizen of Netherlands, dies at 104
- 1941 Prajadhipok, Rama VII, last absolute king of Siam (1925–35), dies at 47
- 1945 Irma Laplasse, Flemish farmer/nazi collaborator, executed
- 1946 Louis Slotin, Canadian Physicist and Chemist at Los Alamos, dies of radiation poisoning at 35 (b. 1910)
- 1947 Georg von Trapp, Austrian WWI submarine commander and inspiration for "The Sound of Music" character, dies at 67
- 1951 Hermann Broch, Austrian novelist (Sleepwalkers, Bewitchment), dies at 64
- 1954 Ahmad Amin, Egyptian historian and author (My Life), dies at 67
- 1957 Toivo R Pekkanen, Finnish writer (Black Ecstasy), dies
- 1958 Jozef van Mierlo, Belgian Jesuit and literary (Hadewych), dies at 79
Boris Pasternak
1960 Boris Pasternak, Russian poet and novelist (Doctor Zhivago) (Nobel Prize 1958), dies at 70
Boris Pasternak
- 1961 Rafael Trujillo [Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina], Dominican politician, soldier and dictator of the Dominican Republic (1930-61), assassinated at 69
Leó Szilárd
1964 Leo Szilard, Hungarian-German-American nuclear physicist (Manhattan Project) and peace activist, dies at 66
Leó Szilárd
- 1975 Tatsuo Shimabuku, Japanese martial artist and founder of Isshinryu Karate, dies at 66
- 1977 Claire Goll, German-French writer, dies at 86
- 1981 Ziaur Rahmen, President of Bangladesh, is assassinated
- 1983 Alfred M Gruenther, US general/NATO-commander (1953-56), dies at 84
- 1987 Frank Carlson, (Gov/Rep/Sen-R-Ks), dies at 94
- 1989 Claude Pepper, American politician (Rep-D-FL, 1963-89), dies at 88
- 1992 Karl Carstens, German politician (President of the Federal Republic of Germany 1979-84), dies at 77
- 1994 Ezra Taft Benson, 13th President of Mormon Church and US Secretary of Agriculture, dies at 94
- 1994 Jean Gattegno, French translator and scholar, dies at 58
- 1994 Juan Carlos Onetti, Uruguayan novelist (La vida breve), dies at 85
- 1994 Marcel Bich, Italian/French baron/pen manufacturer (Bic), dies at 79
- 1995 Philip Owen A Sherrard, scholar theologian poet/translator, dies at 72
- 1995 Thomas Dorrington Tomlinson, British national park warden, dies at 87
- 1995 Lofty England, English automotive engineer and race team manager (b.1911)
- 1996 John Cameron, Scottish judge, dies at 96
- 1996 Leon-Etienne Duval, French prelate and cardinal of the Catholic Church in Algeria, dies at 92
- 2004 Andrew Cavendish, Duke of Devonshire, English aristocrat (Chatsworth) and politician, married Deborah Mitford, dies at 84
- 2005 Tomasz Pacyński, Polish writer (b. 1958)
- 2006 David Lloyd, New Zealand biologist (b. 1938)
- 2006 Marius van Amelsvoort, Dutch politician (CDA), dies at 75
- 2008 Lorenzo Odone, American medical figure (b. 1978)
- 2009 Torsten Andersson, Swedish painter (b. 1926)
- 2010 Duff Roblin, Canadian politician (b. 1917).
- 2011 Rosalyn Yalow, American medical physicist (Nobel 1977), dies at 89
- 2012 Andrew Huxley, British physiologist and Nobel laureate, dies at 94
- 2015 Joseph [Beau] Biden III, American politician and son of Vice President Joe Biden, dies of cancer at 47
- 2019 Thad Cochran, American politician (U.S. Senator from Mississippi), dies at 81