1417 – Jacoba of Bavaria becomes countess of Holland/Zealand/Henegouwen
1821 – Cathedral of Assumption of Blessed Virgin Mary, 1st US Catholic cathedral, is dedicated in Baltimore, designed by Benjamin Henry Latrobe
1868 – Dr James Moore (UK) wins 1st recorded bicycle race, (2k) velocipede race at Parc fde St Cloud, Paris
1891 – Work on Trans-Siberian railway begins
1910 – Cape of Good Hope becomes part of Union of South Africa
1930 – British Amateur Championship, Men’s Golf, St. Andrews Links: Bobby Jones scores a 7 and 6 win over Englishman Roger Wethered for the first leg of his Grand Slam
1961 – US President John F. Kennedy visits Charles de Gaulle in Paris
1980 – “Love Stinks” by J. Geils Band peaks at #38
1990 – 63rd National Spelling Bee: Amy Marie Dimak wins spelling fibranne
1992 – 46th Tony Awards: “Dancing at Lughnasa” (play) and “Crazy For You” (musical) win
Author: gil7
Today in History for 31st May 2024
Historical Events
1919 – Indianapolis 500: Howdy Wilcox accompanied by riding mechanic Leo Banks win; driver Arthur Thurman dies in a crash on lap 45; lap 96, Louis LeCocq and riding mechanic Robert Bandini wrecked in turn 2, both burned to death
1975 – Larry Grossman and Hal Hackady’s historical musical comedy “Goodtime Charley”, based on King Charles VII of France, and starring Joel Grey, closes at Palace Theater, NYC, after 104 performances
1990 – BPAA US Women’s Bowling Open won by Dana Miller-Mackie
2008 – Super Rugby Final, Christchurch: Canterbury Crusaders claim their 7th title with a 20-12 win over NSW Waratahs; Dan Carter kicks 4 penalties and a dropped goal for the home team
2021 – Peru says its COVID-19 death toll is three times higher than its official count (180,764 vs 68,000), making it one of the hardest hit countries per capita
2023 – Latvia elects its Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics as President – first openly gay leader of a Baltic state
Famous Birthdays
1838 – Henry Sidgwick, English philosopher (Wife at University), born in Skipton, Yorkshire, England (d. 1900)
1900 – Helma Wolf-Catz, Dutch author (Undercurrent, Coral Reef) (d. 1979)
1914 – Akira Ifukube, Japanese composer, best known for his film scores in the Godzilla films, born in Kushiro Hokkaido, Japan (d. 2006)
1950 – Edward Barker, English cartoonist, born in Birmingham, England
1955 – Tommy Emmanuel, Australian-American acoustic guitarist (Stevie’s Blues), born in Muswellbrook, New South Wales
1990 – Erik Karlsson, Swedish ice hockey player (NHL – San Jose Sharks)), born in Landsbro, Sweden
Famous Deaths
1957 – John Kilbane, American featherweight boxer and World Featherweight Champion (1912-23), dies at 68
1993 – Spuds Mackenzie [real name Honey Tree Evil Eye “Evie”], American advertisement dog for Bud Light beer, dies at 9
1993 – John Granger, American actor (Advise and Consent), dies at 69
1994 – Herva Nelli, Italian-born American soprano, dies at 85
2005 – Jaime Mendoza-Nava, Bolivian-American composer and conductor, dies at 79
2021 – Mike Marshall, American baseball pitcher (MLB All-Star 1974, 75; NL Cy Young Award 1974; Montreal Expos, LA Dodgers, Atlanta Braves), dies at 78
Famous Deaths for 30th May 2024
1770 – François Boucher, French painter (b. 1703)
1945 – Irma Laplasse, Flemish farmer/nazi collaborator, executed
1957 – Toivo R Pekkanen, Finnish writer (Black Ecstasy), dies
1966 – Bob Thompson, African American painter, dies of a drug overdose at 28
1967 – Claude Rains, British actor (Invisible Man, Casablanca), dies at 77
1977 – Claire Goll, German-French writer, dies at 86
1981 – Don Ashby, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1955)
1994 – Marcel Bich, Italian-French baron and pen manufacturer (Bic), dies at 79
2008 – Boris Shakhlin, Russian gymnast (Olympic gold, 1956, 1960, 1964; World Champion, 1958; European Champion, 1955), dies at 76
2013 – Elliot del Borgo, American music educator (SUNY/Crane School of Music, 1966-95) and composer (1980 Winter Olympics), dies at 74
Historical Events for 30th May 2024
1814 – Napoleonic Wars: War of the Sixth Coalition – the Treaty of Paris (1814) is signed returning French borders to their 1792 extent.
1925 – British mariners shoot on demonstrators
1937 – Memorial Day Massacre: Chicago Police Department shoot and kill 10 unarmed demonstrators during the “Little Steel Strike” in the United States
1946 – United flight 521 crashes on takeoff at LaGuardia Airport (NY) 42 die
1953 – French Championships Women’s Tennis: Maureen Connolly beats fellow American Doris Hart 6-2, 6-4 for the 2nd leg of her Grand Slam
1954 – Emile Zatopek runs world record 5K (13:57.2)
1977 – Cleveland Indian Dennis Eckersley no-hits California Angels, 2-0
1980 – 1st papal visit to France since 1814
1981 – LA Dodgers are quickest to get 1,000,000 attendance in a season in only 22 games
2019 – Austria appoints its first female chancellor Brigitte Bierle to head caretaker government after fall of the coalition government
Today in History for 30th May 2024
Historical Events
1591 – Spanish troops in Zutphen surrender to Dutch and English forces under Maurice of Nassau
1832 – Evariste Galois give his theory on free assembly (dies in duel May 31)
1949 – 33rd Indianapolis 500: After finishing runner-up the previous 2 years, Bill Holland finally wins giving car owner Lou Moore his 3rd consecutive Indy victory; 1947-48 winner Mauri Rose fired after the race for ignoring team orders
1966 – The Beatles release single “Paperback Writer” / “Rain” in US; “Rain” featured experimental studio tricks of slowed down bass and drums tracks, and backwards vocals in the fade out
1973 – George Harrison releases his fourth studio album “Living in the Material World” in the US
2017 – Car bomb outside ice cream shop in Baghdad kills 17, Islamic State claim responsibility
Famous Birthdays
1718 – Wills Hill, 1st Marquess of Downshire, British politician, born in Fairford, Gloucestershire (d. 1793)
1814 – Eugène Charles Catalan, French-Belgian mathematician (worked on continued fractions, descriptive geometry, number theory and combinatorics), born in Bruges, Belgium (d. 1894)
1867 – Arthur Vining Davis, American industrialist and CEO (Alcoa-1910-57), born in Sharon, Massachusetts (d. 1962)
1936 – Ruta Lee, actress (Operation Eichmann, Marjorie Morningstar)
1963 – Helen Patricia Sharman, Great Britain, cosmonaut (Soyuz TM-12)
1980 – Steven Gerrard, English footballer
Famous Deaths
1416 – Jerome of Prague, Czech radical Christian teacher burned at the stake for heresy by church Council of Constance
1964 – Eddie Sachs, American auto racer (b. 1927)
1987 – Melvin “Turk” Murphy, American Dixieland jazz trombonist, dies at 71
1994 – Agostino Di Bartolomei, Italian footballer (b. 1955)
2016 – Rick MacLeish, Canadian ice hockey center (Stanley Cup 1974, 75; Philadelphia Flyers; NHL All Star 1977, 78), dies of meningitis at 66
2020 – [Nicolas] Michael Angelis, English actor (Thomas and Friends, Boys from the Black Stuff), dies of a heart attack at 76
Famous Deaths for 29th May 2024
1788 – Jacques Aliamet, French etcher and engraver, dies at 61
1866 – Winfield Scott, American army general (Union) and presidential candidate, dies at 79
1882 – Vasily Perov, Russian painter (b. 1833)
1914 – Paul von Mauser, German weapon designer, dies at 75
1995 – Margaret Chase Smith, American politician (U.S. Senator from Maine), dies at 97
1998 – Eric St Eval Atkinson, West Indian cricketer (bro of Denis WI pace bowler 1958-59), dies at 70
2005 – Oscar Brown, American singer, songwriter (“Brown Baby”; “Forbidden Fruit”), playwright, and poet, dies from complications of osteomyelitis at 78
2011 – Bill Clements, American politician, Governor of Texas (1987-91), dies at 94
2015 – Doris Hart, American tennis player (6 x Grand Slam singles titles; 29 x GS doubles titles), dies at 89
2021 – Keith Mullings, American boxer (WBC and lineal light middleweight titles 1998), dies at 53
Historical Events for 29th May 2024
1956 – Arnold Schoenberg’s “Modern Psalm” premieres
1977 – Australian Sue Prell first female golfer to hit consecutive holes-in one; 13th and 14th holes at Chatswood Golf Club, Sydney
1977 – USSR performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan
1978 – US 1st class postage rises to 15 cents (13 cents for 3 years)
1978 – USSR performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan
1989 – Student pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square, China construct a replica of the Statue of Liberty, naming it the Goddess of Democracy
1992 – White Sox Tim Raines swipes his 700th career base
2001 – International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers inaugurated.
2005 – Indianapolis 500: Dan Wheldon becomes first British-born winner since Graham Hill in 1966; first Indy 500 victory for car owner Michael Andretti of Andretti-Green Racing
2011 – Senior PGA Championship, Valhalla GC: Tom Watson wins his 6th and final Champions Tour major title with a birdie on the first playoff hole against David Eger
Today in History for 29th May 2024
Historical Events
1138 – Anti-Pope Victor IV (Gregorio) submits himself to Pope Innocentius II
1851 – Sojourner Truth addresses 1st Black Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio
1912 – Ballets Russes premieres their ballet L’après-midi d’un faune (The Afternoon of a Faun) in Paris, choreographed by Vaslav Nijinsky
1943 – Algiers Allied Planning Conference between Winston Churchill, George Marshall and General Dwight D. Eisenhower finalizes the plan for the Italian Campaign
1986 – 59th National Spelling Bee: Jon Pennington wins spelling odontalgia
2019 – Tourist boat sinks after colliding with another boat on the Danube River in Budapest, Hungary, killing 28 people
Famous Birthdays
1923 – Eugene Wright, American jazz bassist (The Dave Brubeck Quartet), sometimes known as “The Senator”, born in Chicago, Illinois (d. 2020)
1930 – Eddy Choong, Malaysian badminton player (Thomas Cup 1955), born in Penang, British Malaya (d. 2013)
1944 – Quentin Davies, British MP (C and L), born in Oxford, England
1948 – Nick Mancuso, Italian-Canadian actor, born in Mammola, Italy
1959 – Mel Gaynor, British rock drummer (Simple Minds – “Don’t You (Forget About Me)”; “Alive And Kicking”), born in Balham, London, England
1963 – Ukyo Katayama, Japanese auto racer, team manager (F1 95 starts), born in Tokyo, Japan
Famous Deaths
1896 – Gabriel Auguste Daubrée, French geologist, dies at 81
1905 – Leon Francis Victor Caron, French-Australian composer (Caron Opera Company), dies at 55
1948 – May Whitty, English actress (Gaslight, Mrs Miniver, Suspicion), dies at 82
1951 – Fanny Brice, American singing comedian (Ziegeld Follies, Baby Snooks), dies of a cerebral hemorrhage at 59
1992 – Peter “Ollie” Halsall, British rock guitarist and vibraphone player (Patto; The Rutles; Kevin Ayers), dies of a heart attack at 43
1994 – Joseph Janni, producer, dies at 78
Famous Deaths for 28th May 2024
1317 – Guy van Avesnes/Henegouwen, bishop of Utrecht, dies at about 63
1787 – Leopold Mozart, Austrian violinist, composer, father and teacher of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, dies at 67
1914 – Adolf Sonnenfeld, Polish violinist and composer, dies at 76
1927 – Boris Kustodiev, Russian painter (b. 1878)
1964 – John Finley Williamson, American choral conductor (Westminster Choir College, 1920-58), dies at 76
1987 – Charles Ludlam, American playwright and actor (Big Easy), dies at 44
1995 – Daniela Rocca, Italian actress (Battle of Austerlitz), dies at 57
1996 – Julian Krein [Yulian Kreyn], Russian composer (Razrusheniye (Destruction)), and musicologist, dies at 83
2014 – David Nadien, American concert and session violin virtuoso, dies of pneumonia at 88
2019 – Andre Asriel, Austrian-German classical and film score composer, dies at 97
Historical Events for 28th May 2024
1958 – French government of Prime Minister Pierre Pflimlin resigns; 200,000 demonstrate against Charles de Gaulle
1959 – Congressional Committee of Astronautics meets Project 7 astronauts
1959 – Johnson and Bart’s musical “Lock Up Your Daughters” premieres in London
1973 – Indianapolis 500: Gordon Johncock wins first of his two Indy triumphs after rain halts the race at lap 133
1980 – 24th European Cup: Nottingham Forest beats Hamburg 1-0 at Madrid
1982 – Pope John Paul II is 1st reigning pope to visit Great Britain (Adrian IV was born in England, as Nicholas Breakspear)
1986 – Democratic Labor Party wins parliamentary election in Barbados
1997 – Wallace Berg, 42, is 4th American to scale Mt Everest for 3rd time
2002 – NHL Eastern Conference Final: Carolina Hurricanes beat Toronto Maple Leafs, 4 games to 2
2018 – One million French smokers quit in one year after anti-smoking measures introduced according to Public Health France