1512 – Bayezid II, Ottoman Sultan (1481-1512), dies at 62
1883 – Edward Sabine, Irish astronomer (b. 1788)
1944 – Robert van Spaendonck, Dutch resistance fighter, dies at 27
1954 – Lionel Conacher, Canadian Hockey HOF defenceman (Stanley Cup 1934 Chicago Black Hawks, 1935 Montreal Maroons) and politician (MP Trinity), dies from a heart attack at 54
1962 – Jules Van de Leene, Belgian painter, dies at 75
1973 – Jacques Lipchitz, Polish-French-American painter and cubist sculptor, dies at 81
1995 – Ron Weatherburn, British jazz pianist, dies at 61
2006 – Édouard Michelin, CEO of tire manufacturer Michelin (b. 1963)
2010 – Kieran Phelan, Irish senator (b. 1949)
2022 – Andy Fletcher, British synthesizer and bass player (Depeche Mode – “Just Can’t Get Enough”), dies of an aortic dissection at 60
Author: gil7
Historical Events for 26th May 2023
1887 – Racetrack betting becomes legal in NY state
1918 – Armenia defeats the Ottoman Army in the Battle of Sardarapat
1924 – US President Calvin Coolidge signs Immigration law restricting immigration
1962 – “All American” closes at Winter Garden Theater NYC after 80 performances
1973 – British composer Michael Tippett’s 3rd Piano Sonata premieres
1981 – The Italian Prime Minister Arnaldo Forlani and his coalition cabinet resign following a scandal over membership of the pseudo-masonic lodge P2 (Propaganda Due)
1993 – 1st UEFA Champions League Final: Marseille beats Milan 1-0 at Munich
2012 – A gunman in the Finnish town of Hyvinkaa kills 2, wounds 7
2013 – 66th Cannes Film Festival: “Blue Is the Warmest Colour” directed by Abdellatif Kechiche wins the Palme d’Or. The two main actresses in the film, Adele Exarchopoulos and Lea Seydoux also awarded
2020 – US restricts travel from Brazil as the country posts world’s second highest number of recorded cases of COVID-19
Today in History for 26th May 2023
Historical Events
1906 – Archaeological Institute of America forms
1923 – Socialist Workers Youth International forms in Hamburg
1941 – American Flag House (Betsy Ross’ Home) given to city of Philadelphia
1967 – US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1972 – Joe Frazier TKOs Ron Stander in 5 for heavyweight boxing title
1996 – “Midsummer Night’s Dream” closes at Lunt-Fontanne NYC after 66 performances
Famous Birthdays
1825 – Felipe Gutiérrez Y Espinosa, Puerto Rican composer, born in San Juan, Puerto Rico (d. 1899)
1846 – Arthur Coquard, French composer, born in Paris (d. 1910)
1890 – Kurt Edzard, German sculptor (nudes/portraits), born in Bremen, Germany (d. 1972)
1908 – Robert Morley, British actor (Marie Antoinette, The Young Ones, How the Other Half Loves), born in Semley, Wiltshire, England (d. 1992)
1949 – Pam Grier, American actress (The Big Bird Cage; Jackie Brown; The L-Word), born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina
1952 – David Meece, American contemporary Christian singer-songwriter, and piano player, born in Humble, Texas
Famous Deaths
1907 – Ida McKinley, US First Lady (1897-1901) and wife of the 25th US President William McKinley, dies at 59
1924 – Johann Heinrich Beck, American composer, dies at 67
1939 – Cornelis Jacobus Snijders, Supreme commander of Dutch Navy (1910-18), dies at 86
1944 – Robert van Spaendonck, Dutch resistance fighter, dies at 27
1977 – Jim Boles, American actor (The Ghost and Mr. Chicken, One Man’s Family), dies of cardiac arrest at 63
2007 – J Edward Oliver, cartoonist and composer (b. 1942)
Famous Deaths for 25th May 2023
946 – Edmund the Older, king of Wessex/England (939-46), dies
1452 – John Stafford, English Archbishop of Canterbury (1443-52), dies
1848 – Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, German writer (b. 1797)
1964 – Vasily Andreyevich Zolotaryov, Russian composer (Rhapsodie hébraïque; Prince Lake), and teacher, dies at 92
1985 – Harold Hecht, American choreographer, dies at 77 of cancer
1996 – Laurence Marks, English journalist, dies at 67
1996 – Bernard Sendall, British deputy director general of British Independent Television Authority and author (Independent Television in Britain), dies at 83
2006 – Otto Zykan, Austrian pianist and composer, dies at 71
2011 – Paul Splittorff, American MLB pitcher and broadcaster (KC Royals), dies of oral cancer at 64
2018 – Piet Kee, Dutch organist and composer, dies at 90
Historical Events for 25th May 2023
1571 – Pope Pius V forms The Holy League to fight the Ottomans with other Catholic maritime states including Spain, Venice, Naples and Sicily
1868 – Australian Aboriginal Cricket tour of England begins v Surrey Gentlemen
1943 – Agnes Moorehead appears in “Sorry, Wrong Number” on the radio program “Suspense”, her most successful appearance
1965 – Dave Davies of The Kinks knocked unconscious in an on stage scuffle with drummer Mick Avory at Cardiff’s Capital Theatre
1968 – Rolling Stones release song “Jumping Jack Flash”
1968 – Unicorn by The Irish Rovers hits #7
1983 – Fire in Nassermeer, Egypt, kills 357
2011 – Oprah Winfrey airs her last show, ending her twenty five year run of The Oprah Winfrey Show
2019 – First ever albino panda footage in the wild released (taken in April) from China’s Wolong National Nature Reserve
2021 – Coup in Mali as military Colonel Assimi Goïta ousts country’s civilian President Bah Ndaw and Prime Minister Moctar Ouane arresting and detaining them
Today in History for 25th May 2023
Historical Events
1720 – The Ship “Le Grand St Antoine” reaches Marseille, bringing Europe’s last major plague outbreak. Kills around 100,000.
1842 – Christian Doppler presents his idea, now known as the Doppler Effect (through the changing colors of binary stars), to the Royal Bohemian Society, Prague
1949 – Chinese Red army occupies Shanghai
1994 – Emmy 21st Daytime Award presentation – Susan Lucci not nominated
2000 – 53rd Cannes Film Festival: “Dancer in the Dark” directed by Lars von Trier and starring Björk (Best Actress) wins the Palme d’Or
2014 – Senior PGA Championship, GC at Shore Harbor: Colin Montgomerie of Scotland wins first of 3 Champions Tour majors by 4 strokes from Tom Watson
Famous Birthdays
1818 – Jacob Burckhardt, Swiss cultural historian, born in Basel, Switzerland (d. 1897)
1865 – John Mott, American evangelist and organizer (YMCA, Nobel 1946), born in Livingston Manor, Sullivan County, New York (d. 1955)
1945 – Dave Lee Travis [David Griffin], British DJ and presenter (Top of the Pops], convicted of indecent assault, born in Buxton, Derbyshire
1952 – Al Sarrantonio, American writer (999: New Stories of Horror and Suspense), born in NYC, New York
1961 – Hiro Saito, Japanese professional wrestler (All-Japan/NJPW/Calgary), born in Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Japan
1979 – Sam Sodje, Nigerian footballer, born in Greenwich, London
Famous Deaths
1917 – Maksim Bahdanovič, Belarusian poet, dies at 25
1934 – Gustav Holst, English composer (The Planets; Ode to Death), dies at 59
1945 – Demjan Bednyi, Russian writer and satirist, dies at 62
1954 – Robert Capa, Hungarian war photographer and photojournalist, dies of injuries from a landmine explosion at 40
1966 – Ricardo Castillo, Guatemalan composer, dies at 71
2020 – Marvin Luster, American CFL Hall of Fame defensive back (6 x CFL All Star; Toronto Argonauts, Montreal Alouettes), dies at 82
Famous Deaths for 24th May 2023
1425 – Murdoch Stewart, 2nd Duke of Albany, Scottish politician (b. 1362)
1734 – Georg Ernst Stahl, German physician and chemist (b. 1660)
1751 – William Hamilton, of Gilbertsfield, poet, dies
1826 – Friedrich Fesca, German violinist and composer, dies of tuberculosis at 37
1850 – Jane Porter, novelist (Scottish Chiefs), dies at 74
1876 – Henry Kingsley, English/Australian writer, dies at 46
1950 – Archibald Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell, British general, dies at 67
1963 – Elmore James, American blues slide guitarist, dies of a heart attack at 45
1976 – Melle Oldeboerrigter, Dutch painter and cartoonist, dies at 65
1994 – Yehuda Mor-Mirkovsky, Israeli kibbutz-founder, dies at 96
Historical Events for 24th May 2023
1595 – Nomenclator of Leiden University Library appears, the first printed catalog of an institutional library
1861 – Alexandria, Virginia occupied by Federal troops
1887 – Sultan Bargash of Zanzibar grants E African Association at East African harbors
1944 – Enver Hoxha becomes head of Albania’s anti fascists
1959 – 1st house with built-in bomb shelter exhibited (Pleasant Hills, Pennsylvania)
1968 – French President Charles De Gaulle proposes referendum and students set fire to Paris bourse
1976 – 1st commercial SST flight to North America (Concorde to Washington, D.C.)
1980 – Stanley Cup Final, Nassau Coliseum, Uniondale, NY: In first Finals appearance, NY Islanders beat Philadelphia Flyers, 5-4 in OT for a 4 games to 2 series win
1984 – Revival of musical “The Wiz” opens at Lunt-Fontanne Theater, NYC; runs for 13 performances
2021 – India’s official COVID-19 death toll passes 300,000 (303,720), the third country to do so, with experts saying it is a vast undercount
Today in History for 24th May 2023
Historical Events
1832 – The First Kingdom of Greece is declared in the London Conference
1923 – Stanley Baldwin succeeds Andrew Bonar Law as British Prime Minister
1988 – Power outage in Boston Garden in NHL’s Stanley Cup finals
1993 – Kim Basinger files for bankruptcy to avoid paying $7.4M settlement
2018 – Record US fentanyl seizure of 120lbs (54kg) confirmed by police in Nebraska in April, enough to kill 26 million people, one of largest drug busts in US history
2020 – Millions of cicadas in a once in 17-year event about to emerge from the earth in the US south posing crop danger and noise issues, according to scientists from Virginia Tech
Famous Birthdays
1840 – Frederick Walker, British social realist painter, born in London (d. 1875)
1945 – Priscilla Presley, American actress (Jenna-Dallas, Naked Gun), born in Brooklyn, New York
1963 – Vivian Trimble, American alt-rock keyboardist (Luscious Jackson; Dusty Trails), born in New York City (d. 2023)
1965 – Shinichirō Watanabe, Japanese anime director (Samurai Champloo), born in Kyoto, Japan
1976 – Catherine Cox, Australian netballer, born in Whangarei, New Zealand
1979 – Tracy McGrady, American Basketball Hall of Fame forward (NBA All-Star 2001–07; NBA scoring champion 2003, 04; Toronto Raptors, Orlando Magic, Houston Rockets), born in Bartow, Florida
Famous Deaths
1136 – Hugues de Payens, French co-founder of The Knights Templar and its first Grand Master, dies at about 66
1826 – Friedrich Fesca, German violinist and composer, dies of tuberculosis at 37
1956 – Guy Kibbee, American actor (Capt Blood, Babes in Arms), dies at 74
2002 – Wallace Markfield, American writer (b. 1926)
2010 – Ray Alan, English ventriloquist and television entertainer (Lord Charles), dies at 79
2022 – Thomas Ulsrud, Norwegian curler (World C’ship gold [skip] 2014; Olympics silver 2010), dies from cancer at 50
Famous Deaths for 23rd May 2023
1524 – Ismail I, Shah of Persia, converted Iran from Sunni to Shi’ah, dies at 36
1834 – Charles Wesley, English organist and composer, dies at 76
1874 – Silvain van de Weyer, 1st Belgian foreign minister to Britain, dies at 72
1875 – Johann Wilhelm Mangold, German composer, dies at 78
1893 – Anton von Schmerling, Austrian statesman, dies at 87
1960 – Georges Claude, French engineer and inventor (neon light), dies at 89
1967 – Carl-Henrik Norin Swedish jazz saxophonist, and composer (“Mississippi Mood”), dies at 47
1969 – Jimmy McHugh, American composer (“I Can’t Give You Anything But Love”; “On the Sunny Side of the Street”; “I’m In The Mood For Love”), dies at 74
1979 – Hubert van Doorne, auto manufacturer (DAF Trucks), dies at 79
2010 – Jose Lima, Dominican baseball player (b. 1972)