1176 – Battle at Legnano: Lombard League beats Frederick Barbarossa and the Holy Roman Empire
1328 – French King Philip VI of Valois crowned at the Cathedral in Reims, France
1940 – In WWII, Germans capture Ostend and Ypres in Belgium and Lille in France
1965 – American long jumper Ralph Boston sets then world record 27′ 4 3/4″ (8.35m) at Modesto, California
1977 – Indianapolis 500: A. J. Foyt. becomes first driver to win Indy 500 four times; last time winning car built entirely within US; Janet Guthrie first female to qualify, lasts 27 laps
1980 – Larry Bird beats out Magic Johnson for NBA rookie of year
1983 – Indianapolis 500: Tom Sneva wins his first Indy 500; represents record 7th Indy victory for chief mechanic George Bignotti
1999 – Space Shuttle Discovery completes the first docking with the International Space Station.
2004 – The Al-Khobar massacres in Saudi Arabia kill 22
2016 – Indianapolis 500: American driver Alexander Rossi of Andretti Herta Autosport runs out of fuel on the final lap but coasts across line for the victory in 100th running of the race
Category: Historical Events
Historical Events for 28th May 2023
1934 – The Glyndebourne festival in Sussex, England, inaugurated
1937 – Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco opens to vehicular traffic
1940 – British-French troops capture Narvik, Norway
1949 – French Championships Women’s Tennis: Margaret Osborne duPont wins her second French singles crown; beats Nelly Adamson Landry of France 7-5, 6-2
1955 – 80th Preakness: Eddie Arcaro aboard Nashua wins in 1:54.6
1957 – WPSD TV channel 6 in Paducah, KY (NBC) begins broadcasting
1962 – Suit alleging de facto school segregation filed in Rochester, NY
1965 – Fire and explosion at Dhori mine in Dhanbad India kills 400
1968 – MLB: NL grants San Diego Padres a franchise
2011 – UEFA Champions League Final, London: FC Barcelona beats Manchester United, 3-1; 4th title for Barça
Historical Events for 27th May 2023
1199 – John crowned King of England after the death of his brother Richard I
1856 – Doctor William Palmer (the Rugeley Poisoner) found guilty of poisoning in Stafford, England
1898 – Arthur Pinero’s “Trelawney of the Wells” premieres in London
1920 – Tatar ASSR forms in Russian SFSR
1931 – 1st full scale wind tunnel for testing airplane at Langley Field, Virginia
1952 – European Defense Community forms
1982 – New owners headed by John McMullen buy NHL’s Colorado Rockies and move the team to the New Jersey Meadowlands under the new name NJ Devils
1997 – Indianapolis 500: Dutchman Arie Luyendyk wins from pole position for his second Indy victory; Treadway Racing finishes 1-2 with Luyendyk’s teammate Scott Goodyear runner-up
2015 – Golden State Warriors win the NBA Western Conference
2018 – IPL Cricket Final, Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai: Chennai Super Kings beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by 8 wickets; Shane Watson top scores, 117 no (57); SK’s 3rd IPL title
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
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
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
Historical Events for 23rd May 2023
1844 – Declaration of Bab (Baha’i festival) (‘Azamat 7, 1)
1960 – WKBM TV (now WLII) channel 11 in Caguas/San Juan, PR 1st broadcast
1984 – Crime epic film “Once Upon a Time in America” directed by Sergio Leone starring Robert De Niro and James Woods premieres at Cannes
1997 – Mel Karmazin replaces Peter Lund as CEO of CBS TV
2002 – The “55 parties” clause of the Kyoto protocol is reached after its ratification by Iceland
2003 – NHL Eastern Conference Final: New Jersey Devils beat Ottawa Senators, 4 games to 3
2010 – 63rd Cannes Film Festival: “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives” directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul wins the Palme d’Or
2018 – Hamburg, Germany, becomes the first city to ban diesel cars on some roads
2019 – Brazilian cosmetics group Natura buys UK’s Avon for $2 billion, creating the world’s fourth-largest cosmetics company
2021 – Belarus accused of “state-sponsored hijacking” after diverting commercial Ryanair flight to Minsk to arrest dissident journalist Roman Protasevich
Historical Events for 22nd May 2023
1526 – Pope Clement VII, France, Genoa, Venice, Florence and Milan form Anti-French League of Cognac
1893 – Montreal Athletic Association beat Ottawa Generals 2-1, in 1st Cup Game
1900 – Associated Press organizes in NYC as nonprofit news cooperative
1903 – Launch of the White Star Liner SS Ionic.
1972 – US President Nixon begins visit to Moscow
1988 – Károly Grósz succeeds party leader Janos Kádár in Hungary
1996 – “Tartuffe: Born Again” opens at Circle in the Square Theater, NYC; runs for 29 performances
2010 – UEFA Champions League Final, Madrid: Internazionale beats Bayern Munich, 2-0; Inter’s 3rd title and first treble (Italian Serie A and Cup)
2016 – Independent Alexander Van der Bellen defeats Freedom Party’s Norbert Hofer by just 31,000 votes to become President in Austrian elections
2017 – South Africa’s Western Cape province declares a drought disaster – worst for 113 years
Historical Events for 21st May 2023
1216 – French crown prince Louis enters England, having been invited by barons at war with King John
1499 – Francisco De Bobadilla appointed Governor of the Indies, succeeding Christopher Columbus
1864 – General David Hunter takes command of Department of West Virginia
1866 – 1st-class debut of cricketer Fred Grace aged 15 years 159 days at the Magdalen Ground, Oxford
1958 – Indonesian paratroopers reconquer Morotai Island
1961 – Governor Patterson declares martial law in Montgomery, Alabama
1964 – 1st nuclear-powered lighthouse begins operations (Chesapeake Bay)
1977 – Albert Innaurato’s “Gemini” premieres in NYC
1992 – New Jersey Senate overrides Governor Florio’s veto and lowers sales tax to 6%
2019 – Oldest and most distant gravitational waves detected from collision of two black holes with first intermediate-mass black hole ever discovered, 7 billion light years away
Historical Events for 20th May 2023
1310 – Shoes were made for both right and left feet
1704 – Elias Neau forms school for slaves in NY
1830 – D Hyde patents fountain pen
1903 – Britain’s House of Commons begins a debate on the charges of poor administration and ill treatment of natives in Belgium’s colony in the Congo Free State
1948 – Cleveland Indians tie AL record of 18 walks (beat Red Sox 13-4)
1961 – 86th Preakness: Johnny Sellers aboard Carry Back wins in 1:57.6
1985 – 38th Cannes Film Festival: “When Father Was Away on Business” directed by Emir Kusturica wins the Palme d’Or
1994 – Sushmita Sen from India is crowned the 43rd Miss Universe at 18 years old
2003 – Laureus World Sports Awards, Grimaldi Forum, Monaco: Sportsman: Lance Armstrong (rescinded); Sportswoman: Serena Williams; Team: Brazil Men’s National Football team
2021 – One of Sri Lanka’s worst ecological disasters as cargo ship MS X-Press Pearl, carrying toxic chemicals, catches fire off the country’s coast and begins spilling debris