1328 – French King Philip VI of Valois crowned at the Cathedral in Reims, France
1592 – The Korean navy, led by Admiral Yi Sun-sin, repels a Japanese fleet in the Battle of Sacheon, the first use of a Korean Turtle Ship
1943 – Algiers Allied Planning Conference between Winston Churchill, George C. Marshall and General Dwight D. Eisenhower finalizes the plan for the Italian Campaign
1954 – British runner Diane Leather becomes first woman to run the mile in under 5 minutes; 4:59.6 at Alexander Sports Ground in Birmingham, England
1954 – French Championships Women’s Tennis: Maureen Connolly retains her title; beats Ginette Bucaille of France 6-4, 6-1
1982 – Pentagon plans first strategy to fight a nuclear war
2004 – World War II Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C.
2012 – Thousands march in protest in Johannesburg against Brett Murray’s controversial painting “The Spear”, part of the artist’s Hail to the Thief II exhibition that criticizes South Africa’s ruling party
Category: Historical Events
Historical Events for 28th May 2026
1731 – All Hebrew books in the Vatican Papal States are confiscated
1892 – Sierra Club formed by John Muir and others in San Francisco, for conservation of nature
1906 – Julian Edwards, Alfred E. Aarons, Ren Shields, and Will D. Cobb’s musical “His Honor, the Mayor” opens at New York Theatre and runs for 104 performances
1926 – Military coup by General Manuel Gomes da Costa in Portugal
1964 – Jawaharlal Nehru cremated in New Delhi
1995 – White Sox (5) and Tigers (7) combine for record 12 HRs at Tiger Stadium
2019 – Johnson and Johnson go on trial in Oklahoma accused of deceptively marketing painkillers and downplaying risks of addiction helping create “opioid epidemic”; first of 2,000 cases against US pharmaceutical firms
2023 – Surgeons complete the world’s first whole eyeball transplant with a partial facial transplant for a US veteran lineman injured in an accident at NYU Langone Health
Historical Events for 27th May 2026
1896 – Tornado hit St Louis, killing 255, leaving thousands homeless
1950 – Morton Gould and Dorothy Field’s colonial-era musical “Arms and the Girl”, starring Nanette Fabray and Pearl Bailey, closes at 46th St Theater, NYC, after 134 performances
1984 – Indianapolis 500: 1979 champion Rick Mears wins second Indy 500 two laps ahead of the field after contenders Tom Sneva and Mario Andretti drop out in second half of the race
1984 – Manuela Maleeva of Bulgaria wins three singles tennis matches in one day at the Italian Open, defeating Virginia Ruzici, Carling Bassett, and Chris Evert in the final, 6-3, 6-3; she becomes only the seventh player to defeat Evert on clay
1985 – Bands from across the US parade for President Reagan during his inauguration, filling the route with music, precision, and patriotic pageantry
1985 – Britain agrees to return Hong Kong to China in 1997
1997 – Major league revenue sharing begins, NY Yankees pay out most $28M
2006 – Super Rugby Final, Christchurch: Canterbury Crusaders retain the title with a 19-12 win over the Wellington Hurricanes; Dan Carter kicks four penalties and a conversion for the winners
Historical Events for 26th May 2026
1898 – 32nd Belmont: F Littlefield aboard Bowling Brook wins in 2:32
1946 – NY Yankee Mel Ott retires from playing to become a manager only after going 2-for-42 and hitting .048
1959 – Wreck of WWII bomber ‘Lady Be Good’ in the Libyan Desert is reached by a recovery team from US Air Force’s Wheelus Air Base in Tripoli; plane had crashed returning from initial mission on 1943
1972 – Joe Frazier TKOs Ron Stander in 5 for heavyweight boxing title
1974 – During a David Cassidy concert at London’s White City, a 14-year-old is trampled, and dies four days later
2000 – NHL Eastern Conference Final: New Jersey Devils beat Philadelphia Flyers, 4 games to 3
2021 – A super blood moon, the first total lunar eclipse in two years, is visible across the Pacific
2024 – Indianapolis 500: Defending champion Josef Newgarden of Team Penske passes Pato O’Ward in turn three on the final lap for back-to-back Indy victories
Historical Events for 25th May 2026
1876 – 1st tie in NL history (Athletics and Louisville, 2-2 in 14)
1965 – Dave Davies of The Kinks knocked unconscious in an on stage scuffle with drummer Mick Avory at Cardiff’s Capital Theatre
1975 – 29th NBA Championship: Golden Warriors sweep Wash Bullets in 4 games
1981 – Boston Red Sox Carl Yastrzemski (41) is 4th to play 3,000 MLB baseball games (Cobb, Musial and Aaron)
1989 – Mikhail Gorbachev elected Executive President in the Soviet Union
1991 – Israel evacuates 14,000 Ethiopian Jews
2003 – Néstor Kirchner becomes President of Argentina after defeating Carlos Menem. He is the first elected President since the economic crisis.
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 2026
1830 – First regular passenger rail service on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad line features horse-drawn railcars connecting Baltimore to Ellicott’s Mills
1956 – 1st Eurovision Song Contest: Lys Assia for Switzerland wins singing “Refrain” in Lugano
1959 – First house with built-in bomb shelter exhibited (Pleasant Hills, Pennsylvania)
1962 – The Beatles record “Sweet Georgia Brown” and “Swanee” in Hamburg, Germany to close out their contract with producer Bert Kaempfert; Tony Sheridan later dubs vocal over tracks
1974 – 27th Cannes Film Festival: “The Conversation” directed by Francis Ford Coppola wins the Grand Prix du Festival International du Film
1986 – Reginald Huffstetler treads water for 985 hrs
1998 – 51st Cannes Film Festival: “Mia aioniotita kai mia mera / Eternity and a Day” by Theo Angelopoulos wins the Palme d’Or
2018 – US President Donald Trump cancels summit with North and South Korea because of hostile statements from North Korea
Historical Events for 23rd May 2026
1945 – German island of Helgoland in the North Sea surrenders to British
1962 – Joe Pepitone 2nd NY Yankee to hit 2 HRs in 1 inning (Joe DiMaggio)
1969 – 22nd Cannes Film Festival: “If…” directed by Lindsay Anderson wins the Grand Prix du Festival International du Film
1977 – Moluccan extremists hold 105 schoolchildren and 50 others hostage on a hijacked train in the Netherlands, children released May 27, siege ends June 11
1992 – NHL Prince of Wales Conference Final: Pittsburgh Penguins beat Boston Bruins, 4 games to 0
2000 – Eminem releases his third studio album “The Marshall Mathers LP,” the fastest-selling studio album ever (Grammy – Best Rap Album, 2001)
2010 – 63rd Cannes Film Festival: “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives” directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul wins the Palme d’Or
2017 – Michael Bay is honored with a hand-and-footprint ceremony at The TCL Chinese Theatre
Historical Events for 22nd May 2026
1842 – Farmers Lester Howe and Henry Wetsel discover Howe Caverns in New York state when they stumble upon a large gaping hole in the ground
1897 – Blackwall Tunnel officially opens beneath the River Thames in London
1939 – Germany’s Adolf Hitler and Italy’s Benito Mussolini sign the “Pact of Steel” formalizing the 1936 alliance known as the Rome-Berlin Axis
1945 – 6th US Marine division reaches suburbs of Naha Okinawa
1962 – New York Yankees outfielder Roger Maris walks five times, including a record four intentional walks, in a nine-inning game
1974 – Ruffian begins her racing career as a filly and dies 14 months later
2015 – Pakistan begin the first test-playing nation cricket tour of Zimbabwe since 2009
2022 – PGA Championship Men’s Golf, Southern Hills CC: 2017 champion Justin Thomas beats Will Zalatoris by 1 stroke in a 3-hole playoff after 54-hole leader Mito Pereira double bogeys the 72nd hole
Historical Events for 21st May 2026
1910 – Louis Botha becomes the first Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa
1927 – Aviator Charles Lindbergh, in the Spirit of St. Louis, lands in Paris after the first solo air crossing of the Atlantic
1961 – Governor Patterson declares martial law in Montgomery, Alabama
1966 – American Muhammad Ali TKOs Great Britain’s Henry Cooper in 6th round for heavyweight boxing title
2003 – 38th Academy of Country Music Awards: Toby Keith, Martina McBride and Kenny Chesney win
2012 – 13 people are killed and 22 people injured after a bus falls 80 metres off a cliff in Albania
2017 – Barnum and Bailey Circus performs for the last time at the Nassau Coliseum in NYC after 146 years
2023 – PGA Championship Men’s Golf, Oak Hill CC: Brooks Koepka claims his third career PGA C’ship and fifth major title by 2 shots over Viktor Hovland and Scottie Scheffler
Historical Events for 20th May 2026
1867 – Royal Albert Hall of Arts and Sciences foundation laid by Queen Victoria in London
1882 – Gotthard rail tunnel between Switzerland and Italy opens
1920 – Mexican President Venustiano Carranza, under attack by American petroleum companies, faces an armed rebellion by right-wing Sonoro triumvirate after nationalizing subsoil rights
1926 – Railway Labor Act became law in USA
1943 – French, British and US victory parade in Tunis, Tunisia
1958 – US performs nuclear test at Enewetak Atoll (atmospheric tests)
1992 – India launches its 1st satellite independently
1996 – UN and Iraq agree to Resolution 986, which provides Iraq with the opportunity to sell $1 billion of oil for 90 days for a 180-day trial period; proceeds from the sale would be used for humanitarian purposes