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
Category: Historical Events
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
Historical Events for 19th May 2026
1793 – Netherlands captures French island of St Maarten (held until 1795)
1992 – Amy Fisher shoots Mary Jo Buttafuoco in the face in an altercation over an affair with her husband, in Massapequa, New York
1993 – Boeing 727 crashes into mountain at Medellín, Colombia, kills 132
1993 – Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 3,500 for 1st time (3,500.03)
1995 – World’s youngest doctor, Balamurali Ambati, 17, graduates from Mount Sinai
2012 – UEFA Champions League Final, Munich: Chelsea beats Bayern Munich, 4-3 on penalties after a 1–1 draw at the end of extra time; Blues’ first title
2013 – Sweden defeats Switzerland to win the 2013 World Ice Hockey Championship
2021 – New York City begins re-opening after 423 days (March 2020) with the COVID-19 death toll at 33,000
Historical Events for 18th May 2026
1866 – Netherlands government of Isaäc Dignus Fransen De Putte resigns
1887 – Emmanuel Chabrier’s opera “Le roi malgré lui” (King, in spite of himself) premieres at the Opéra-Comique in Paris; after 3 performances the theatre burns down
1918 – TNT explosion in chemical factory in Oakdale, Pennsylvania, kills 200 people
1929 – MLB record 50 runs for a doubleheader: Brooklyn Robins beat Philadelphia Phillies, 20-16 in first game, Phillies win 8-6 in nightcap, at the Baker Bowl in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
1965 – Gene Roddenberry suggests 16 names for Star Trek Captain; they include Kirk
1971 – US President Richard Nixon rejects 60 demands of Congressional Black Caucus
1990 – TV movie “Return To Green Acres” airs
2024 – Bayer Leverkusen become the first Bundesliga team in history to finish a German league season unbeaten after a 2-1 win at home against Augsburg
Historical Events for 17th May 2026
1620 – First merry-go-round is seen at a fair in Philippopolis in the Ottoman Empire
1689 – English King William III declares war on France in support of the Dutch Republic (Nine Years’ War)
1750 – -18] Tax revolt in Gorinchem
1900 – “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” is first published by L. Frank Baum with illustrations by William Wallace Denslow in Chicago
1953 – Yanks and Browns use record 41 players in a game
1955 – Dutch government of Willem Drees resigns
1958 – 83rd Preakness: Ismael Valenzuela aboard Tim Tam wins in 1:57.2
2014 – Atlético Madrid win the 2013–14 La Liga