1596 – England, France and Netherlands sign Drievoudig Covenant against Spain
1864 – Battle of Dallas, begins near Paulding County, Georgia (Atlanta Campaign), Union victory (US Civil War)
1955 – Conservatives led by Anthony Eden win British parliamentary election
1959 – MLB Pittsburgh Pirates Harvey Haddix pitches 12 perfect innings, loses in 13th to Braves at Milwaukee County Stadium
1967 – US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1973 – British composer Michael Tippett’s 3rd Piano Sonata premieres
1973 – Bahrain adopts its constitution
2014 – Narendra Modi becomes the 15th Prime Minister of India
2019 – Ken Wyatt becomes Australia’s first Aboriginal minister in government as the minister for indigenous Australians
2019 – Indianapolis 500: 2016 IndyCar Series champion Simon Pagenaud of France finishes just two-tenths of a second ahead of Alexander Rossi for Team Penske’s record-extending 18th victory in the event
Category: Historical Events
Historical Events for 25th May 2025
1900 – Retired London fire master Eyre Massey Shaw aged 70 reputedly becomes oldest gold medalist in Olympics for sailing (disputed)
1915 – A British Cabinet meeting at 10 Downing Street on the failure of the Dardanelles offensive sacks Lord Kitchener as head of munitions and Winston Churchill as Lord of the Admiralty
1943 – Agnes Moorehead appears in “Sorry, Wrong Number” on the radio program “Suspense”, her most successful appearance
1964 – Frank Gilroy’s dramatic play “The Subject Was Roses”, starring Jack Albertson and Martin Sheen, opens at Royale Theatre, NYC; runs for 832 performances; wins Pulitzer Prize, and 2 Tony Awards
1966 – Peru and Argentina soccer fans fight in Lima; 248 die
1966 – “Au Hasard Balthazar”, French film directed by Robert Bresson, starring Anne Wiazemsky and François Lafarge, is released
1970 – 3rd ABA Championship: Indiana Pacers beat LA Stars, 4 games to 2
1972 – Heavyweight Joe Frazier KOs Ron Stander
1982 – Iranian troops reconquer Khorramshar
2011 – Oprah Winfrey airs her last show, ending her twenty five year run of The Oprah Winfrey Show
Historical Events for 24th May 2025
1928 – Italian aviator Umberto Nobile flies airship Italia over North Pole again (crashes onto ice pack a day later)
1928 – Record 12 future Baseball Hall of Famers take the field as NY Yankees beat Philadelphia A’s, 9-7 at Shibe Park; managers Miller Huggins and Connie Mack, umpire Tom Connolly also HOF’ers
1943 – Final entry in the Stroop Report, detailing the destruction of the Jewish Warsaw Ghetto, compiled by Nazi officers, later used as evidence in the Nuremberg trials
1957 – Anti-American riots breakout in Taipei, Taiwan
1960 – 1 millionth Dutch telephone installed
1961 – NASA Explorer Ionosphere research mission fails to reach Earth orbit
1968 – Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithfull arrested for drug possession in England
1978 – Dutch Investment bill (WIR) law goes into effect
1987 – Golden Gate Bridge 50th anniversary: Over 800K people show up, 300K walk on bridge at same time, span temporarily flattens from weight (San Francisco, California)
1989 – Weird Al Yankovic records three tracks for his UHF movie soundtrack
Historical Events for 23rd May 2025
1611 – Matthias von Habsburg chosen as King of Bohemia
1644 – Johan Mauritius van Nassau resigns as head of Civil rights activists
1873 – 1st Preakness Stakes: G. Barbee aboard Survivor wins in 2:43 at Pimlico Race Course, Baltimore, Maryland
1907 – The single chamber Parliament of Finland gathers for its first plenary session.
1943 – -24] 826 Allied bombers attack Dortmund
1974 – Great Britain performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1981 – Barcelona fascists take 200 people hostage
1990 – Cost of rescuing savings and loan failures is put at up to $130 billion
1994 – 47th Cannes Film Festival: “Pulp Fiction” directed by Quentin Tarantino wins the Palme d’Or
2010 – 63rd Cannes Film Festival: “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives” directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul wins the Palme d’Or
Historical Events for 22nd May 2025
1799 – Napoleon makes statement in support of re-establishing Jerusalem for Jews
1894 – American inventor Augustine Sackett is granted a patent for Sackett Board, the prototype for drywall (U.S. Patent No. 520,123)
1915 – Local train collides with troop train killing 226 in Gretna, Scotland
1933 – First modern sighting of the Loch Ness Monster by Aldie and John Mackay saw “something resembling a whale”
1947 – “Truman Doctrine” goes into effect, aiding Turkey and Greece
1988 – LPGA Championship Women’s Golf, Jack Nicklaus GC: Sherri Turner birdies final 2 holes to win her only major title, 1 stroke ahead of runner-up Amy Alcott
1996 – “Tartuffe: Born Again” opens at Circle in the Square Theater, NYC; runs for 29 performances
2002 – American civil rights movement: a jury in Birmingham, Alabama, convicts former Ku Klux Klan member Bobby Frank Cherry of the 1963 murders of four girls in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church
2006 – Results from the Montenegrin independence referendum, 2006 are announced. 55.4% of voters vote to become independent from the Serbia and Montenegro Union.
2019 – UN General Assembly votes for a motion condemning UK occupation of the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean and for them to reunite with nearby Mauritius
Historical Events for 21st May 2025
1886 – 14th Preakness: S Fisher aboard Bard wins in 2:45
1918 – US House of Representatives passes amendment allowing women to vote
1945 – Nazi SS-Reichsfuehrer Heinrich Himmler captured
1966 – A “loyalist” group calling itself the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) issued a statement declaring war on the Irish Republican Army (IRA)
1969 – Civil unrest in Rosario, Argentina, aka Rosariazo, following the death of a 15-year-old student.
1988 – “Da’Butt” by EU hits #35
2006 – The Swedish ice hockey team Tre Kronor takes gold in the World Championship, becoming the first nation to hold both the World and Olympic titles separately in the same year.
2013 – American singer-songwriter Carole King receives Library of Congress Gershwin Prize at the White House in Washington, D.C.
2018 – Former US president Barack Obama and Michelle Obama sign deal with Netflix to produce films and series
2023 – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy makes a surprise appearance at G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan, with world leaders also making a statement to condemn Chinese acts of “economic coercion”
Historical Events for 20th May 2025
1736 – Royal Approval is given by King George II to construct the original Westminster Bridge across the River Thames in London
1840 – York Minster badly damaged by fire
1891 – 1st public display of Thomas Edison’s prototype kinetoscope to members of the National Federation of Women’s Club
1899 – First speeding infraction by a New York cabbie driving an electric car – 12mph down Lexington Street
1913 – 38th Preakness: James Butwell aboard Buskin wins in 1:53.4
1978 – 3 PFLP members kill a police officer near El Al airlines in Orly Airport, Paris
1985 – Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 1,300 for 1st time
1992 – At height of “Black May’ political crisis in Thailand TV interview broadcast of King Bhumibol Adulyadej demanding Generals Suchinda and Chamlong work together
2009 – Quentin Tarantino film “Inglourious Basterds” premieres at the Cannes Film Festival with an ensemble cast including Brad Pitt, Michael Fassbender and Diane Kruger
2018 – President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela wins a second term in an election marked by boycotts and accusations of vote rigging
Historical Events for 19th May 2025
1957 – Adone Zoli forms Italian government
1958 – Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “South Pacific” soundtrack album goes #1 and stays #1 for 31 weeks
1962 – “John Birch Society” single by Chad Mitchell Trio hits #99
1968 – 20th Emmy Awards: “Get Smart”, “Mission Impossible” and Barbara Bain win
1974 – Valeri Giscard d’Estaing wins French presidential election
1995 – World’s youngest doctor, Balamurali Ambati, 17, graduates from Mount Sinai
2007 – English FA Cup Final, Wembley Stadium, London (89,826): Chelsea beats Manchester United, 1 – 0 (a.e.t.); Didier Drogba scores 116′ winner for Blues’ 4th title
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
2018 – 71st Cannes Film Festival: Japanese film “Shoplifters” by Hirokazu Kore-eda wins the Palme d’Or
2161 – Syzygy: Eight of nine planets are forecast to align on the same side of the Sun
Historical Events for 18th May 2025
1096 – Crusaders massacre Jews of Worms
1869 – Surrender and dissolution of the Ezo Republic to Japan
1896 – US Supreme court affirms legitimacy of racial separation (Plessy v Ferguson), a doctrine that came to be known as “separate but equal”
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
1964 – David Frost interviews Paul McCartney on BBC-TV
1980 – People’s Republic of China launches 1st intercontinental rocket
1985 – Murray Head’s “One Night In Bangkok” single (written by Tim Rice, and Abba’s Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus) hits #3 in US
1992 – US Supreme Court rules states could not force mentally unstable criminal defendants to take anti-psychotic drugs
2008 – “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Harrison Ford, and produced by George Lucas’ Lucasfilms, premiers at the Cannes Film Festival
2019 – Australian federal elections won by Scott Morrison’s coalition government in a surprise result
Historical Events for 17th May 2025
1631 – Earl Johann Tilly attacks Maagdenburg
1689 – English King William III declares war on France in support of the Dutch Republic (Nine Years’ War)
1824 – The diaries of Lord Byron are burnt by six of the poet’s friends at the office of John Murray in London, sometimes described as “the greatest crime in literary history”
1848 – Gerrit, Count Schimmelpenninck resigns as Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Netherlands
1895 – W. G. Grace completes his 100th 100 v Somerset at Bristol
1898 – Camp Merritt forms in Presidio [see 0503]
1948 – Soviet Union recognizes Israel
1974 – Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) explode four bombs in Republic of Ireland, killing 33 civilians, wounding 300 (highest number of casualties in a single incident during “The Troubles”)
1975 – 100th Preakness: Darrel McHargue aboard Master Derby wins in 1:56.4
2014 – English FA Cup Final, Wembley Stadium, London (89,345): Arsenal beats Hull City, 3–2 (a.e.t.); Aaron Ramsey scores 109′ winner