1862 – General Robert E. Lee assumes command after Joe Johnston is injured at Seven Pines
1913 – The Serbian government concludes a ten-year treaty with Greece against Bulgaria; Serbia wishes to pursue Macedonian aspirations with Greece’s help
1955 – Tunisian nationalist leader Habib Bourguiba returns to Tunisia after imprisonment and exile in France
1970 – MLB Commissioner Bowie Kuhn reprimands Houston Astros pitcher Jim Bouton for writing the memoir *Ball Four*, a candid season-long diary that Kuhn deems “detrimental to baseball”
1975 – John Kander and Fred Ebb’s musical “Chicago” opens at 46th St Theater, NYC; runs for 947 performances
1987 – Cleveland Indians pitcher Phil Niekro beats Detroit Tigers, 9-6 for his 314th MLB victory; combines with Joe Niekro (216) for most combined wins by brothers in baseball history (530)
2007 – Jack Kevorkian is released from prison after serving eight years of his 10-25 year prison term for the 1998 second-degree murder of Thomas Youk
2018 – Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy forced out of office by a no-confidence vote in parliament, filed by Socialist leader Pedro Sánchez
Category: Historical Events
Historical Events for 31st May 2026
1913 – US 17th amendment (direct election of senators) declared ratified
1937 – Indianapolis 500: Wilbur Shaw and riding mechanic ‘Jigger’ Johnson win race from Ralph Hepburn by 2.16 seconds, closest finish to that point; Johnson last winning riding mechanic
1949 – 31st PGA Championship Men’s Golf, Hermitage CC: Sam Snead beats fellow American Johnny Palmer, 3 and 2; first time reigning Masters champion wins PGA Championship in the same calendar year.
1961 – Arthur Michael Ramsey appointed the 100th Archbishop of Canterbury
1970 – Cathedral of Brasília, designed by architect Oscar Niemeyer is dedicated in the Brazilian capital Brasília
1970 – 7.75 Ancash earthquake off the coast of Peru kills 66,000-70,000 people and triggers the world’s deadliest avalanche
2005 – Mark Felt, former FBI high ranking official revealed as “Deep Throat” source during Watergate investigations in “Vanity Fair” article
2015 – 5th Critics’ Choice Television Awards: Silicon Valley wins Best Comedy Series, The Americans win Best Drama Series
Historical Events for 30th May 2026
1832 – Evariste Galois give his theory on free assembly (dies in duel May 31)
1923 – Howard Hanson’s 1st Symphony “Nordic” premieres
1963 – Indianapolis 500: Parnelli Jones takes his only Indy 500 win despite his car spewing oil from a cracked overflow tank for many laps
1967 – King Hussein of Jordan visits Cairo
1997 – Former Montreal Canadiens goaltender Ken Dryden becomes president of NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs
2005 – Gordon Ramsay first appears on US television in cooking competition show “Hell’s Kitchen” on Fox
2009 – Super Rugby Final, Pretoria: Morné Steyn kicks 5 conversions and 2 penalties as the Bulls thump the Chiefs (Waikato, NZ), 61-17
2015 – English FA Cup Final, Wembley Stadium, London (89,283): Arsenal beats Aston Villa, 4-0; Gunners’ 12th title
Historical Events for 29th May 2026
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
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