This Day in History

[Gravdigr]

May29

Today is the 150th day of the year.

1453 – Fall of Constantinople: Ottoman armies under Sultan Mehmed II Fatih capture Constantinople after a 53-day siege, ending the Byzantine Empire.

1660 – English Restoration: Charles II is restored to the throne of England, Scotland and Ireland. On his birthday, no less.

1727 – Peter II becomes Czar of Russia.

1790 – Rhode Island becomes the last of the original United States' colonies to ratify the Constitution and is admitted as the 13th U.S. state.

1798 – United Irishmen Rebellion: Between 300 and 500 United Irishmen are massacred by the British Army in County Kildare, Ireland.

1848 – Wisconsin is admitted as the 30th U.S. state.

1886 – The pharmacist John Pemberton places his first advertisement for Coca-Cola, which appeared in The Atlanta Journal.

1914 – The Ocean liner RMS Empress of Ireland sinks in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence with the loss of 1,012 lives.

1919 – Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity is tested (later confirmed) by Arthur Eddington and Andrew Claude de la Cherois Crommelin.

1935 – First flight of the Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter aeroplane.

1940 – The first flight of the Vought F4U Corsair.

1942 – Bing Crosby, the Ken Darby Singers and John Scott Trotter and his Orchestra record Irving Berlin's "White Christmas", the best-selling single in history.

1945 – First combat mission of the Consolidated B-32 Dominator heavy bomber.

1953 – Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay become the first people to reach the summit of Mount Everest, on Tenzing Norgay's (adopted) 39th birthday.

1971 - Three dozen Grateful Dead fans were treated for hallucinations caused by LSD after they unwittingly drank spiked apple juice served at a gig at San Francisco's Winterland.

1999 – Space Shuttle Discovery completes the first docking with the International Space Station.

Skeletal remains are found by photographers looking for old car wrecks to shoot at the bottom of Decker Canyon near Malibu, California. Based on forensic evidence the remains were identified as Philip Kramer, former bassist with rock group Iron Butterfly, who had disappeared on his way home from work on February 12, 1995. Based on calls he made to police, his death was ruled as a probable suicide.

2001 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules that the disabled golfer Casey Martin can use a cart to ride in tournaments.

2008 – A doublet earthquake, of combined magnitude 6.1, strikes Iceland near the town of Selfoss, injuring 30 people, and killing a number of sheep.

2015 - Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch goes up for sale with an asking price of $100,000,000.

Births

1630 – Charles II of England; 1736 – Patrick Henry; 1874 – G. K. Chesterton; 1893 – Max Brand; 1903 – Bob Hope; 1914 – Stacy Keach, Sr., Tenzing Norgay; 1916 – Carl Story; 1917 – John F. Kennedy; 1921 – Clifton James; 1929 – Peter Higgs (Higgs Boson); 1939 – Al Unser; 1941 – Bob Simon; 1942 – Kevin Conway; 1945 – Gary Brooker; 1947 – Anthony Geary; 1948 – Nick Mancuso; 1953 – Danny Elfman; 1955 – John Hinckley Jr.; 1955 – Mike Porcaro; 1955 – Ken Schrader; 1956 – La Toya Jackson; 1958 – Annette Bening; 1958 – Wayne Duvall ('Homer Stokes' in "O Brother Where Art Thou"); 1959 – Rupert Everett; 1961 – Melissa Etheridge; 1967 – Noel Gallagher; 1975 – Mel B (Scary Spice); 1989 – Riley Keough (actress & Elvis Presley's granddaughter)

Deaths

1866 – Winfield Scott; 1911 – W. S. Gilbert (Gilbert & Sullivan); 1942 – John Barrymore; 1948 – Dame May Whitty; 1951 – Fanny Brice (Baby Snooks); 1953 – Man Mountain Dean (wrestler); 1979 – Mary Pickford; 1982 – Romy Schneider; 1997 – Jeff Buckley; 1998 – Barry Goldwater; 2006 – Steve Mizerak; 2008 – Harvey Korman; 2010 – Dennis Hopper; 2012 – Doc Watson