This Day in History

[Gravdigr]

I've never drank with a skull.

(Drunk, or drank?)

[DanaC]

Originally Posted by Gravdigr

I've never drank with a skull.

(Drunk, or drank?)

I never drank
I've never drunk

[Gravdigr]

Thankee.

[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

[Gravdigr]

May 30

Today is Memorial Day (United States).

70 - Roman emperor Titus breaches Jerusalem's Second Wall.

1431 - In Rouen, France, Joan of Arc is burned at the stake. She is ~19 years old.

1536 – King Henry VIII of England marries Jane Seymour (no, not that one, a different one), a lady-in-waiting to his first two wives.

1539 – In Florida, Hernando de Soto lands at Tampa Bay with 600 soldiers with the goal of finding gold.

1806 – Future U.S. President Andrew Jackson kills Charles Dickinson in a duel after Dickinson had accused Jackson's wife, Rachel, of bigamy.

1868 – Decoration Day (the predecessor of the modern "Memorial Day") is observed in the United States for the first time.

1883 – In New York City, a rumor that the Brooklyn Bridge is going to collapse causes a stampede that crushes twelve people.

1911 – At the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the first Indianapolis 500 ends with Ray Harroun in his Marmon Wasp becoming the first winner of the 500-mile auto race.

1922 – The Lincoln Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C..

1942 – World War II: One thousand British bombers launch a 90-minute attack on Cologne, Germany.

1948 – A dike along the flooding Columbia River breaks, obliterating Vanport, Oregon within minutes. Fifteen people die and tens of thousands are left homeless.

1958 – Memorial Day: The remains of two unidentified American servicemen, killed in action during World War II and the Korean War respectively, are buried at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery.

1966 – Launch of Surveyor 1, the first US spacecraft to land on an extraterrestrial body.

1968 - The Beatles begin recording what will become known as "The White Album".

1971 – Mariner program: Mariner 9 is launched to map 70% of the surface, and to study temporal changes in the atmosphere and surface, of Mars.

1972 – The Angry Brigade goes on trial over a series of 25 bombings throughout the United Kingdom.

2005 – American student Natalee Holloway disappears while on a high school graduation trip to Aruba, and caused a media sensation in the United States.

2012 – Former Liberian president Charles Taylor is sentenced to 50 years in prison for his role in atrocities committed during the Sierra Leone Civil War.

2013 – Nigeria passes a law banning same-sex marriage.

Births

1846 – Peter Carl Fabergé; 1896 – Howard Hawks; 1902 – Stepin Fetchit; 1908 – Mel Blanc; 1909 – Benny Goodman; 1918 – Bob Evans; 1927 – Clint Walker; 1936 – Keir Dullea; 1939 – Michael J. Pollard; 1939 – Tim Waterstone (founded Waterstone's book stores); 1943 – Gale Sayers; 1944 – Meredith MacRae; 1953 – Colm Meaney; 1955 – Topper Headon (The Clash), Jake "The Snake" Roberts; 1958 – Ted McGinley; 1962 – Kevin Eastman (co-creator of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles); 1963 – Shauna Grant (porn actress); 1964 – Wynonna Judd,Tom Morello; 1974 – CeeLo Green; 1975 – Marissa Mayer (CEO Yahoo); 1979 – Clint Bowyer

Deaths

1431 – Joan of Arc; 1593 – Christopher Marlowe; 1640 – Peter Paul Rubens; 1778 – Voltaire; 1911 – Milton Bradley; 1912 – Wilbur Wright; 1947 – Georg von Trapp (of the "The Sound of Music" von Trapps); 1953 – Dooley Wilson ('Sam' from "Casablanca"); 1960 – Boris Pasternak; 1967 – Claude Rains ('Capt. Renault' from "Casablanca"); 1986 – Perry Ellis; 1993 – Sun Ra; 2012 – John Fox, Andrew Huxley; 2015 – Beau Biden

[Gravdigr]

May 31

1279 BC – Ramesses II (The Great) (19th dynasty) becomes pharaoh of Ancient Egypt.

455 – Emperor Petronius Maximus is stoned to death by an angry mob while fleeing Rome.

526 – A devastating earthquake strikes Antioch killing 250,000.

1859 – The clock tower at the Houses of Parliament, which houses Big Ben, starts keeping time.

1864 – American Civil War: Overland Campaign: Battle of Cold Harbor: The Army of Northern Virginia under Robert E. Lee engages the Army of the Potomac under Ulysses S. Grant and George Meade.

1879 – Gilmores Garden in New York City is renamed Madison Square Garden by William Henry Vanderbilt and is opened to the public at 26th Street and Madison Avenue.

1889 – Johnstown Flood: Over 2,200 people die after a dam fails and sends a 60-foot (18-meter) wall of water over the town of Johnstown, Pennsylvania.

1909 – The National Negro Committee, forerunner to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, convenes for the first time.

1927 – The last Ford Model T rolls off the assembly line after a production run of 15,007,003 vehicles.

1929 – The first talking Mickey Mouse cartoon, "The Karnival Kid", is released.

1973 – The United States Senate votes to cut off funding for the bombing of Khmer Rouge targets within Cambodia, hastening the end of the Cambodian Civil War.

1977 – The Trans-Alaska Pipeline System is completed.

1985 – United States–Canada tornado outbreak: Forty-one tornadoes hit Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and Ontario, leaving 76 dead.

1989 – A group of six members of the guerrilla group Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) of Peru, shoot dead eight transsexuals, in the city of Tarapoto.

2005 – Vanity Fair reveals that Mark Felt was Deep Throat.

2013 – The asteroid 1998 QE2 and its moon make their closest approach to Earth for the next two centuries.

Births

1819 – Walt Whitman; 1852 – Julius Richard Petri (Petri dish); 1894 – Fred Allen; 1898 – Norman Vincent Peale; 1908 – Don Ameche; 1922 – Denholm Elliott; 1930 – Clint Eastwood; 1938 – Johnny Paycheck; 1939 – Terry Waite; 1943 – Sharon Gless, Joe Namath; 1948 – John Bonham; 1949 – Tom Berenger; 1950 – Gregory Harrison; 1955 – Tommy Emmanuel; 1960 – Chris Elliott; 1961 – Lea Thompson; 1962 – Corey Hart (he wears his sunglasses at night); 1964 – Darryl McDaniels (Run D.M.C.); 1965 – Brooke Shields; 1972 – Archie Panjabi; 1976 – Colin Farrell

Deaths

1809 – Joseph Haydn; 1983 – Jack Dempsey; 1996 – Timothy Leary; 2001 – Arlene Francis; 2013 – Jean Stapleton; 2015 – Slim Richey

[Gravdigr]

June 1

1495 – A monk, John Cor, records the first known batch of Scotch whisky.

1533 – Anne Boleyn is crowned Queen of England.

1792 – Kentucky is admitted as the 15th state of the United States.

1796 – Tennessee is admitted as the 16th state of the United States.

1812 – War of 1812: U.S. President James Madison asks the Congress to declare war on the United Kingdom.

1861 – American Civil War: Battle of Fairfax Court House: The first land battle of the American Civil War after the Battle of Fort Sumter, producing the first Confederate combat casualty.

1916 – Louis Brandeis becomes the first Jew appointed to the United States Supreme Court.

1918 – World War I: Western Front: Battle of Belleau Wood: Allied Forces under John J. Pershing and James Harbord engage Imperial German Forces under Wilhelm, German Crown Prince.

1922 – The Royal Ulster Constabulary is founded.

1939 – First flight of the German Focke-Wulf Fw 190 fighter-bomber airplane.

1959 - The first edition of Juke Box Jury aired on the BBC.

1962 – Adolf Eichmann is hanged in Israel.

1967 – Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, by The Beatles, is released.

David Bowie releases his self titled debut studio album.

1980 – Cable News Network (CNN) begins broadcasting.

1981 - The first issue of the heavy metal magazine Kerrang! was published as a special pull-out by UK weekly music paper Sounds. AC/DC had the front cover.

2001 – Nepalese royal massacre: Crown Prince Dipendra of Nepal shoots and kills several members of his family including his father and mother, King Birendra of Nepal and Queen Aiswarya.

2009 – General Motors files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. It is the fourth largest United States bankruptcy in history.

2012 – United States President, Barack Obama, orders Cyber attacks of Stuxnet, against Iran's Natanz Nuclear Facility, code-named Operation Olympic Games.

Births

1637 – Jacques Marquette (namesake of Marquette University); 1801 – Brigham Young; 1825 – John Hunt Morgan; 1831 – John Bell Hood; 1889 – James Daugherty; 1890 – Frank Morgan; 1915 – John Randolph; 1921 – Nelson Riddle; 1926 – Andy Griffith, Marilyn Monroe; 1930 – Edward Woodward; 1933 – Charlie Wilson (Charlie Wilson's War); 1934 – Pat Boone; 1935 – Reverend Ike; 1937 – Morgan Freeman; 1939 – Cleavon Little ('Sheriff Bart' in "Blazing Saddles"); 1940 – René Auberjonois ('Odo'); 1946 – Brian Cox; 1947 – Jonathan Pryce, Ronnie Wood; 1948 – Powers Boothe, Tom Sneva; 1953 – David Berkowitz (Son of Sam), Ronnie Dunn (Brooks & Dunn); 1961 – Mark Curry (Hangin' with Mr. Cooper); 1968 – Mathias Rust (landed a private plane in Red Square); 1969 – Teri Polo

Deaths

1868 – James Buchanan; 1927 – Lizzie Borden; 1948 – Sonny Boy Williamson I; 1965 – Curly Lambeau (founded the Green Bay Packers); 1968 – Helen Keller; 1980 – Arthur Nielsen (Nielsen ratings); 1981 – Carl Vinson (namesake of the USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70)); 1999 – Christopher Cockerell (invented the hovercraft); 2000 – Tito Puente; 2001 – Hank Ketcham ("Dennis The Menace" creator); 2008 – Yves Saint Laurent; 2014 – Ann B. Davis ('Alice' on "The Brady Bunch")

[Gravdigr]

Originally Posted by Gravdigr

Today is May 31, the last day of May.

Today is also World No Tobacco Day.

1279 BC – Ramesses II (The Great) (19th dynasty) becomes pharaoh of Ancient Egypt.

455 – Emperor Petronius Maximus is stoned to death by an angry mob while fleeing Rome.

526 – A devastating earthquake strikes Antioch killing 250,000.

1859 – The clock tower at the Houses of Parliament,



which houses Big Ben, starts keeping time.

1864 – American Civil War: Overland Campaign: Battle of Cold Harbor: The Army of Northern Virginia under Robert E. Lee engages the Army of the Potomac under Ulysses S. Grant and George Meade.

1879 – Gilmores Garden in New York City is renamed Madison Square Garden by William Henry Vanderbilt and is opened to the public at 26th Street and Madison Avenue.

1889 – Johnstown Flood: Over 2,200 people die after a dam fails



and sends a 60-foot (18-meter) wall of water over the town of Johnstown, Pennsylvania.

1909 – The National Negro Committee, forerunner to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, convenes for the first time.

1927 – The last Ford Model T



rolls off the assembly line after a production run of 15,007,003 vehicles.

1929 – The first talking Mickey Mouse cartoon, "The Karnival Kid", is released.

1973 – The United States Senate votes to cut off funding for the bombing of Khmer Rouge targets within Cambodia, hastening the end of the Cambodian Civil War.

1977 – The Trans-Alaska Pipeline System is completed.

1985 – United States–Canada tornado outbreak: Forty-one tornadoes hit Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and Ontario, leaving 76 dead.

1989 – A group of six members of the guerrilla group Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) of Peru, shoot dead eight transsexuals, in the city of Tarapoto.

2005 – Vanity Fair reveals that Mark Felt



was Deep Throat.

2013 – The asteroid 1998 QE2 and its moon make their closest approach to Earth for the next two centuries.

Births

1819 – Walt Whitman; 1852 – Julius Richard Petri (Petri dish); 1894 – Fred Allen; 1898 – Norman Vincent Peale; 1908 – Don Ameche; 1922 – Denholm Elliott; 1930 – Clint Eastwood; 1938 – Johnny Paycheck; 1939 – Terry Waite; 1943 – Sharon Gless, Joe Namath; 1948 – John Bonham; 1949 – Tom Berenger; 1950 – Gregory Harrison; 1955 – Tommy Emmanuel; 1960 – Chris Elliott; 1961 – Lea Thompson; 1962 – Corey Hart (he wears his sunglasses at night); 1964 – Darryl McDaniels (Run D.M.C.); 1965 – Brooke Shields; 1972 – Archie Panjabi; 1976 – Colin Farrell

Deaths

1809 – Joseph Haydn; 1983 – Jack Dempsey; 1996 – Timothy Leary; 2001 – Arlene Francis; 2013 – Jean Stapleton; 2015 – Slim Richey

[Gravdigr]

Originally Posted by Gravdigr

May 30

70 - Roman emperor Titus breaches Jerusalem's Second Wall.

1431 - In Rouen, France, Joan of Arc is burned at the stake. She is ~19 years old.

1536 – King Henry VIII of England marries Jane Seymour (no, not that one, a different one), a lady-in-waiting to his first two wives.

1539 – In Florida, Hernando de Soto lands at Tampa Bay with 600 soldiers with the goal of finding gold.

1806 – Future U.S. President Andrew Jackson kills Charles Dickinson in a duel after Dickinson had accused Jackson's wife, Rachel, of bigamy.

1868 – Decoration Day (the predecessor of the modern "Memorial Day") is observed in the United States for the first time.

1883 – In New York City, a rumor that the Brooklyn Bridge is going to collapse causes a stampede that crushes twelve people.

1899 – Pearl Hart,



a female outlaw of the Old West, robs a stage coach 30 miles southeast of Globe, Arizona.

1911 – At the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the first Indianapolis 500 ends with Ray Harroun in his Marmon Wasp



becoming the first winner of the 500-mile auto race.

1922 – The Lincoln Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C..

1942 – World War II: One thousand British bombers launch a 90-minute attack on



Cologne, Germany.

1948 – A dike along the flooding Columbia River breaks, obliterating Vanport, Oregon within minutes. Fifteen people die and tens of thousands are left homeless.

1958 – Memorial Day: The remains of two unidentified American servicemen, killed in action during World War II and the Korean War respectively, are buried at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier



in Arlington National Cemetery.

1966 – Launch of Surveyor 1, the first US spacecraft to land on an extraterrestrial body.

1968 - The Beatles begin recording what will become known as "The White Album".

1971 – Mariner program: Mariner 9 is launched to map 70% of the surface, and to study temporal changes in the atmosphere and surface, of Mars.

1972 – The Angry Brigade goes on trial over a series of 25 bombings throughout the United Kingdom.

2005 – American student Natalee Holloway disappears while on a high school graduation trip to Aruba, and caused a media sensation in the United States.

2012 – Former Liberian president Charles Taylor is sentenced to 50 years in prison for his role in atrocities committed during the Sierra Leone Civil War.

2013 – Nigeria passes a law banning same-sex marriage.

Births

1846 – Peter Carl Fabergé; 1896 – Howard Hawks; 1902 – Stepin Fetchit; 1908 – Mel Blanc; 1909 – Benny Goodman; 1918 – Bob Evans; 1927 – Clint Walker; 1936 – Keir Dullea; 1939 – Michael J. Pollard; 1939 – Tim Waterstone (founded Waterstone's book stores); 1943 – Gale Sayers; 1944 – Meredith MacRae; 1953 – Colm Meaney; 1955 – Topper Headon (The Clash), Jake "The Snake" Roberts; 1958 – Ted McGinley; 1962 – Kevin Eastman (co-creator of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles); 1963 – Shauna Grant (porn actress); 1964 – Wynonna Judd,Tom Morello; 1974 – CeeLo Green; 1975 – Marissa Mayer (CEO Yahoo); 1979 – Clint Bowyer

Deaths

1431 – Joan of Arc; 1593 – Christopher Marlowe; 1640 – Peter Paul Rubens; 1778 – Voltaire; 1911 – Milton Bradley; 1912 – Wilbur Wright; 1947 – Georg von Trapp (of the "The Sound of Music" von Trapps); 1953 – Dooley Wilson ('Sam' from "Casablanca"); 1960 – Boris Pasternak; 1967 – Claude Rains ('Capt. Renault' from "Casablanca"); 1986 – Perry Ellis; 1993 – Sun Ra; 2012 – John Fox, Andrew Huxley; 2015 – Beau Biden