This Day in History

[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]

June 2

455 – Sack of Rome: Vandals enter Rome, and plunder the city for two weeks

1692 – Bridget Bishop is the first person to go to trial in the Salem witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts. Found guilty, she is hanged on June 10.

1763 – Pontiac's Rebellion: At what is now Mackinaw City, Michigan, Chippewas capture Fort Michilimackinac by diverting the garrison's attention with a game of lacrosse, then chasing a ball into the fort.

1835 – P. T. Barnum and his circus start their first tour of the United States.

1886 – U.S. President Grover Cleveland marries Frances Folsom in the White House, becoming the only president to wed in the executive mansion.

1896 – Guglielmo Marconi applies for a patent for his wireless telegraph.

1910 – Charles Rolls, a co-founder of Rolls-Royce Limited, becomes the first man to make a non-stop double crossing of the English Channel by plane.

1919 – Anarchists simultaneously set off bombs in eight separate U.S. cities.

1924 – U.S. President Calvin Coolidge signs the Indian Citizenship Act into law, granting citizenship to all Native Americans born within the territorial limits of the United States.

1953 – The coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, who is crowned Queen of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Her Other Realms and Territories & Head of the Commonwealth, the first major international event to be televised.

1962 – During the 1962 FIFA World Cup, police had to intervene multiple times in fights between Chilean and Italian players in one of the most violent games in football history.

1967 – Luis Monge is executed in Colorado's gas chamber, in the last pre-Furman execution in the United States.

1976 - Wings set a new world record when they performed in front of 67,100 fans in Seattle, the largest attendance for an indoor crowd.

1979 – Pope John Paul II starts his first official visit to his native Poland, becoming the first Pope to visit a Communist country.

1981 - Prince made his live British debut at The Lyceum Ballroom, London, (he would not play the UK again for five years).

1983 – After an emergency landing because of an in-flight fire, twenty-three passengers aboard Air Canada Flight 797 are killed when a flashover occurs as the plane's doors open. Because of this incident, numerous new safety regulations are put in place.

1989 - Rolling Stone Bill Wyman secretly married 19-year-old (some sources put her at 18) Mandy Smith. Wyman's 28-year-old son was best man. All other four Stones attended. The marriage lasted 17 months.

1990 – The Lower Ohio Valley tornado outbreak spawns 66 confirmed tornadoes in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio, killing 12 people.

1995 – United States Air Force Captain Scott O'Grady's F-16 is shot down over Bosnia while patrolling the NATO no-fly zone.

1997 – In Denver, Timothy McVeigh is convicted on 15 counts of murder and conspiracy for his role in the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. He was executed four years later.

2004 – Ken Jennings begins his 74-game winning streak on the syndicated game show Jeopardy!.

2012 – The former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is sentenced to life imprisonment for his role in the killing of demonstrators during the 2011 Egyptian revolution.

Births

1731 – Martha Washington; 1740 – Marquis de Sade; 1840 – Thomas Hardy; 1904 – Johnny Weissmuller (Tarzan); 1915 – Walter Tetley (voice of 'Sherman' in the Mr. Peabody cartoons); 1920 – Tex Schramm; 1926 – Milo O'Shea; 1930 – Pete Conrad (3rd man to walk on the Moon); 1937 – Sally Kellerman; 1941 – Stacy Keach; 1941 – Charlie Watts; 1943 – Charles Haid; 1944 – Marvin Hamlisch; 1948 – Jerry Mathers (the Beaver); 1953 – Craig Stadler; 1954 – Dennis Haysbert; 1955 – Dana Carvey; 1960 – Kyle Petty; 1972 – Wayne Brady; 1972 – Wentworth Miller ("Prison Break"); 1979 – Morena Baccarin; 1989 – Freddy Adu

Deaths

1941 – Lou Gehrig; 1969 – Leo Gorcey; 1970 – Bruce McLaren; 1977 – Stephen Boyd; 1987 – Sammy Kaye, Andrés Segovia; 1990 – Jack Gilford, Rex Harrison; 1996 – Ray Combs; 1998 – Junkyard Dog; 2001 – Imogene Coca; 2008 – Bo Diddley; 2009 – David Eddings; 2012 – Richard Dawson

[Gravdigr]

June 3

1539 – Hernando de Soto claims Florida for Spain.

1608 – Samuel de Champlain completes his third voyage to New France at Tadoussac, Quebec.

1621 – The Dutch West India Company receives a charter for New Netherland.

1781 – Jack Jouett begins his midnight ride to warn Thomas Jefferson and the Virginia legislature of an impending raid by Banastre Tarleton.

1839 – In Humen, China, Lin Tse-hsü destroys 1.2 million kg of opium confiscated from British merchants, providing Britain with a casus belli to open hostilities, resulting in the First Opium War.

1885 – In the last military engagement fought on Canadian soil, the Cree leader, Big Bear, escapes the North-West Mounted Police.

1888 – The poem "Casey at the Bat", by Ernest Lawrence Thayer, is published in The San Francisco Examiner.

1889 – The first long-distance electric power transmission line in the United States is completed, running 14 miles (23 km) between a generator at Willamette Falls and downtown Portland, Oregon.

1916 – The National Defense Act is signed into law, increasing the size of the United States National Guard by 450,000 men.

1937 – The Duke of Windsor marries Wallis Simpson.

1942 – World War II: Japan begins the Aleutian Islands Campaign by bombing Unalaska Island.

1943 – In Los Angeles, California, white U.S. Navy sailors and Marines clash with Latino youths in the Zoot Suit Riots.

1953 - Elvis Presley graduated from L.C. Humes High School in Memphis. He was the first member of his family to graduate high school.

1962 – At Paris' Orly Airport, Air France Flight 007 overruns the runway and explodes when the crew attempts to abort takeoff, killing 130 people.

1965 – The launch of Gemini 4, the first multi-day space mission by a NASA crew. Ed White, a crew member, performs the first American spacewalk.

1969 – Melbourne–Evans collision: off the coast of South Vietnam, the Australian aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne cuts the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Frank E. Evans in half.

1970 - The Kinks' Ray Davies was forced to make a 6,000 mile round trip from New York to London to record one word in a song. Davies had to change the word 'Coca- Cola' to 'Cherry Cola' on the bands forthcoming single 'Lola' due to an advertising ban at BBC Radio.

1973 – A Soviet supersonic Tupolev Tu-144 crashes near Goussainville, France, killing 14, the first crash of a supersonic passenger aircraft.

1979 – A blowout at the Ixtoc I oil well in the southern Gulf of Mexico causes at least 3,000,000 barrels (480,000 m3) of oil to be spilled into the waters, the second-worst accidental oil spill ever recorded.

1980 – The 1980 Grand Island tornado outbreak: Seven tornadoes hit Grand Island, Nebraska, which take five lives, 357 single-family homes, 33 mobile homes, 85 apartments, 49 businesses and cause $300 million in damages.

1983 - US session drummer Jim Gordon, murdered his mother by pounding her head with a hammer. A diagnosed schizophrenic, it was not until his trial in 1984 that he was properly diagnosed. Due to the fact that his attorney was unable to use the insanity defense, Gordon was sentenced to sixteen years-to-life in prison in 1984. A Grammy Award winner for co-writing "Layla" with Eric Clapton, Gordon worked with The Beach Boys, John Lennon, George Harrison, Frank Zappa and many other artists.

1989 – The government of China sends troops to force protesters out of Tiananmen Square after seven weeks of occupation.

1991 – Mount Unzen erupts in Kyūshū, Japan, killing 43 people, all of them either researchers or journalists.

2012 – A plane carrying 153 people on board crashes in a residential neighborhood in Lagos, Nigeria, killing everyone on board and 10 people on the ground.

2012 – The pageant for the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II takes place on the River Thames.

Births

1808 – Jefferson Davis; 1864 – Ransom E. Olds (founder Oldsmobile & REO Motor Car Co.); 1911 – Ellen Corby ('Grandma Walton'); 1917 – Leo Gorcey; 1924 – Colleen Dewhurst; 1924 – Jimmy Rogers (no, the black one); 1925 – Tony Curtis; 1926 – Allen Ginsberg; 1927 – Boots Randolph ("Yakety Sax"); 1929 – Chuck Barris; 1931 – Raúl Castro; 1936 – Larry McMurtry; 1942 – Curtis Mayfield; 1945 – Hale Irwin; 1946 – Tristan Rogers ('Robert Scorpio' on "General Hospital"); 1947 – Mickey Finn; 1950 – Suzi Quatro; 1950 – Deniece Williams ("Let's Hear It For The Boy"), Robert Z'Dar ("Maniac Cop"); 1951 – Jill Biden; 1952 – Billy Powell; 1964 – James Purefoy; 1967 – Anderson Cooper; 1976 – Jamie McMurray

Deaths

1861 – Stephen A. Douglas; 1875 – Georges Bizet; 1899 – Johann Strauss II; 1955 – Barbara Graham; 1973 – Dory Funk; 1975 – Ozzie Nelson; 1987 – Will Sampson ('Chief Bromden' in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest"); 1990 – Robert Noyce (co-founder Intel); 1991 – Katia Krafft, Maurice Krafft; 2001 – Anthony Quinn; 2002 – Lew Wasserman; 2009 – David Carradine; 2011 – James Arness; 2011 – Jack Kevorkian; 2013 – Deacon Jones

[Gravdigr]

Originally Posted by Gravdigr

June 1

There are 213 days remaining in 2017, and there are 206 days until Christmas.

Today is Children's Day.

Also observed today is Global Day of Parents, Neighbours' Day, and World Milk Day.

Events

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]

The year was 1975:

The number one movie was The French Connection II, starring Gene Hackman:



The number one song was "Before The Next Teardrop Falls" by Freddy Fender:



I saw Freddy Fender sing this song (and others) at Beech Bend Park in Bowling Green, KY. I might have been 10. He waved and winked at me. He probably doesn't remember me. He's quite dead you know.

[xoxoxoBruce]

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

The ladies Tea & Crochet Society president addressed the group.
Ladies, we have a guest speaker today who was on a ship from England to Murmansk Russia when is was attack by the German air force... Mister Swen Olson.
(polite applause)
Well there were, a convoy in the cold North Sea, headed to Murmansk with a shipload of tanks the Russians needed badly on the eastern front. Suddenly this focker comes at us.
(polite group gasp)
Then another focker and another folker, they just came relentlessly…. focker focker focker... So finally we shot all those fockers down and got to Murmansk.
As president I should explain, ladies, Mr Olson was speaking of aircraft made by Fock-Wulf Aircraft Company, right Mr Olson.
Oh no, ma’am , these fockers were messerschmitts.

[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

[xoxoxoBruce]

Timothy Leary; 2001

Timothy Leary's dead.
No, no, no, no, He's outside looking in.
Timothy Leary's dead.
No, no, no, no, He's outside looking in.
He'll fly his astral plane,
Takes you trips around the bay,
Brings you back the same day,
Timothy Leary. Timothy Leary.

[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