Historical Events on May 31

Events 1 - 200 of 204

• 70 Rome captures 1st wall of the city of Jerusalem
• 1223 Battle of the Kalka River: Mongol force led by Jebei and Subedei defeat a Russian alliance, after feigning their retreat, leading to the death of 20,000 Russians
• 1417 Jacoba of Bavaria becomes countess of Holland/Zealand/Henegouwen

• 1578 Martin Frobisher sails from Harwich, England, to Frobisher Bay, Canada. Eventually mines fools gold, famously used to pave the streets of London.

• 1634 The colony of Massachusetts Bay annexes Maine colony
• 1659 Netherlands, England and France sign Treaty of The Hague
• 1665 Jerusalem's rabbi Sjabtai Tswi proclaims himself Messiah

• 1696 John Salomonsz elected chief of Saint-Eustatius
• 1727 France, Britain & Netherlands sign accord of Paris
• 1744 French troops conquer Kortrijk
• 1759 The Province of Pennsylvania bans all theater productions
• 1790 Alferez Manuel Quimper explores the Strait of Juan de Fuca (now the international border between Canada and the US)
• 1790 US copyright law enacted
• 1813 In Australia, Lawson, Blaxland and Wentworth reach Mount Blaxland, marking the end of a route across the Blue Mountains
• 1821 Cathedral of Assumption of Blessed Virgin Mary, 1st US Catholic cathedral, is dedicated in Baltimore, designed by Benjamin Henry Latrobe
• 1836 HMS Beagle anchors in Simons Bay, Cape of Good Hope
• 1837 Astor Hotel opens in NYC, it later becomes the Waldorf-Astoria
• 1847 Rotterdam-Hague Railway opens
• 1849 Last edition of Orange sheet "Journal de La Haye"
• 1853 Elisha Kane's Arctic expedition leaves NY aboard Advance
• 1859 Philadelphia A's organize to play "town ball" became baseball 20 years later
• 1861 General Beauregard is given command of Confederate Alexandria Line
• 1861 Mint at New Orleans closes
• 1862 Battle of Seven Pines Virginia (Fair Oaks)
• 1868 1st Memorial Day parade held in Ironton, Ohio
• 1868 Dr James Moore (UK) wins 1st recorded bicycle race, (2k) velocipede race at Parc fde St Cloud, Paris
• 1870 Congress passes 1st Enforcement Act (rights of blacks)
• 1870 E. J. DeSemdt patents asphalt pavement
• 1875 Reciprocity Treaty between US & Hawaii ratified
• 1878 German battleship SMS Grosser Kurfürst sinks, 284 killed
• 1878 US Congress accepts decrease in dollar circulation
• 1879 1st electric railway opens at Berlin Trades Exposition

• 1880 League of American Wheelmen (1st US bicycle association), forms in Newport, Rhode Island
• 1883 French fleet under Pierre begins siege of Tamatave, Madagascar

• 1889 Johnstown Flood; 2,209 die in Johnston, Pennsylvania when the South Fork Dam, located on the Little Conemaugh River fails
• 1890 Ulm Minster, in Ulm, Germany, the tallest church in the world with a steeple 161.5m high, is finally completed (begun 1377)
• 1891 Work on Trans-Siberian railway begins

• 1893 Whitcomb Judson of Chicago, patents a hookless fastening (zipper)
• 1899 -June 5] Conference of Bloemfontein fails
• 1899 Bronx acquires Keltch Memorial Park
• 1900 British troops under Lord Roberts occupy Johannesburg
• 1900 Piet de Law captures Lt Col BE Spragges, 13th Battalion Irish Imperial Yeomanry
• 1900 Tom Hayward scores 1,000th cricket run of season (sets record 1074)
• 1900 US troops arrive in Beijing, help put down Boxer Rebellion
• 1901 At the opening of the Greek National Assembly, Prince George, High Commissioner of Crete, asks it to endorse the union of Crete with Greece; the proposal is later rejected
• 1902 Australia Cricket all out 36 v England, Edgbaston, their lowest ever
• 1902 Boer War Ends; Treaty of Unity signed, Britain annexes Transvaal
• 1902 Labor trouble and riots lead Spanish King Alfonso XII to impose martial law

• 1907 Taxis 1st began running in NYC
• 1908 Miss Pottelsberghe de la Pottery is 1st airplane passenger (Belgium)

• 1910 Cape of Good Hope becomes part of Union of South Africa
• 1910 Glenn Curtiss flies from Albany to NYC
• 1910 Union of South Africa declares its independence from the United Kingdom
• 1911 Mexican President Porfirio Díaz flees the country during the Mexican Revolution

• 1912 US marines land on Cuba
• 1913 Alexis Ahlgren runs world record maraton (2:36:06.6)
• 1913 US 17th amendment (direct election of senators) declared ratified
• 1914 Chicago White Sox Joe Benz no-hits Cleveland Indians, 6-1
• 1915 An LZ-38 Zeppelin makes an air raid on London

• 1919 NC-4 aircraft commanded by AC Read completes 1st crossing of Atlantic
• 1921 A large-scale race riot breaks out in Tulsa, Oklahoma, later described as the worst incident of racial violence in American history; around 150-300 African Americans killed [1] [2]
• 1921 Boston Red Sox 1st baseman John "Stuffy" McInnis begins an errorless string of 1,700 chances
• 1923 China & USSR exchange diplomats
• 1923 The South African Indian Congress (SAIC) forms in Durban, South Africa, with Omar Hajee Amod Jhaveri as President
• 1924 China recognizes the USSR
• 1926 Kruger National Park is established as South Africa's first national park
• 1926 Portuguese president Bernardino Machedo resigns after coup
• 1926 Sesquicentennial Exposition opens in Philadelphia
• 1927 Tiger 1st baseman Johnny Neun makes an unassisted triple play
• 1928 1st aerial crossing of Pacific takes off from Oakland
• 1928 Charlie Hallows scores his 1,000th run of Cricket season
• 1929 Atlantic City Convention Center opens

• 1930 Building begins on Albert Canal in Belgium
• 1930 Comet 73P/1930 (Schwassmann-Wachmann 3) approaches 0.0617 AUs of Earth

• 1930 Philadelphia Athletics's Max Bishop draws 8 walks in a doubleheader to set MLB record
• 1934 The Barmen Declaration is published by a group of church leaders in Germany including Karl Barth to help Christians withstand the challenges of the Nazi party
• 1935 7.7 magnitude earthquake destroys Quetta in Balochistan, British India (now Pakistan) killing an estimated 40,000 people
• 1937 1st quadruplets to finish college (Baylor University)
• 1937 German warships bombard Almeria, Spain

• 1938 Bill Edrich scores his 1,000th run of cricket season, all at Lord's

• 1941 -June 1) 32.0 cm rain falls on Burlington Kansas (state record)
• 1941 1st issue of "Parade" goes on sale
• 1941 A Luftwaffe air raid in Dublin, in neutral Ireland, claims 38 lives
• 1941 German occupiers forbids Jews access to beach & swimming pools
• 1941 Nazi occupiers forbid Jews access to beaches and swimming pools in the Netherlands

• 1942 German Luftwaffe bombs Canterbury, England
• 1942 U-boats sink and damage 146 allied ships this month (722,666 tons)
• 1943 "Archie" comic strip 1st broadcast on radio
• 1943 42 U-boats sunk by the Allies this month
• 1943 Cards Mort Cooper pitches 1st of back-to-back one-hitters
• 1947 Communists seize power in Hungary
• 1947 Eastern DC-4 crashes between Ft Deposit & Perryville, Maryland, kills 53
• 1947 Italian government of Gasperi forms

• 1949 Charley Lupica begins stay on 4 foot square platform atop a 60' pole, vowing to stay until Indians clinch pennant. (They don't, & stays 117 days)
• 1951 Netherlands & South Africa sign cultural accord
• 1953 Lebanese president Camille Shamun disbands government
• 1953 WSUN TV channel 38 in St Petersburg-Tampa, FL (IND) 1st broadcast
• 1955 Construction begins on Soviet cosmodrome launch facilities
• 1955 Great Britain proclaims emergency crisis due to rail strike
• 1955 US Supreme Court orders school integration "with all deliberate speed"
• 1957 Great Britain performs nuclear test at Christmas Island (atmospheric)
• 1958 Dick Dale invents "surf music" with "Let's Go Trippin"
• 1958 US performs nuclear test at Bikini Island (atmospheric tests)
• 1961 Arthur Michael Ramsey appointed the 100th Archbishop of Canterbury

• 1961 Judge Irving Kaufman orders Board of Ed of New Rochelle, to integrate
• 1961 Union of South Africa becomes a republic, leaves Commonwealth

• 1962 "Tell It To Groucho" last airs on CBS-TV
• 1962 The West Indies Federation, made up of former British Caribbean territories, dissolves
• 1964 Charles Schmid kills first Pied Piper victim
• 1964 SF Giants beat NY Mets, 8-6, in 23 innings (2nd game) (7 hrs 32 mins)

• 1970 7.75 Ancash earthquake off coast of Peru kills 66-70,000 and sets off world's deadliest avalanche

• 1970 KDUB TV channel 40 in Dubuque, IA (ABC) begins broadcasting
• 1971 WDXR (now WKPD) TV channel 29 in Paducah, KY (PBS) begins broadcasting
• 1973 Glenn Turner scores his 1,000th run of English cricket season
• 1974 Israel and Syria sign an agreement concerning Golan Heights
• 1974 USSR performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan
• 1975 "Fight the Power" single released by The Isley Brothers (Billboard Song of the Year, 1975)
• 1975 Fred Newman makes 12,874 baskets in a one-day exhibition
• 1976 The Who set the record for the loudest concert of all time, 120 decibels at 50 meters, at The Valley in Charlton, London
• 1977 Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani becomes heir apparent to throne of Qatar
• 1977 Trans-Alaska oil pipeline completed, one of the world's largest pipeline systems
• 1979 Radio City Music Hall (NYC) reopens
• 1980 "Love Stinks" by J. Geils Band peaks at #38
• 1980 Police & youthful rebels battle in Zurich
• 1984 57th National Spelling Bee: Daniel Greenblatt wins spelling luge
• 1984 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

• 1985 Guatemala adopts constitution
• 1985 Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) became a Schedule I drug in the United States
• 1985 New Orleans Saints are sold for $70,204,000
• 1985 Tornado outbreak in the United States and Canada sees 41 tornadoes hit Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and Ontario, leaving 90 dead
• 1987 Saul Ballesteros drives 3 golf balls off Mt McKinley, Alaska
• 1987 Stanley Cup Final, Northlands Coliseum, Edmonton, AL: Edmonton Oilers beat Philadelphia Flyers, 3-1 to win title 4 games to 3: Oilers' 3rd SC
• 1989 "Rambling with Gambling" 20,000th radio program on WOR-AM (NYC)
• 1989 1st International Rock Awards in the US
• 1989 Speaker of US House of Representatives Jim Wright resigns
• 1990 63rd National Spelling Bee: Amy Marie Dimak wins spelling fibranne
• 1990 BPAA US Women's Bowling Open won by Dana Miller-Mackie
• 1990 NYC's Zodiac killer shoots 3rd victim, Joseph Ponce
• 1991 Sides in Angola sign a treaty ending 16 year civil war
• 1992 "The 1992 Boat Show" - the 193rd and final episode of US comedy series "Night Court" - airs on NBC-TV, completing a 9 season run
• 1992 46th Tony Awards: "Dancing at Lughnasa" (play) & "Crazy For You" (musical) win
• 1992 5th Children's Miracle Network Telethon raises $1,060,000
• 1993 President Dobrica Ćosić of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia flees
• 1994 Padres scores 13 in 2nd vs Pirates
• 1996 Mark Van Thillo and Abigail Alling, former biospherian win $100,000 lawsuit against Biospheric Development for Space Biospheres Ventures
• 1997 Super Rugby Final, Eden Park, Auckland: Blues win second straight title with a 23-7 victory over ACT Brumbies; fullback Adrian Cashmore lands 3 penalties & 2 conversions for the winners
• 1997 The Confederation Bridge opens, linking Prince Edward Island with mainland New Brunswick
• 2002 The New Jersey Nets defeat the Boston Celtics 96-88 in Game 6 of the NBA's Eastern Conference Championship, winning the series 4 games to 2 to advance to their first NBA Finals appearance.

• 2004 British children's cartoon "Peppa Pig" created by Astley Baker Davies premieres on Channel 5
• 2005 Mark Felt, former FBI high ranking official revealed as "Deep Throat" source during Watergate investigations in "Vanity Fair" article

• 2010 Gaza Flotilla raid: Israeli Shayetet 13 soldiers board ships trying to break blockade of Gaze, during violent confrontation aboard MV Mavi Marmara 9 activists killed and several activists and soldiers injured
• 2012 Egypt formally ends its 31 year state of emergency
• 2013 First tornado chaser to be killed by a tornado; Tim Samara and two others killed by El Reno tornado in Oklahoma, the widest ever recorded at 2.6 miles (4.2 km)

• 2015 Harriette Thompson aged 92 and 65 days becomes the oldest woman to complete a marathon (Suja Rock ’n’ Roll Marathon in San Diego)

• 2018 Danish government bans garments that cover the face, including the niqab and burqa

• 2018 Uganda's parliament imposes tax on social media to stop gossip

• 2019 Disgruntled employee shoots and kills 12 people at a US municipal building in Virginia Beach, Virginia

• 2021 China's ruling Communist Party announces it will allow married couples to have three children, in effort to boost falling birthrates [1]

• 2021 Peru says its COVID-19 death toll is three times higher than its official count (180,764 vs 68,000), making it one of the hardest hit countries per capita
• 2021 Tulsa, Oklahoma, marks 100 year anniversary of the massacre of hundreds of black residents by a white mob in the Greenwood neighborhood

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