1660 - The English Restoration Under invitation by leaders of the English Commonwealth, Charles II, the exiled king of England, landed at Dover, England, to assume the throne and end eleven years of military rule.
Restored to the throne on May 29 [H]
1787 - Constitutional Convention was convened
in Philadelphia after enough delegates had shown up for a quorum. [H]
1790 - Copyright protection law enacted Congress enacted the first copyright protection law on May 25, 1790, and President George Washington signed the bill six days later.
1793 - Catholic Priest Ordained in America In Baltimore, Maryland, Father Stephen Theodore Badin became the first Catholic priest to be ordained in the United States.
1810 - Argentina declares independence from Napoleonic Spain (Nat'l Day)
1825 - American Unitarian Assn founded
1895 - Playwright Oscar Wilde was convicted of a
morals charge in London; he was sentenced to prison.
1927 - Henry Ford stops producing the Model T car (begins Model A).
1935 - Babe Ruth hits his last 3 home runs,
712, 713 and 714 of his career, for the Boston
Braves, in a game against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
1940 - Golden Gate International Exposition reopens.
1945 - Arther C Clark proposes relay satellites in geosynchronous orbit
1946 - Transjordan (now Jordan) became a kingdom as
it proclaimed its new monarch, King Abdullah Ibn Ul-Hussein and gains independence from Britain (Natl Day)
1948 - SF receives its 1st telecast
1950 - Bkln-Battery Tunnel opened in NYC
1953 - 1st atomic cannon electronically fired - Frenchman Flat - Nevada
1953 - 1st noncommercial educational television station - Houston - Texas
1961 - President Kennedy asked the nation to work
toward putting a man on the moon by the end of the decade.
1963 - Organization of African Unity was founded,
in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
1968 - The Gateway Arch, part of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial in
St. Louis, was dedicated.
1973 - US launches 1st Skylab crew Kerwin - Conrad - Weitz
1976 - U.S. Rep. Wayne L. Hays, D-Ohio, admitted to
a "personal relationship" with Elizabeth Ray, a committee staff member
who claimed she'd received her job in order to be Hays' mistress.
1978 - "Star Wars" is released.
1979 - Israel begins to return Sinai to Egypt
1979 - On Friday afternoon, Memorial Day weekend, American Airlines Flight 191, a Los Angeles-bound DC-10,
crashed on takeoff from Chicago's O'Hare airport
into an open field about half-a-mile from its takeoff point, killing all 271 people aboard and two others in a nearby trailer park.
1981 - Daredevil Daniel Goodwin, wearing a
"Spiderman" costume, scaled the outside of Chicago's Sears Tower in 7
1/2 hours.
1983 - "Return of the Jedi" (Star Wars 3) is released.
1985 - The Charlotte Motor Speedway, a.k.a. the Mecca of Motorsports, held its first race.
1991 - Foreigners fled the Ethiopian capital of
Addis Ababa as rebels closed in on the city.
1991 - Israel completed "Operation Solomon," which had evacuated
15,000 Ethiopian Jews to their promised land.
1992 - Jay Leno's first Tonight Show
as host. [H]
1994 - First World Wide Web Conference opened at CERN the European Particle Physics Lab in
Geneva.
1996 - President Clinton, honoring the men
and women who died in military service, used his weekly radio address to defend
America's global military role, saying it "is making our people safer and
the world more secure."
2000 - The government proposed a rating system telling consumers how prone
vehicles are to rolling over.
2000 - Iranian state radio announced that former President Hashemi Rafsanjani
had resigned from the incoming parliament, depriving hard-liners of a leading
figure in the power struggle between conservatives and reformists.
1803 - Ralph Waldo Emerson (writer: Essays, Representative Men, Nature; poet: Days; editor: The Dial)
1847 - John Alexander Dowie, (Elijah the Restorer) American evangelist
1865 - John R. Mott, worked in internat'l church movements (Nobel 1946)
1878 - Bill 'Bojangles' (Luther) Robinson (vaudeville dancer: The King of Tap Dancers; films: The Littlest Rebel, In Old Kentucky, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, The Little Colonel)
1886 - Philip Murray, founder of Congress of Industrial Organizations
1889 - Igor Sikorsky, developed a working helicopter
1898 - Bennett Cerf, publisher
1898 - Gene (James) Tunney (World Heavyweight Boxing Champion [1926])
1916 - Ginny Simms (singer)
1917 - Theodore Hesburgh, ex-president of Notre Dame
1918 - Claude Akins (actor: The Caine Mutiny, From Here to Eternity, Rio Bravo, Battle for the Planet of the Apes, Inherit the Wind, B.J. and the Bear, Austin City Limits)
1919 - Lindsay Nelson (sportscaster: CBS Sports, Cotton Bowl Football, NCAA College Football, New York Mets, San Francisco Giants; author: Hello Everybody, I'm Lindsay Nelson)
1921 - Hal David (songwriter: The Four Winds and the Seven Seas, American Beauty Rose, Broken-Hearted Melody; w/Burt Bacharach: The Story of My Life, Magic Moments; current president of ASCAP)
1923 - John Weitz (fashion designer)
1925 - Jeanne Crain (actress: Pinky, State Fair, People Will Talk)
1925 - Jeanne Crain, in Barstow Calif
1926 - Bill Sharman (Basketball Hall of Famer: Boston Celtics NBA Champion teams [1957, 1959, 1960, 1961]; coach: NBA Coach of the Year: LA Lakers, Lakers General Manager & President)
1926 - Kitty Kallen (singer: Little Things Mean a Lot, Go on with the Wedding (w/George Shaw), If I Give My Heart to You, My Coloring Book)
1926 - Miles (Dewey) Davis (jazz trumpet/flugelhorn musician: combined be-bop, modal chord progressions and rock rhythms to create "cool jazz")
1927 - Robert Ludlum, spy novelist
1929 - Beverly Sills (Belle Silverman) (opera soprano; chairperson of Lincoln Center)
1932 - Georgi M. Grechko, Soviet cosmonaut (Soyuz 17 26 T-14)
1932 - K.C. Jones (Basketball Hall of Famer: Boston Celtics; Olympic Gold Medalist [1956]; head coach: Boston Celtics, Capitol Bullets, San Diego Conquistadors, Brandeis University)
1934 - Ron Nessen (newsman: NBC; White House Press Secretary: Nixon administration; president Mutual News)
1935 - Barbara Harris, in Illinois
1935 - Cookie (Carton) Gilchrist (football)
1936 - Tom T. Hall (singer: P.S. I Love You; songwriter: Harper Valley P.T.A.; syndicated host: Pop Goes the Country, The Nashville Network)
1939 - Dixie Carter (actress: Designing Women, Different Strokes)
1943 - Leslie Uggams (singer: Sing Along with Mitch; actress: Roots)
1947 - Jessi Colter (Mirian Johnson) (country singer: I'm Not Lisa; married to Waylon Jennings)
1947 - Karen Valentine (actress: Room 222, Children in the Crossfire)
1950 - John 'The Count of' Mentefusco (baseball: San Francisco Giants pitcher)
1955 - Connie Sellecca (actress: Hotel, The Great American Hero, The Brotherhood of the Rose)
