Today in History
~ May 28
Events
1156 - Battle at Brindisi: King Williamm of Sicily beats Byzantine fleet
1349 - 60 Jews murdered in Breslau Silesia
1453 - Constantinople falls to Muhammad II of the Ottoman Empire.; ending Byzantine Empire
1533 - England's archbishop voids King Henry VIII & Anne Boleyn's marriage
1539 - Hernando de Soto lands in Florida
1608 - Claudio Monteverdi's "Arianna," premieres in Mantua
1664 - 1st Baptist Church organizes (Boston)
1731 - All Hebrew books in Papal State are confiscated
1742 - 1st indoor swimming pool opens (Goodman's Fields, London)
1754 - In the first engagement of the French and Indian War, a Virginia militia under Lieutenant Colonel George Washington defeated a French reconnaissance party in southwestern Pennsylvania.
[H]
1774 - 1st Continental Congress convenes (Virginia)
1798 - Congress empowered President John Adams to recruit an American army of
10,000 volunteers.
1830 - Congress authorizes Indian removal from all states to western prairie
1845 - Fire in Quebec Canada, 1,500 houses destroyed
1851 - Sojourner Truth attends Women's Rights Convention
1858 - Dion Boucicault's "Foul Play," premieres in London
1863 - 1st black regiment (54 Mass) leaves Boston to fight in Civil War [H]
1871 - Paris communards revolt put down
1892 - Sierra Club forms by John Muir in SF, for conservation of nature
1901 - Laws against phosphor matches enacted (inhibition white phosphorous)
1915 - John B Gruelle patents Raggedy Ann doll
1918 - Barney Oldfield ran a qualifying lap in his front-wheel-drive Christie at 102.6 mph. It was the first time any driver had rounded the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in excess of 100 mph.
1918 - Tatars declares Azerbaijan, in Russian Caucasus, independent
1919 - Armenia declares it's Independence
1923 - Attorney General says it is legal for women to wear trousers anywhere
1923 - US unemployment has nearly ended
1925 - The first long-distance fax of medical information took place when. AT&T's New York office transmitted stethogram and electrocardiogram pictures to a Chicago doctor
1926 - United States Customs Court created by Congress.
1929 - The debut of Warner Brothers' On with the Show, the first movie with sound and color
1935 - John Steinbeck's first successful novel, Tortilla Flat is published
1937 - President Roosevelt pushed a button in Washington signaling that
vehicular traffic could cross the just-opened Golden Gate Bridge in California.
1937 - Neville Chamberlain becomes PM of England
1938 - Foundation for Tel Aviv harbor laid
1938 - Hindemith's opera "Mathis der Maler," premieres in Z?rich
1940 - After 18 days of ceaseless German bombardment, Belgium surrenders unconditionally, King Leopold III gives himself up
1940 - Irving Berlin's musical "Louisiana Purchase," premieres in NYC
1953 - The summit of Mount Everest was reached for the first time.
1956 - Eisenhower signs farm bill allows government to store agricultural surplus
1959 - Johnson & Bart's musical "Lock up your daughters," premieres in London
1959 - Monkeys Able & Baker zoom 300 mi (500 km) into space on Jupiter missile, became 1st animals retrieved from a space mission
1961 - Amnesty International was founded in London by lawyer Peter Berenson. (Nobel Peace Prize 1977)
1963 - Estimated 22,000 die in a cyclone in Bay of Bengal (India)
1963 - Jomo Kenyatta becomes 1st PM of Kenya
1964 - Jawaharlal Nehru cremated in New Dehli
1964 - Palestine National Congress forms the PLO in Jerusalem
1967 - Francis Chichester arrives home at Plymouth from Round-the-world, onr man sailboat trip
1968 - Senator Eugene McCarthy wins Democrate primary in Oregon
1972 - White House "plumbers" break into Democratic Natl HQ at Watergate
1974 - "Magic Show" opens at Cort Theater NYC for 1859 performances
1974 - 26th Emmy Awards: MASH, Alan Alda & Mary Tyler Moore win
1977 - 165 killed in a fire at Beverly Hills Supper Club in Southgate, Kentucky
1977 - Janet Guthrie became the first woman to qualify for and participate in the Indy 500 race.
1985 - David Jacobsen, director of the American University Hospital in Beirut,
Lebanon, was abducted by pro-Iranian kidnappers (he was freed 17 months later).
1987 - A 19-year-old West German, Mathias Rust, flew a plane from Helsinki to Moscow, passing through Soviet airspace unchallenged and eventually landing on the Red Square in Moscow.
Three days later, the Soviet defense
minister and his deputy were fired.
1988 - Syrian troops moved into southern Beirut to end 22 days of fighting
between rival Shiite Moslem militias.
1991 - NATO agreed to reorganize its forces in Europe, with a 50-percent cut in
U.S. troops in Europe.
1991 - Addis Abada, the capital of Ethiopia, falls to forces of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), formally ending seventeen years of Marxist rule in the East African country.
1992 - The United States offered $9 million in aid to victims of the fighting in
former Yugoslavia.
1992 - The House of Representatives voted to lift the government's ban on using
aborted fetuses for tissue transplantation research, but the tally fell short of
a veto-proof majority.
1993 - 200,000 demonstrate against mafia terror
1993 - Former Miami police officer William Lorenzo was acquitted in the 1989
deaths of a black motorcyclist and his passenger. The killings had sparked
rioting, but the verdict caused only sporatic violence.
1995 - Bosnia's foreign minister and five other people were killed when Serb
forces downed their helicopter.
1996 - Arkansas Gov. Jim Guy Tucker and two former business associates of
President Clinton were convicted of
fraud and conspiracy charges in connection with Whitewater loans. Tucker
resigned.
1997 - In Denver, Timothy McVeigh's attorneys rested their case in the Oklahoma
City bombing trial.
1997 - President Clinton paid tribute to the 50th anniversary of the Marshall
Plan with a speech in the Netherlands in which he urged today's leaders to
revive economies in the former Soviet bloc.
1998 - In a defiant stance against Microsoft, Gateway announced it would modify Windows 98 to highlight Gateway's Internet service and offer consumers a choice of Web browsing software.
1998 - Pakistan conducted five underground nuclear tests, prompting President
Clinton to impose economic sanctions against the Asian nation.
2000 - Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori easily won the runoff election but
nationwide demonstrations against him continued, and he would resign in
September.
2001 - President Bush honored America's veterans with the Memorial Day signing
of legislation to construct a World War II monument on the National Mall.
Birthdays
Today
1371 - John, the Fearless, Burgundy France, Duke of Burgundy/warrior
1660 - George I, King of England (1714-27)
1738 - Joseph Ignace Guillotin, France, physician/inventor (guillotine)
1759 - William Pitt, the Younger (C), English PM (1783-1801, 1804-06)
1765 - Jean Baptiste Cartier, composer
1779 - Thomas Moore (poet, lyricist: Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young Charms, The Last Rose of Summer, Oft in the Stilly Night)
1807 - Louis Agassiz, Switzerland, naturalist/geologist/teacher
1818 - Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard, US Confederate gen (Hero of Sumter)
1874 - G K Chesterton, writer
1884 - Edvard Benes, premier/president of Czechoslovakia (1921-22, 35-48)
1888 - James Francis Thorpe, Shawnee OK, decathelete (Olympic-gold-1912)
1888 - Jim Thorpe (Olympic gold medalist: decathlon, pentathlon, [1912]; baseball: NY Giants, Boston Braves; football: All- American; president of what became the NFL)
1900 - Taffy Abel (U.S. Hockey Hall of Famer: 1st American to carry the flag in opening Winter Olympics ceremonies; one of 1st U.S. born NHL players: NY Rangers; Chicago Black Hawks)
1907 - Patrick Browne, British Lord justice of appeal
1908 - Ian Lancaster Fleming (author: creator of Bond ... James Bond)
1916 - C Wright Mills, US sociologist (Power Elite)
1916 - Walker Percy, Birmingham Ala, writer (Adventures of a Bad Catholic)
1917 - "Papa" John Creach, violinist
1917 - Barry Commoner, Brooklyn NY, biologist (Science & Survival)
1925 - Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Zehlendorf Germany, baritone (Doktor Faust)
1926 - Marvin Panch (auto racer: Daytona 500 winner [1961])
1929 - Jeannie Carson (Shufflebottom) (comedienne: Red Buttons Show; actress: Hey, Jeannie; former Mrs. Johnny Carson)
1931 - Carroll Baker (actress: The Carpetbaggers, Giant, Baby Doll, Harlow, Kindergarten Cop)
1931 - Stephen Birmingham, Hartford, author (Real Lace: America's Irish Rich)
1934 - The Dionne quintuplets, Annette, Cecile, Emilie, Marie and Yvonne, five identical girls were born to Oliva and Elzire
Dionne, a poor couple at the family farm in Ontario, Canada.
1938 - Jerry West (Basketball Hall of Famer: Olympic gold medalist [1960]; LA Lakers all-star guard: individual record for season free throws [840] and NBA playoff career free throws [1,213]; Lakers coach & general manager)
1944 - Gladys Knight (singer: w/The Pips: Midnight Train to Georgia, If I Were Your Woman, I Heard It Through the Grapevine, Neither One of Us, Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me, Every Beat of My Heart)
1944 - Rudolph Giuliani (politician: Mayor of New York City)
1945 - Gary Stewart (country singer: She's Acting Single (I'm Drinkin' Doubles), Drinkin' Thing, Out of Hand)
1945 - John Fogerty (songwriter; singer: group: Credence Clearwater: Proud Mary, Have You Ever See the Rain, Bad Moon Rising, Lookin' Out My Back Door; group: The Blue Ridge Rangers: Jambalaya, Hearts of Stone, The Old Man Down the Road, Centerfield)
1946 - Madeleine Le Roux, Wyoming, Broadway actress (Cry Uncle)
1946 - Ted Snell (hockey)
1947 - Faith Brown, impressionist
1947 - Kevin O'Shea (hockey)
1947 - Patti Reynolds, Chicago Ill, playmate (Sept, 1965)
1948 - Bob Shearer, Melbourne VIC, Australasia golfer
1948 - Bruce Taylor (football)
1948 - Ray Laidlaw, British rock drummer (Jack the Lad)
1948 - Sondra Locke (actress: The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Bronco Billy, Every Which Way But Loose, The Gauntlet, The Outlaw Josey Wales, Willard, Sudden Impact; director: Ratboy, Impulse)
1949 - Shelley Hamlin, San Mateo CA, LPGA golfer (1978 Patty Berg Classic)
1949 - Sue Holderness, actress (Marlene-Only Fools & Horses, Sandbaggers)
1952 - Jack Lynch (hockey)
1952 - Terry Schmidt (football)
1953 - Arto Lindsay, rocker/actor (Cookie, Desperately Seeking Susan)
1954 - George E Mahlberg, Astrophysicist, Mt Palomar/Mt Wilson CA (1974-78)
1955 - Mark Howe (hockey: Olympic silver medalist [1972]; World Hockey Assoc. Rookie of the Year [1973]: Houston Aeros: played with brother, Marty and Hockey Hall of Famer Dad, Gordie Howe; New England/Hartford Whalers, Philadelphia Flyers, Detroit Red Wings)
1956 - Germaine Montenesdro, 2nd victim of NYC's Zodiac killer (survives)
Famous
deaths
1089 - Lanfrance, Archbishop of Canterbury, dies
1357 - Afonso IV, King of Portugal (1325-57), dies at 66
1521 - Willem van Croij, duke of Soria, dies at about 62
1650 - Gilles Hayne, composer, dies at 59
1685 - Pieter de la Court, economist/historian, dies at about 67
1787 - Johann Georg Leopold Mozart, Austrian composer, dies at 67
1791 - Joseph Schmitt, composer, dies at 57
1805 - Ridolfo Luigi Boccherini, Ital composer/cellist (Minuet), dies at 62
1833 - Johann Christian Friedrich Haeffner, composer, dies at 74
1843 - Noah Webster, lexicographer (Webster's Dictionary), dies at 84
1849 - Anne Bronte, novelist, dies
1898 - Edward Bellamy, US author (Looking Backward), dies
1937 - Alfred Adler, Austria psychiatrist (Individual Psychology), dies at 67
1940 - Walter Connolly, actor (It Happened One Night, Good Earth), dies at 53
1942 - Jean F van Royen, German secretary PTT (camp Amersfoort), dies
1944 - Katri Vala, Finnish poet, dies at 42
1954 - Achille Longo, composer, dies at 54
1958 - Mikulas Schneider-Trvavsky, composer, dies at 77
1959 - Bert Collins, cricketer (19 Tests for Aust 1920-26), dies
1963 - Vissarion Yakovlevich Shebalin, composer, dies at 60
1964 - John Finley Williamson, conductor (Westminster Choir), dies at 76
1969 - Rhys Williams, actor (Nightmare, Okinawa, Corn is Green), dies at 71
1971 - Audie Murphy, actor (Whispering Smiths), dies at 46
1972 - Edward VIII, King of Gr Brit/N Ireld/emperor (India 1936), the Duke of
Windsor, who had abdicated the English throne to marry Wallis Warfield Simpson,
died in Paris at age 77.
1973 - Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt, Germ composer/conductor (Hassan), dies at 73
1973 - Jacques Lipchitz, Polish/French/US art critic sculptor, dies at 81
1992 - Anthony "Big Tuna" Accardo, a former Al Capone gunman who later
was labeled America's No. 1 mobster, died of natural causes at age 86.
2001 - U.S. Rep. Joseph Moakley, D-Mass., died at
age 74.
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