Today in History
~ May 29
Events
0526 - Antioch struck by Earthquake; about 250,000 die
1138 - Anti-Pope Victor IV (Gregorio) overthrows self for Innocentius II
1176 - Battle at Legnano: Lombardi League beats Frederik Barbarossa
1453 - French banker Jacques Coeur's possessions confiscated
1453 - Constantinople (now Istanbul), capital of the Byzantine Empire, was captured by the Turks.
1630 - Gov John Winthrop begins "History of New England"
1660 - Charles II was restored to the English throne.
1721 - South Carolina formally incorporated as a royal colony
1753 - Joseph Haydn's "Krumme Teufel," premieres
1765 - Patrick Henry historic speech against the Stamp Act before Virginia's House of
Burgesses, answering a cry of "Treason!" with, "If this be treason, make the most of it!"
1790 - Rhode Island becomes the thirteenth state. Under threat of severed commercial relations with the United States, Rhode Island narrowly voted to ratify the
U.S. Constitution, making it the last of the thirteen to do so..
1848 - Wisconsin Enters the Union Following approval of statehood by the territory's citizens, Wisconsin entered the Union as the thirtieth state
[H]
1849 - Lincoln says "You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of people some of time, but you can't fool all of the people all of time" (NOTE: Lincoln did not have a Press Secretary or a Spin Doctor)
1849 - Patent for lifting vessels granted to Abraham Lincoln
1861 - Dorothea Dix offers help in setting up hospitals for Union Army
1864 - Mexican Emperor Maximilian arrives at Vera Cruz
1865 - President Andrew Johnson proclaims amnesty for most ex-Confederates
1900 - Trademark "Escalator" registered by Otis Elevator Co
1905 - Pogrom against Jewish community in Brisk Lithuania
1910 - Pope's encyclical on Editae Saepe, against church reformers
1912 - 15 young women fired by Curtis Publishing for dancing "Turkey Trot" during their lunch break
1914 - Ship rams England bound ship Empress of Ireland on St Lawrence
River; 1024 die [H]
1916 - Official flag of president of US adopted
1916 - US Marines once again invade Dominican Republic, stay until 1924
1919 - Charles Strite patents pop-up toaster
1919 - Einstein's light-bending prediction confirmed by Arthur Eddington
1932 - World War I veterans began arriving in Washington to demand cash bonuses they weren't scheduled to receive for another 13 years.
1940 - Arthur Seyss-Inquart installed as Reich commissar of Netherlands
1940 - In WW II, Germans capture Ostend & Ypres in Belgium & Lille in France
1942 - On the advice of Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, Adolf Hitler orders all Jews in occupied Paris to wear an identifying yellow star on the left side of their coats. ("The yellow star may make some Catholics shudder," wrote a French newspaper at the time. "It renews the most strictly Catholic tradition." Intermittently, throughout the history of the papal states, that territory in central Italy controlled by the pope, Jews were often confined to ghettoes and forced to wear either yellow hats or yellow stars.)
1942 - Bing Crosby, the Ken Darby Singers and the John Scott Trotter Orchestra recorded Irving Berlin's "White Christmas" in Los Angeles for Decca
Records, greatest selling record to date .
1942 - The movie "Yankee Doodle Dandy," starring James Cagney, premiered at a war-bonds benefit in New York.
1943 - Meat and cheese rationed in US
1945 - US 1st Marine division conquerors Shuri-castle Okinawa
1949 - Candid Camera, TV comedy Variety, moves to NBC
1953 - Mount Everest was conquered as Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tensing Norkay of Nepal became the first climbers to reach the summit.
[H]
1957 - Algerian rebels kill 336 collaborators
1957 - Laos government of prince Suvanna Phuma resigns
1959 - Charles de Gaulle forms French government
1967 - Pope Paul VI names 27 new cardinals, including Karol Wojtyla, archbishop of Krakow, who later became Pope John Paul II
1973 - Columbia Records fires president Clive Davis for misappropriating $100,000 in funds, Davis will start Arista records
1973 - Thomas Bradley was elected the first black mayor of Los Angeles, defeating incumbent Sam Yorty.
1974 - Northern Ireland is brought under direct rule from Westminster
1976 - Only HR of Joe Niekro's 22-year career, comes off brother Phil
1977 - A.J. Foyt, became the first four-time winner of the Indy 500, driving a Coyote-Foyt of his own design
1980 - J Turners "Juliet & Her Nurse" sold for $6,400,000 in NYC
1982 - Pentagon plans 1st strategy to fight a nuclear war
1985 - British soccer fans attacked Italian fans preceding the European Cup final in Brussels, Belgium. The resulting stadium stampede killed 38 people and injured 400.
1987 - A jury in Los Angeles found "Twilight Zone" movie director John Landis and four associates innocent of involuntary manslaughter in the movie-set deaths of actor Vic Morrow and two children.
1987 - Film director John Landis and four other defendants were found innocent of involuntary manslaughter in the deaths of actor Vic Morrow and two Vietnamese child actors during the filming of "Twilight Zone: The Movie."
1988 - President Zia ul-Haq fires government/disbands parliament in Pakistan
1989 - Chinese students in Tiananmen Square erected a 33-foot statue similar to the Statue of Liberty.
1990 - Renegade communist Boris Yeltsin was elected president of the giant Russian republic.
1991 - President Bush, addressing the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., unveiled a plan to curb "unnecessary and destabilizing weapons" in the Middle East.
1991 - Scientists from Emory University discovered the gene that causes fragile-X syndrome, an untreatable mental retardation.
1992 - Undeclared presidential candidate Ross Perot held a rally in Orlando, Fla., that was carried by two-way television satellite to five other states.
1993 - Federal health officials announced that an unidentified disease with no known cause had taken 10 lives on or near the Navajo Reservation in the southwestern United States.
1994 - Great comet-iceball seen above North sea
1995 - The bodies of three more victims were found in the rubble of the bombed-out federal building in Oklahoma City.
1996 - Israelis went to the polls for an election that resulted in a narrow victory for opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu over Prime Minister Shimon Peres. The margin of victory was less than one percent.
1997 - In closing arguments, Timothy McVeigh's attorney urged jurors not to be swayed by sympathy for the Oklahoma City bombing victims, after a prosecutor delivered a wrenching summation that portrayed McVeigh as a terrorist who killed children in the warped belief he was a patriot.
1997 - Jesse Timmedequas, found guilty of rape/murder of Megan Kanka, 7 years old
1997 - Spain scientists announce new human species in 780,000 year old fossil
1997 - Lt. Kelly Flinn, the Air Force's first female B-52 bomber pilot, was discharged following an investigation stemming from adultery charges against her. The same day, the Army relieved Brig. Gen. Stephen Xenakis of his command of the Dwight David Eisenhower Army Medical Center at Fort Gordon, Ga., because of an apparently "improper relationship" with a civilian nurse who was caring for his wife.
1997 - Zaire rebel leader Laurent Kabila was sworn in as president of what was again being called the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
2000 - Indonesia's state prosecutors placed former President Suharto under house arrest. (However, Suharto's trial on corruption charges was abandoned because of health concerns.)
2000 - President Clinton left Washington for a weeklong European tour.
2000 - The space shuttle Atlantis returned from a repair mission to the international space station.
2001 - Four followers of Osama bin Laden were convicted in New York of a global conspiracy to murder Americans, including the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa that killed 224 people.
2001 - President Bush, meeting in Los Angeles with California Gov. Gray Davis, rejected a plea for federal caps on soaring electricity bills.
2001 - The Supreme Court ruled that disabled golfer Casey Martin could use a cart to ride in tournaments.
Birthdays
Today
1630 - Charles II, King of England (1660-85)
1736 - Patrick Henry (American revolutionary patriot: "...give me liberty, or give me death!")
1741 - Johann Gottfried Krebs, composer
1810 - Erasmus Darwin Keyes, Major General (Union volunteers), died in 1895
1824 - Cadmus Marcellus Wilcox, Major General (Confederate Army)
1825 - David Bell Birney, Major General (Union volunteers), died in 1864
1826 - Ebenezer Butterick, inventor (tissue paper dress pattern)
1851 - Leon VA Bourgeois, French premier (1895-96, Nobel 1920)
1860 - Isaac [Manuel F] Albaniz, Spanish pianist/composer (Iberia)
1874 - Gilbert Keith Chesterton (author: created Father Brown crime- fiction series; The Man Who was Thursday, English Men of
Letters, Man Who Made Gold)
1880 - Oswald Spengler, Germany, philosopher (Decline of West)
1896 - George L Funke, botanist (Flower Physiology)
1897 - Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Brno Austria, movie composer (Violanta)
1898 - Beatrice Lillie (Constance Munston) (actress: On Approval, Thoroughly Modern Millie)
1903 - Bob Hope, [Leslie Townes], Kent England, entertainer (famous profile)
1906 - T.H. White, author
1914 - Stacy Keach, Sr. (actor, director)
1917 - John Fitzgerald Kennedy (35th U.S. President: the youngest man and 1st Roman Catholic ever elected to that office, the 1st to win a Purple Heart and the 4th U.S. President to be assassinated; 1st Pulitzer Prize winner: Profiles in Courage)
1922 - Joe Weatherly (NASCAR Hall of Famer: championship [1953]; Grand National Champion [1962, 63]; died in crash at Riverside International Raceway [1964]; The Joe Weatherly Museum at Darlington International Raceway is named for him)
1923 - Eugene Wright (jazz musician: bass: his group: Dukes of Swing; played w/Brubeck)
1928 - Felix Rohatyn, Vienna Austria, investment banker (NY Big MAC Bonds)
1932 - Paul Ehrlich (biologist, writer: The Population Bomb; helped form group: Zero Population Growth, advocating a limit of 2 children per family)
1932 - Richie Guerin (basketball)
1939 - Al Unser (auto racer: 4 time Indy 500 winner [1970, 71, 78, 87])
1941 - Roy Crewsdon (musician: guitar: group: Freddie and The Dreamers: I'm Telling You Now, Do the Freddie)
1942 - Larry Mavety (hockey)
1944 - Helmut Berger (actor: The Damned, Dorian Gray, The Godfather, Part 3)
1948 - Anthony Geary (actor: General Hospital, High Desert Kill, Scorchers, Night of the Warrior, Crack House, UHF)
1949 - Gary Brooker (singer: group: Procol Harum: Whiter Shade of Pale; solo: Echoes in the Night)
1950 - Errol Thompson (hockey)
1950 - Rebbie (Maureen) Jackson (singer: Centipede [written by brother, Michael]; oldest member of the Jackson family)
1952 - Fred Holdsworth (baseball)
1952 - Mike Dupree (baseball)
1953 - Danny Elfman (singer: group: Oingo Boingo; composer: soundtracks: Batman, Beetlejuice, The Simpsons)
1955 - John Hinckley Jr, shot and wounded Pres Reagan
1957 - LaToya Jackson (singer: The Jacksons; solo; Playboy photo spread)
Famous
deaths
1453 - Constantine XI Dragases, last Byzantine Emperor, dies at 49
1500 - Bartholomeu Diaz de Narvaez (Novaez), Portuguese sea explorer, drowns
1544 - Jacobus Latomus [Jacques Masson], Belgian inquisitor, dies at about 68
1546 - Cardinal Beaton, English archbishop of St Andrews, murdered
1593 - John Penry, English congressionalist, executed
1814 - Josephine de Beauharnaise Bonaparte, empress of France, dies
1829 - Humphry Davy, scientist/inventor (Miner's safety lamp), dies at 84
1885 - Alfred von Meissner, Austria physician/writer (Ziska), dies at 63
1892 - Baha'u'llah [Mirza HA Noeri], Persian founder (Baha'i), dies at 74
1910 - Mili Alexeyevich Balakirev, Russian composer (Islamej), dies at 73
1911 - William Schwenck Gilbert, Engl writer (Gilbert & Sullivan), dies at 74
1935 - Josef Suk, Czech violinist/composer, dies at 61
1942 - John Barrymore, US actor (Beloved Rogue, Dinner at 8), dies at 60
1951 - Fanny Brice, Zeigfield Girl (Baby Snooks Show), dies at 59
1958 - Juan Ram¢n Jiminez, Spanish poet (Nobel 1956), dies at 76
1978 - Bob Crane, actor (Donna Reed Show, Hogan-Hogan's Heroes), murdered at 49
1979 - Mary Pickford, actress (Coquette, Suds, Secrets), dies at 86
1985 - Madge West, actress (Grandma-McLean Stevenson Show), dies at 93
1994 - Erich Honecker, president of German DR (1971-89), dies in Chile at 81
1994 - Ezra Taft Benson, Sec of Agr/leader of Mormons (1985-94), dies at 94
1995 - Margaret Chase Smith, the first woman to serve in both the House and the Senate, died in Skowhegan, Maine, at age 97.
1998 - Former Arizona senator Barry Goldwater died in Paradise Valley at age 89.
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