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Today May 30th 2009 this day in history Read more below to view events, deaths, births, Holidays observances and video clips. Last database updated: Jan 17th, 2009
Events
1416 – The Council of Constance, called by the Emperor Sigismund, a supporter of Antipope John XXIII, burns Jerome of Prague following a trial for heresy.
1431 – Hundred Years War: in Rouen, France, 19-year-old Joan of Arc is burned at the stake by an English-dominated tribunal.
1434 – Hussite Wars (Bohemian Wars): Battle of Lipany – effectively ending the war, Utraquist forces led by Diviš Borek of Miletínek defeat and almost annihilate Taborite forces led by Prokop the Great.
1536 – King Henry VIII of England marries Jane Seymour, 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.
1574 – Henry III becomes King of France.
1588 – The last ship of the Spanish Armada sets sail from Lisbon heading for the English Channel.
1635 – Thirty Years War: the Peace of Prague (1635) is signed.
1642 – From this date all honours granted by Charles I are retrospectively annulled by Parliament
1806 – Andrew Jackson kills Charles Dickinson in a duel after Dickinson had accused Jackson s wife of bigamy.
1814 – Napoleonic Wars: War of the Sixth Coalition – the Treaty of Paris (1814) is signed returning French borders to their 1792 extent.
1832 – The Rideau Canal in eastern Ontario is opened.
1842 – John Francis attempts to murder Queen Victoria as she drives down Constitution Hill, London with Prince Albert.
1854 – The Kansas-Nebraska Act becomes law establishing the US territories of Nebraska and Kansas.
1868 – Decoration Day (the predecessor of the modern Memorial Day) is observed in the United States for the first time (By Commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic John A. Logan s proclamation on May 5).
1871 – The Paris Commune falls.
1876 – Ottoman sultan Abd-ul-Aziz is deposed and succeeded by his nephew Murat V.
1879 – New York City s Gilmores Garden is renamed Madison Square Garden by William Henry Vanderbilt and is opened to the public at 26th Street and Madison Avenue.
1879 – An F4 tornado strikes Irving, Kansas, killing 18 and injuring 60.
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.
1913 – First Balkan War: the Treaty of London, 1913 is signed ending the war. Albania becomes an independent nation.
1914 – The new and then largest Cunard ocean liner RMS Aquitania, 45,647 tons, sets sails on her maiden voyage from Liverpool, England to New York City.
1917 – Alexander I becomes king of Greece.
1922 – In Washington, D.C. the Lincoln Memorial is dedicated.
1925 – In China protests erupt against the Great Powers infringing on Chinese sovereignty.
1941 – World War II: Germany captures Crete.
1941 – World War II: Manolis Glezos and Apostolos Santas climb on the Athenian Acropolis, tear down the Nazi swastika and replace it with the Greek flag.
1942 – World War II: 1000 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.
1959 – The Auckland Harbour Bridge is officially opened today in Auckland, New Zealand.
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.
1961- Long time Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo is assassinated in Santo Domingo,Dominican Republic.
1966 – Former Congolese Prime Minister Evariste Kimba and several other politicians are publicly executed in Kinshasa on the orders of President Joseph Mobutu.
1967 – At the Ascot Park in Gardena, California, daredevil Evel Knievel jumps his motorcycle over 16 cars lined up in a row.
1967 – The Nigerian Eastern Region declares independence as the Republic of Biafra, sparking a civil war.
1969 – Riots on the Caribbean island of Curaçao
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 Britain.
1972 – In Tel Aviv members of the Japanese Red Army carry out the Lod Airport Massacre, killing 24 people and injuring 78 others.
1982 – Spain becomes the 16th member of NATO and the first nation to enter the alliance since West Germany s admission in 1955.
1989 – Tiananmen Square protests of 1989: the 33-foot high Goddess of Democracy statue is unveiled in Tiananmen Square by student demonstrators.
1998 – A magnitude 6.6 earthquake hits northern Afghanistan, killing up to 5,000.
Births
1010 – Emperor Renzong of China (d. 1063)
1423 – Georg Purbach, German mathematician and astronomer (d. 1461)
1623 – John Egerton, 2nd Earl of Bridgewater, English politician (d. 1686)
1653 – Claudia Felicitas of Austria, Empress consort of Germany (d. 1676)
1713 – Princess Caroline Elizabeth of Great Britain (d. 1757)
1718 – Wills Hill, 1st Marquess of Downshire, English politician (d. 1793)
1719 – Roger Newdigate, English politician (d. 1806)
1757 – Henry Addington, 1st Viscount Sidmouth, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1844)
1814 – Mikhail Bakunin, Russian anarchist (d. 1876)
1814 – Eugène Charles Catalan, Belgian mathematician (d. 1894)
1819 – William McMurdo, British army officer (d. 1894)
1820 – Pierre-Joseph-Olivier Chauveau, French Canadian politician (d. 1890)
1845 – King Amadeo I of Spain (d. 1890)
1846 – Peter Carl Fabergé, Russian goldsmith and jeweler (d. 1920)
1858 – Siegfried Alkan, German composer (d. 1941)
1871 – Olga Engl, Austrian actress (d. 1946)
1875 – Giovanni Gentile, Italian philosopher (d. 1944)
1878 – Mike Donlin, American baseball player (d. 1933)
1879 – Colin Blythe, English cricketer (d. 1917)
1881 – Georg von Küchler, German field marshal (d. 1968)
1882 – Wyndham Halswelle, Scottish runner (d. 1915)
1886 – Randolph Bourne, American writer (d. 1918)
1892 – Fernando Amorsolo, Filipino painter (d. 1972)
1895 – Maurice Tate, English cricketer (d. 1956)
1896 – Howard Hawks, American film director (d. 1977)
1899 – Irving Thalberg, American film producer (d. 1936)
1901 – Cornelia Otis Skinner, American writer and actress (d. 1979)
1902 – Stepin Fetchit, American dancer and actor (d. 1985)
1903 – Countee Cullen, American writer (d. 1946)
1906 – Bruno Gröning, German mystic (d. 1959)
1907 – Elly Beinhorn, German pilot (d. 2007)
1907 – Germaine Tillion, French anthropologist, member of French Resistance (d. 2008)
1908 – Hannes Alfvén, Swedish physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1995)
1908 – Mel Blanc, American voice actor (d. 1989)
1909 – Benny Goodman, American clarinetist and bandleader (d. 1986)
1910 – Ralph Metcalfe, American athlete (d. 1978)
1910 – Inge Meysel, German actress (d. 2004)
1912 – Julius Axelrod, American biochemist and Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2004)
1912 – Erich Bagge, German physicist
1912 – Hugh Griffith, Welsh actor (d. 1980)
1918 – Guadalupe Pita Amor, Mexican poet (d. 2000)
1918 – Bob Evans, American restaurateur (d. 2007)
1919 – René Barrientos, President of Bolivia (d. 1969)
1920 – Franklin Schaffner, American film director (d. 1989)
1922 – Hal Clement, American writer (d. 2003)
1926 – Christine Jorgensen, American transsexual activist (d. 1989)
1927 – Clint Walker, American actor
1928 – Agnès Varda, French director
1928 – Pro Hart, Australian artist (d. 2006)
1930 – Mark Birley, British nightclub owner (d. 2007)
1930 – Robert Ryman, American painter
1932 – Pauline Oliveros, American composer and accordionist
1934 – Aleksei Leonov, Russian cosmonaut
1934 – Alketas Panagoulias, Greek footballer and coach
1936 – Keir Dullea, American actor
1936 – Ruta Lee, Canadian actress
1937 – Harry Statham, American basketball coach
1939 – Michael J. Pollard, American actor
1939 – Dieter Quester, Austrian racing driver
1940 – Gilles Villemure, Canadian ice hockey player
1943 – James Chaney, American civil rights activist (d. 1964)
1943 – Gale Sayers, American football player
1944 – Meredith MacRae, American actress (d. 2000)
1945 – Norman Eshley, English actor
1947 – Jocelyne Bourassa, French Canadian golfer
1948 – Michael Piller, American screenwriter (d. 2005)
1949 – P.J. Carlesimo, American basketball coach
1950 – Bertrand Delanoë, French politician
1950 – Paresh Rawal, Indian actor
1951 – Stephen Tobolowsky, American actor
1951 – Zdravko Colic, Yugoslav-Bosnian singer
1951 – Fernando Lugo, Paraguayan politician
1953 – Colm Meaney, Irish actor
1955 – Jake The Snake Roberts, American wrestler
1955 – Topper Headon, British musician (The Clash)
1958 – Marie Fredriksson, Swedish singer and songwriter (Roxette)
1958 – Ted McGinley, American actor
1958 – Steve Israel, American politician
1958 – Ted McGinley, American actor
1959 – Frank Vanhecke, Belgian politician
1961 – Harry Enfield, British comedian
1961 – Bob Yari, Iranian-born American film producer
1962 – Kevin Eastman, American comic book creator
1962 – Tonya Pinkins, American actress
1964 – Wynonna Judd, American country singer
1964 – Tom Morello, American guitarist (Audioslave, Rage Against the Machine)
1964 – Andrea Montermini, Italian racing driver
1965 – Billy Donovan, American college basketball coach
1966 – Stephen Malkmus, American musician (Pavement)
1967 – Tim Burgess, English singer (The Charlatans)
1968 – Zacarias Moussaoui, French convicted terrorist
1968 – Kelley Armstrong, Canadian author
1970 – Flora Chan, Hong Kong television actress
1970 – Ness Wadia, Indian industrialist
1971 – Idina Menzel, American actress and singer
1972 – Manny Ramírez, Dominican Republic baseball player
1972 – Soichiro Hoshi, Japanese seiyuu
1973 – Leigh Francis, British comedian
1974 – Cee-Lo, American musician
1974 – Big L, American rapper (d. 1999)
1974 – Konstantinos Chalkias, Greek footballer
1974 – Shin Ha-kyun, South Korean actor
1974 – David Wilkie, American ice hockey player
1975 – Brian Fair, American singer
1975 – Andrew Farrell, English rugby league and union footballer
1976 – Radoslav Nesterovic, Slovenian basketball player
1976 – Magnus Norman, Swedish tennis player
1976 – Margaret Okayo, Kenyan athlete
1977 – Akwá, Angolan footballer
1977 – Rachael Stirling, British actress
1978 – Eric Searle American Musician
1978 – Lyoto Machida, Brazilian mixed martial artist
1979 – Mike Bishai, Canadian ice hockey player
1979 – Kugimiya Rie, Japanese seiyuu (voice actress)
1980 – Steven Gerrard, English footballer
1981 – Devendra Banhart, American singer and songwriter
1981 – Andrey Arshavin, Russian Footballer
1981 – Blake Bashoff, American actor
1981 – Gianmaria Bruni, Italian racing driver
1981 – Ahmad Elrich, Australian footballer
1981 – Remy Ma, American rapper
1981 – Lars Møller Madsen, Danish handball player
1982 – Eddie Griffin, American basketball player (d. 2007)
1984 – Matt Maguire, Australian rules footballer
1984 – Jordan Palmer, American football player
1989 – Kevin Covais, American singer
1990 – Dean Collins, American actor
1992 – Andrew Rymer, American Blogger
Deaths
1159 – Wladislaus II the Exile of Poland (b. 1105)
1252 – King Ferdinand III of Castile
1416 – Jerome of Prague, Czech theologian (b. 1379)
1431 – Joan of Arc, French heroine and saint (b. 1412)
1434 – Prokop the Great, Hussite general
1469 – Lope de Barrientos, Spanish bishop
1574 – King Charles IX of France (b. 1550)
1576 – Harada Naomasa, Japanese retainer and samurai
1593 – Christopher Marlowe, English playwright (b. 1564)
1640 – Peter Paul Rubens, Flemish painter (b. 1577)
1696 – Henry Capell, 1st Baron Capell, First Lord of the British Admiralty (b. 1638)
1718 – Arnold Joost van Keppel, 1st Earl of Albemarle, Dutch favorite of William III of England (b. 1670)
1730 – Arabella Churchill, English mistress of James II of England (b. 1648)
1744 – Alexander Pope, English writer (b. 1688)
1770 – François Boucher, French painter (b. 1703)
1778 – Voltaire, French philosopher and author (b. 1694)
1865 – John Catron, United States Supreme Court Justice
1868 – Souji Okita, 1st Captain of the Shinsengumi (b. 1823)
1901 – Victor D Hondt, Belgian mathematician (b. 1841)
1912 – Wilbur Wright, aviation pioneer (Wright Brothers) (b. 1867)
1918 – Georgi Plekhanov, Russian revolutionary and Marxist theoretician (b. 1856)
1925 – Arthur Moeller van den Bruck, German historian (b. 1876)
1926 – Vladimir Steklov, Russian physicist (b. 1864)
1934 – Togo Heihachiro, Japanese admiral (b. 1848)
1939 – Floyd Roberts, Auto racer, killed during 1939 Indianapolis 500 (b. 1904)
1941 – Prajadhipok, Rama VII, king of Thailand (b. 1893)
1946 – Louis Slotin, Canadian Scientist at Los Alamos (b. 1910)
1947 – Georg Ritter von Trapp, World War I Austrian submarine commander (b. 1880)
1951 – Hermann Broch, Austrian author (b. 1886)
1953 – Dooley Wilson, American musician and actor (b. 1886)
1955 – Bill Vukovich, Auto racer, killed during 1955 Indianapolis 500 (b. 1918)
1960 – Boris Pasternak, Russian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (declined) (b. 1890)
1961 – Rafael Leónidas Trujillo, dictator of the Dominican Republic (b. 1891)
1964 – Leó Szilárd, Hungarian nuclear physicist (b. 1898)
1964 – Eddie Sachs, American auto racer (b. 1927)
1964 – Dave MacDonald, American auto racer (b. 1936)
1967 – Claude Rains, English actor (b. 1889)
1971 – Marcel Dupré, French organist and composer (b. 1886)
1975 – Steve Prefontaine, American runner (b. 1951)
1975 – Michel Simon, French actor (b. 1895)
1976 – Max Carey, American baseball player (b. 1890)
1975 – Tatsuo Shimabuku, Japanese martial artist (b. 1908)
1980 – Carl Radle, American bass guitarist (b. 1942)
1981 – Don Ashby, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1955)
1981 – Ziaur Rahman, President of Bangladesh (b. 1936)
1986 – Perry Ellis, American fashion designer (b. 1940)
1993 – Sun Ra, American musician (b. 1914)
1994 – Ezra Taft Benson, American religious leader
1994 – Marcel Bich, French industrialist (b. 1914)
1994 – Agostino Di Bartolomei, Italian footballer (b. 1955)
1995 – Ted Drake, English footballer (b. 1912)
1995 – Lofty England, English automotive engineer and race team manager (b. 1911)
1995 – Bobby Stokes, former English footballer (b. 1951)
2000 – Tex Beneke, American bandleader and musician (b. 1914)
2000 – Doris Hare, Welsh actress (b. 1905)
2003 – Mickie Most, English record producer (b. 1938)
2005 – Fazal Mahmood, Pakistani cricketer (b. 1927)
2005 – Tomasz Pacynski, Polish writer (b. 1958)
2006 – Shohei Imamura, Japanese film director (b. 1926)
2006 – Robert Sterling, American actor (b. 1917)
2006 – David Lloyd, New Zealand biologist (b. 1938)
2007 – Jean-Claude Brialy, French actor and author (b. 1933)
2008 – Lorenzo Odone, American medical figure (b. 1978)
Holidays and observances
Region Day of Canary Islands
Geologist s Day (in Brazil)
Trinidad and Tobago – Indian Arrival Day (National Holiday).
United States – Memorial Day (originally – currently last Monday in May).
Saint Ferdinand III
Saint Isaac of Dalmatia
Saint Joan of Arc
Anguilla – Anguilla Day; Commemorates the beginning of the Anguillian Revolution which took place on May 30th, 1967.
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