On This Day

[Bizarra]

On This Day Over The Years

868 The first printed book, known as the Diamond Sutra, was published in China.

It was found in 1900.

1778 Death of statesman William Pitt (the Elder), 1st Earl of Chatham.

1811 The original Siamese twins, Chang and Eng, were born of Chinese parents in Siam.

1812 British Prime Minister Spencer Perceval was shot dead by a bankrupt broker, John Bellingham, as he entered the House of Commons.

1867 The first performance took place of Box and Cox, by Sir Arthur Sullivan and Francis Burnand, editor of Punch, at the Adelphi Theatre, London.

1888 Songwriter Irving Berlin was born as Israel Baline in Siberia.

1960 The world’s longest liner, France, was launched by Madame de Gaulle.

1964 (Sir) Terence Conran opened the first Habitat shop in London’s Fulham Road.

1985 Fire broke out in the main stand of Bradford City football ground and 56 spectators died.

1989 Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats, based on TS Eliot’s Old Possum poems, became the West End’s longest-running musical, celebrating its eighth birthday.

[Bizarra]

Bump

[Raistlin]

Events

1394

Malik Sarvar founded the Muslim kingdom of Jaunpur, on the middle Ganges.

1536

Sir Francis Weston, Mark Smeaton and other alleged lovers of Anne Boleyn were tried for treason; they were executed on the 17th.

1809

Arthur Wellesley defeated the French under Soult at Oporto and forced them to retreat from Portugal.

1881

Tunisia became a French protectorate.

1890

The first official County Championship cricket match. Yorkshire beat Gloucestershire by eight wickets.

1937

Coronation of King George VI.

1949

The Berlin blockade was officially lifted.

1961

United States of the Congo founded, with Léopoldville the federal capital.

1962

South African General Law Amendment bill imposed the death penalty for sabotage.

1965

West Germany established diplomatic relations with Israel; Arab states broke off relations with Bonn.

1994

In Britain, the sudden death of John Smith, leader of the Labour Party.

1997

At a highly publicized ceremony in the Kremlin, Russian President Yeltsin signed a peace treaty with Chechnya but did not settle the issue of Chechnya's status.

1997

Guinness and Grand Metropolitan, two of Britain's leading drinks companies, agreed to a £23 billion mega-merger that would create the world's largest spirits group, GMG Brands.

1999

David Steel became the first speaker of the modern Scottish Parliament.

2000

The Tate Modern opened in London.

2002

Former President Jimmy Carter arrived in Cuba, the first President of the United States, in or out of office, to visit the island since Castro's 1959 revolution.

Births

1567

Claudio Monteverdi, Italian composer

1670

Augustus II of Poland and Elector of Saxony

1688

Joseph Nicolas Delisle, French astronomer

1760

John Bannister, English comedian

1803

Justus von Liebig, German chemist

1812

Edward Lear, English author and poet

1820

Florence Nightingale, English nursing pioneer

1828

Dante Gabriel Rossetti, English painter and poet

1842

Jules Massenet, French composer

1907

Katharine Hepburn, American actress

1924

Tony Hancock, British comedian

Deaths

1634

George Chapman, English playwright

1641

Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, English politician, executed

1884

Bedrich Smetana, Czech composer

1889

John Cadbury, English chocolate entrepreneur

1907

Joris Karl Huysmans, French novelist

1925

Alfred, Lord Milner, British politician

1944

Arthur Quiller-Couch ('Q'), English writer

1957

Erich von Stroheim, Austrian-born US silent-film actor and director

1967

John Masefield, English poet

1994

John Smith, leader of the Labour party

1994

Erik Erikson, German-born US psychoanalytic theorist

1995

Arnold Goodman, English lawyer and political adviser

2001

Perry Como, American singer

[Bizarra]

On This Day Over The Years

1203 Byzantine emperor Alexius Comnenus seized Trebizond and established a new Greek empire there.

1265 Dante Alighieri, Italian poet, born.

1607 Captain John Smith landed on the Virginia coast and started the first permanent English settlement in the New World — Jamestown.

In England, riots took place in Northamptonshire and other midland counties in protest at widespread enclosure of common land.

1643 Oliver Cromwell defeated the Royalists at Grantham.

1830 The republic of Ecuador was created.

1842 Arthur Seymour Sullivan, composer, was born in Lambeth, son of a bandmaster at Sandhurst Military College.

1846 The USA declares war against Mexico.

1888 Serfdom was abolished in Brazil.

1914 Joe Louis, heavyweight boxing champion, known as the Brown Bomber, was born in Lexington, Alabama.

1919 Two policemen were killed on a train at Knocklong, County Limerick, as IRA man Seán Hogan was freed from custody by Dan Breen and Seán Treacy.

1927 Black Friday brought about the collapse of Germany's economic system.

1943 German and Italian forces in Africa surrendered.

1945 VE day: Allied nations celebrate victory over the Axis in Europe.

1961 Death of Gary Cooper, American actor who was twice an Oscar winner.

1981 Pope John Paul II survived an assassination attempt in St Peter's Square in Rome.

1986 Socialist, republican, revolutionary and novelist Peadar O'Donnell died.

Among his best-known writings were Islanders (1928), The Big Window (1955) and There Will Be Another Day (1963).

[Bizarra]

On This Day Over The Years

1080 Walcher, Bishop of Durham and Earl of Northumberland was murdered; William (the Conqueror) consequently ravaged the area; he also invaded Scotland and built the castle at Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

1264 The English barons under Simon de Montfort defeated Henry III at the Battle of Lewes.

1643 Louis XIV became King of France at the age of four.

He reigned for more than 72 years.

1686 Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit, German physicist, the first to use mercury in thermometers, born.

1727 Artist Thomas Gainsborough was born in Sudbury, Suffolk.

1734 Kerryman Richard Cantillon, known as the father of political economy, died.

His Essai sur la nature du commerce en général, traduit de l'Anglais made his reputation in the area.

Cantillon was murdered by his cook, who ransacked the house before setting fire to it and escaping.

1779 The Oaks was first run at Epsom.

1784 The Irish Post Office was established.

1796 Edward Jenner made his first vaccination against smallpox, and laid the foundation for modern immunology.

1811 Paraguay proclaimed its independence.

1946 Anti-Jewish pogrom in Kielce, Poland.

1948 As the British mandate in Palestine came to an end, a Jewish provisional government was formed in Israel with Chaim Weizmann as president and David Ben-Gurion as premier.

1955 Eastern bloc countries signed the Warsaw Pact.

Irish | World | Business | Weather | On this day | Week in View

[Bizarra]

On This Day Over The Years

1567 The Levellers were defeated at Burford.

1847 Daniel O'Connell, 'The Liberator', died in Genoa on his way to Rome.

His last speech in the House of Commons, delivered while he was in great pain, was a plea for relief for the starving people of Ireland.

1936 Amy Johnson arrived in England after a record-breaking 12 day, 15 hour flight from London to Cape Town and back.

1937 Muslim rising in Albania.

1941 Britain's first jet-propelled aircraft, the Gloster-Whittle E28/39, flew for the first time.

1946 US President Truman signed a bill of credit for $3.

75 billion for Britain.

1948 Egyptian troops intervened in Palestine on the side of the Arabs.

1957 Britain's first H-bomb was exploded on Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean.

1971 Sir Tyrone Guthrie, theatre producer, died.

His home, Annaghmakerrig House, Newbliss, Co Monaghan, now serves as a retreat for artists and writers.

1987 Death of American actress Rita Hayworth.

1988 Soviet troops began leaving Afghanistan after eight years of occupation.

1991 Edith Cresson became the first women Prime Minister of France.

[Pompey Gaz]

1770 - Marie Antoinette, at age 14, married the future King Louis XVI of France, who was 15.

1866 - The U.S. Congress authorized the first 5-cent piece to be minted.

1868 - U.S. President Andrew Johnson was acquitted during the Senate impeachment, by one vote.

1879 - The Treaty of Gandamak between Russia and England set up the Afghan state.

1881 - In Germany the first electric tram for the public started service.

1888 - The first demonstration of recording on a flat disc was demonstrated by Emile Berliner.

1888 - The capitol of Texas was dedicated in Austin.

1910 - The U.S. Bureau of Mines was authorized by the U.S. Congress.

1914 - The American Horseshoe Pitchers Association (AHPA) was formed in Kansas City, Kansas.

1920 - Joan of Arc was canonized in Rome.

1929 - The first Academy Awards were held in Hollywood.

1939 - The Philadelphia Athletics and the Cleveland Indians met at Shibe Park in Philadelphia for the first baseball game to be played under the lights in the American League.

1946 - "Annie Get Your Gun" opened on Broadway.

1946 - jack Mullin showed the world the first magnetic tape recorder.

1948 - The body of CBS News correspondent George Polk was found in Solonika Bay in Greece. It had been a week after he'd disappeared.

1960 - A Big Four summit in Paris collapsed due to the American U-2 spy plane incident.

1960 - Theodore Maiman, at Hughes Research Laboratory in California, demonstrated the first working laser.

1963 - After 22 Earth orbits Gordon Cooper returned to Earth, ending Project Mercury.

1965 - Spaghetti-O's went on sale.

1969 - Venus 5, a Russian spacecraft, landed on the planet Venus.

1971 - U.S. postage for a one-ounce first class stamp was increased from 6 to 8 cents.

1975 - Japanese climber Junko Tabei became the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest.

1977 - Five people were killed when a New York Airways helicopter, idling on top of the Pan Am Building in Manhattan, toppled over, sending a huge rotor blade flying.

1985 - Michael Jordan was named Rookie of the Year in the NBA.

1987 - The Bobro 400 set sail from New York Harbor with 3,200 tons of garbage. The barge travelled 6,000 miles in search of a place to dump its load. It returned to New York Harbor after 8 weeks with the same load.

1988 - A report released by Surgeon General C. Everett Koop declared that nicotine was addictive in similar was as heroin and cocaine.

1988 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that police do not have to have a search warrant to search discarded garbage.

1991 - Queen Elizabeth II became the first British monarch to address the U.S. Congress.

1992 - The Endeavour space shuttle landed safely after its maiden voyage.

1996 - Admiral Jeremy "Mike" Boorda, the nation's top Navy officer, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound after some of his military awards were called into question.

1997 - In Zaire, President Mobutu Sese Seko gave control of the country to rebel forces ending 32 years of autocratic rule.

2000 - U.S. First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton was nominated to run for U.S. Senator in New York. She was the first U.S. first lady to run for public office.

2003 - Adam Rich was placed on three years probation after he plead no contest to misdemeanor charges of driving under the influence and being under the influence of a controlled substance. He was also ordered to take part ina 60-day treatment program and pay about $1,200 in fines.

2005 - Sony Corp. unveiled three styles of its new PlayStation 3 video game machine.

[Bizarra]

1540 - Afghan chief Sher Khan defeated Mongul Emperor Humayun at Kanauj.

1630 - Italian Jesuit Niccolo Zucchi saw the belts on Jupiter's surface.

1681 - Louis XIV sent an expedition to aid James II in Ireland. As a result, England declares war on France.

1756 - Britain declared war on France, beginning the French and Indian War.

1792 - The New York Stock Exchange was founded at 70 Wall Street by 24 brokers.

1814 - Denmark ceded Norway to Sweden. Norway's constitution, which provided a limited monarchy, was signed.

1875 - The first Kentucky Derby was run at Louisville, KY.

1877 - The first telephone switchboard burglar alarm was installed by Edwin T. Holmes.

1881 - Frederick Douglass was appointed recorder of deeds for Washington, DC.

1926 - The U.S. Embassy in Buenos Aires was damaged by bombs that were believed set by sympathizers of Sacco and Vanzetti.

1932 - The U.S. Congress changed the name "Porto Rico" to "Puerto Rico."

1939 - The first fashion to be shown on television was broadcast in New York from the Ritz-Carleton Hotel.

1940 - Germany occupied Brussels, Belgium and began the invasion of France.

1946 - U.S. President Truman seized control of the nation's railroads, delaying a threatened strike by engineers and trainmen.

1948 - The Soviet Union recognized the new state of Israel.

1954 - The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled for school integration in Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka. The ruling declared that racially segregated schools were inherently unequal.

1956 - The first synthetic mica (synthamica) was offered for sale in Caldwell Township, NJ.

1973 - The U.S. Senate Watergate Committee began its hearings.

1975 - NBC TV bought the rights to show "Gone With the Wind." The one time rights cost NBC $5,000,000.

1980 - Rioting erupted in Miami's Liberty City neighborhood after an all-white jury in Tampa acquitted four former Miami police officers of fatally beating black insurance executive Arthur McDuffie. Eight people were killed in the rioting.

1985 - Bobby Ewing died on the season finale of "Dallas" on CBS-TV. He returned the following season.

1987 - Eric ‘Sleepy’ Floyd of the Golden State Warriors set a playoff record for points in a single quarter with 29.

1987 - An Iraqi warplane attacked the U.S. Navy frigate Stark in the Persian Gulf, killing 37 American sailors. Iraq and the United States called the attack a mistake.

1990 - Kelsey Grammer was sentenced to 30 days in jail for DWI.

1996 - U.S. President Clinton signed a measure requiring neighborhood notification when sex offenders move in. Megan's Law was named for 7-year-old Megan Kanka, who was raped and killed in 1994.

1997 - Rebel leader Kabila declared himself president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, formerly Zaire.

1997 - Sylvester Stallone and Jennifer Flavin were married in London.

1998 - New York Yankees pitcher David Wells became the 13th player in modern major league baseball history to throw a perfect game.

1999 - Eric Ford, a tabloid photographer, was sentenced to 6 months at a halfway house, 3 years probation and 150 hours of community service. The sentence stemmed from a charge that Ford had eavesdropped on a call between Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman and then sold a recording of the conversation.

1999 - Alex Trebek received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

2000 - Thomas E. Blanton Jr. and David Luker surrendered to police in Birmingham, AL. The two former Ku Klux Klan members were arrested on charges from the bombing of a church in 1963 that killed four young black girls.

2000 - Austria, the U.S. and six other countries agreed on the broad outline of a plan that would compensate Nazi-Era forced labor.

2000 - It was announced that Terra Networks SA and Lycos would be merging with the new name to be Terra Lycos. Terra made the deal happen with the purchase of $12.5 billion in stock.

2001 - The U.S. Postal Service issued a stamp based on Charles M. Schulz's "Peanuts" comic strip.

2006 - The U.S. aircraft carrier Oriskany was sunk about 24 miles off Pensacola Beach. It was the first vessel sunk under a Navy program to dispose of old warships by turning them into diving attractions. It was the largest man-made reef at the time of the sinking

[Bizarra]

Today in History

May 18

526 St. John I ends his reign as Catholic Pope.

1643 Queen Anne, the widow of Louis XIII, is granted sole and absolute power as regent by the Paris parliament, overriding the late king’s will.

1652 A law is passed in Rhode Island banning slavery in the colonies but it causes little stir and seems unlikely to be enforced.

1792 Russian troops invade Poland.

1802 Britain declares war on France.

1804 Napoleon Bonaparte becomes the Emperor of France.

1828 The Battle of Las Piedras, between Uruguay and Brazil, ends.

1860 Abraham Lincoln is nominated for president.

1864 The fighting at Spotsylvania in Virginia, reaches its peak at the Bloody Angle.

1896 The Supreme Court’s decision on Plessy v. Ferguson upholds the "separate but equal" policy in the United States.

1904 Brigand Raizuli kidnaps American Ion H. Perdicaris in Morocco.

1917 The U.S. Congress passes the Selective Service act, calling up soldiers to fight World War I.

1931 Japanese pilot Seiji Yoshihara crashes his plane in the Pacific Ocean while trying to be the first to cross the ocean nonstop. He is picked up seven hours later by a passing ship.

1933 President Franklin Roosevelt signs the Tennessee Valley Authority Act.

1942 New York ends night baseball games for the rest of World War II.

1944 The Allies finally capture Monte Cassino in Italy.

1951 The United Nations moves its headquarters to New York city.

1969 Two battalions of the 101st Airborne Division assault Hill 937 but cannot reach the top because of muddy conditions.

1974 India becomes sixth nation to explode an atomic bomb.

1980 After rumbling for two months, Mount Saint Helens, in Washington, erupts 3 times in 24 hours.

Born on May 18

1836 Wilhelm Steinitz, chess champion.

1868 Nicholas II, the last Russian czar.

1872 Bertrand Russell, English mathematician, philosopher and social reformer.

1897 Frank Capra, film director (It’s A Wonderful Life).

1902 Meredith Willson, composer and lyricist (The music Man).

1911 Joseph Vernon "Big Joe" Turner, blues singer.

1918 John Paul II [Karol Jozef Wojtyla], Roman Catholic pope.

1919 Margot Fonteyn, English ballet dancer.

[Bizarra]

On This Day Over The Years

1536 Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry VIII and mother of Queen Elizabeth I, was executed on Tower Green for alleged adultery.

1588 The Spanish Armada set sail from Lisbon.

1643 The Confederation of New England was formed by Connecticut, New Haven, Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay.

1802 The French Legion d’Honneur was created by Napoleon.

1848 Dame Nellie Melba (Helen Porter Mitchell), Australian operatic soprano, was born near Melbourne.

1898 William Ewart Gladstone, four times Liberal prime minister of Britain, died at Hawarden Castle in North Wales aged 88.

1890 Ho Chi Minh, Vietnamese leader, born.

1900 Britain annexed Tonga, the Friendly Islands.

1906 The 20km Simplon rail tunnel between Switzerland and Italy was officially opened.

1930 White women were enfranchised in South Africa.

1935 T E Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) died six days after a motorcycle accident in England.

1964 The US complained to Moscow about microphones concealed in its USSR embassy.

1982 Italian actress Sophia Loren was jailed for a month for tax evasion.

1984 Sir John Betjeman, British Poet Laureate from 1972, died aged 78.

[Bizarra]

On This Day Over The Years

1191 Richard I, 'The Lion Heart', conquered Cyprus from its independent Greek ruler, then joined the Crusaders before Acre.

1498 Vasco da Gama arrived at Calicut, southern India, after discovering a route via the tip of southern Africa.

1506 Christopher Columbus, Genoese explorer, died in Valladolid, Spain.

1790 Elizabeth Gunning, Duchess of Hamilton and Argyll and celebrated beauty, died.

She and her sister Maria were born of a Roscommon father, John Gunning.

Maria died in her 20s, probably from the ill-effects of using white lead paint as make-up, while her sister outlasted two husbands until her death in her late 50s.

1799 Honore de Balzac, French novelist, who produced 85 novels in 20 years, was born at Tours.

1867 The foundation stone of the Royal Albert Hall was laid.

1927 By the treaty of Jeddah, Britain recognised the independence of Saudi Arabia.

1932 Amelia Earhart became the first woman to make a solo air crossing of the Atlantic.

She landed at Culmore, County Derry, having flown from Harbour Grace, Newfoundland.

The 2,206 miles took her plane 13 hours.

1941 Germany began an aerial invasion of Crete.

1944 Nazi officers attempted to assassinate Hitler at a staff meeting.

1950 The US Senate committee denied Senator Joseph McCarthy's charges of communist infiltration of the State Department.

1956 America exploded its first hydrogen bomb over Bikini Atoll in the Pacific.

1991 In the USSR, the government passed a new law allowing Soviet citizens to leave the country of their own free will.

[Bizarra]

On This Day Over The Years

1471 Henry VI was murdered in the Tower of London.

1662 Charles II married Catherine de Braganza, daughter of John IV of Portugal.

1674 John Sobieski was elected king of Poland as John III.

1688 Poet and satirist Alexander Pope was born in London.

1767 Taxes were introduced on imports of tea, glass, paper and dyestuffs in American colonies to provide revenue for colonial administration.

1780 Elizabeth Fry, English Quaker and prison reformer, was born in Norwich.

1840 Britain claimed complete sovereignty over New Zealand.

1851 Gold was first discovered in Australia.

1894 The Manchester Ship Canal was opened.

1904 Thomas Fats Waller, American jazz pianist and composer, was born.

1910 'Eva' of The Nation, poet Mary Ann Kelly, died in Australia.

Born in Headford, Co Galway, she was the wife of Young Irelander Kevin Izod O'Doherty.

1916 Clocks and watches went forward one hour as the Daylight Saving Act (Summer Time) was introduced.

Harold Robbins, US novelist, was born on the same day.

1921 Northern Ireland's first general election took place.

The final tally was unionists 40 seats, nationalists six seats and Sinn Féin six seats.

The latter two groups did not join the Stormont Parliament.

1927 Pilot Charles Lindbergh landed in Paris to win the $25,000 prize for the first solo flight across the Atlantic.

1965 Geoffrey de Havilland, aircraft designer, died.

1966 Cassius clay (Muhammad Ali) ended Henry Cooper's hopes of winning the world heavyweight crown in round six

[Bizarra]

On This Day Over The Years

853 Olaf the White, son of the King of Norway, received the submission of Vikings and Danes in Ireland and made Dublin his capital.

1455 In the War of the Roses, the Lancastrians defeated the Yorkists at the Battle of St Albans.

1813 Richard Wagner, operatic composer, was born in Leipzig.

1859 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes, was born of Irish parents in Edinburgh.

1897 The Blackwall Tunnel under the Thames was officially opened.

1908 The Wright Brothers patented their flying machine.

1944 The Battle of Anzio started.

1972 US President Richard Nixon visited Moscow to discuss arms limitations with Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev.

Meanwhile, Ceylon became the Republic of Sri Lanka.

1977 The Orient Express arrived at Istanbul for the final time.

1981 ‘Yorkshire Ripper’ Peter Sutcliffe was found guilty at the Old Bailey of murdering 13 women and attempting to murder seven others.

He was sentenced to 30 years minimum.

[Bizarra]

On This Day Over The Years

1533 Henry VIII divorced Catherine of Aragon to marry Anne Boleyn, wife number two.

The result was a break with the church in Rome.

1701 Scottish pirate William Kidd was hanged at Execution Dock in London for piracy.

1706 Marlborough defeated the French at the Battle of Ramilles in Belgium.

1795 Sir Charles Barry, architect, was born in Westminster.

With assistant Augustus Pugin he designed the new Houses of Parliament.

1873 The North West Mounted Police were established in Canada - the name was changed to The Royal Canadian Mounted Police in 1920.

1887 The French crown jewels went on sale and raised six million francs.

1931 Whipsnade Zoo in Bedfordshire opened.

1934 Bank robbers Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were shot dead in an ambush by Texas Rangers near Gibland, Louisiana.

1945 Heinrich Himmler, Hitler’s minister of the interior, committed suicide.

1960 The Israelis announced the capture of war criminal Adolf Eichmann.

[Raistlin]

Births

1245 King Philip III of France

1540 William Gilbert, English physician and early researcher into magnetism

1543 William Byrd, English composer

1743 Jean-Paul Marat, French revolutionary

1819 Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom

1836 Joseph Rowntree, social reformer and industrialist

1855 Arthur Wing Pinero, English playwright

1870 J C Smuts, South African soldier and politician

1941 Bob Dylan, US singer and songwriter

Deaths

1543 Nicolaus Copernicus, Polish astronomer

1612 Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury, English politician

1725 Jonathan Wild, English criminal, hanged

1959 John Dulles, US politician

1974 'Duke' Ellington, US jazz composer and musician

1987 Hermione Gingold, English actress

1994 John Wain, English poet and novelist

1995 Harold Wilson, British Labour politician

Events

1153 Malcolm IV acceded to the Scottish throne.

1530 A list of heretical books was drawn up in London; Tyndale's Bible was burnt.

1726 Voltaire landed in England on his liberation from the Bastille (he returned to France 1729).

1726 The first Circulating Library was opened by Allan Ramsay in Edinburgh, Scotland.

1862 Westminster Bridge across the River Thames in London was opened.

1941 The British battleship HMS Hood was sunk by the Bismarck off Greenland.

1948 The USSR stopped road and rail traffic between Berlin and the West, forcing Western powers to organize airlifts.

1995 Northern Ireland Secretary Patrick Mayhew met with Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams during an investment conference in Washington, DC.

1997 Taliban soldiers took control of the ancient city of Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan's second largest city and stronghold of the northern warlord, Abdul Rashid Dostam.

[Bizarra]

On This Day Over The Years

1234 The Mongols took Kaifeng and destroyed the Chin dynasty.

1768 Captain Cook set off on his first voyage, to explore the Antipodes.

1885 Gerard Boland, founder member of Fianna Fáil and minister, born in Manchester.

1892 Josip Broz Tito, Yugoslavian soldier and president, born.

1921 The Custom House in Dublin was burned down by anti-Treaty forces during a siege.

1923 The republic woke to the news that the Civil War had ended with a ceasefire.

1926 Jazz trumpeter Miles Davis was born in Alton, Illinois.

1935 US athlete Jesse Owens set six world records within 45 minutes at Ann Arbor, Michigan.

1951 British diplomats Burgess and Maclean were reported missing ö they had defected to Moscow.

1961 US President Kennedy presented an extraordinary State of the Union message pleading for increased funds urgently needed for US space, defence and air programmes.

1967 Celtic became the first British football club to win the European Cup when they beat Inter Milan 2-1 in Lisbon.

1986 Bob Geldof’s Race Against Time had 30 million people worldwide running for Sport Aid to raise money for the starving in Africa

[Bizarra]

On This Day Over The Years

FEAST day of St Priscus, St Augustine of Canterbury, St Philip Neri, St Lambert of Venice, St Quadratus of Athens, and St Mariana of Quito.

673 The Venerable Bede, historian and scholar, was born in Jarrow.

1538 Jean Calvin was expelled from Geneva and settled in Strasbourg.

1659 Aurangzeb formally became Mogul Emperor.

1703 Death of diarist Samuel Pepys.

1805 Napoleon was crowned King of Italy in Milan Cathedral.

1834 Sikhs captured Peshawar.

1846 Robert Peel, in response to the famine in Ireland, repealed the Corn Laws (royal assent given June 26), splitting the Conservative Party.

1865 The Confederate Army surrendered in Texas, ending the American Civil War.

1868 Irish nationalist Michael Barrett has hanged outside Newgate Prison for causing an explosion in London which left 13 dead ö the last public execution in England.

1924 Calvin Coolidge signed a bill limiting immigration into the US and entirely excluding the Japanese.

1969 John Lennon and Yoko Ono began a bed-in for world peace in a Montreal hotel.

[Bizarra]

On This Day Over The Years

1199 Pope Innocent III imposed the first direct papal taxation of clergy.

1199 Death of Minamoto Yoritomo, first Shogun of Japan.

1299 Peace was negotiated between Genoa and Venice, ending their war (since 1261) to control trade with the Byzantine Empire.

1679 The Habeas Corpus Act, stating that nobody could be held in prison without trial, was passed.

1703 Tsar Peter the Great founded St Petersburg and proclaimed it the new capital of Russia.

1798 Insurgents under Fr John Murphy defeated the North Cork Militia and Yeomanry in the Battle of Oulart Hill, Co Wexford.

1813 US forces occupied Fort St George, and the British abandoned the entire Niagara frontier.

1818 Women's rights campaigner Amelia Jenks Bloomer was born in New York.

She caused a stir by wearing the trousers that acquired her name.

1837 James Wild Bill Hicock, US frontiersman, was born in Troy Grove, Illinois.

1840 Italian violin virtuoso Niccolo Paganini died.

He was reputed to have had a hand-spread measuring a staggering 18 inches.

1900 Belgium became the first country to elect a government by proportional representation.

1936 The Queen Mary left Southampton on her maiden voyage to New York.

Here, Aer Lingus, then known as Irish Sea Airways, began flights from Baldonnel to Bristol.

The Iolar (Eagle) a De Havilland Dragon, carried five passengers.

1937 The 4,200ft Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, was opened.

1940 Operation Dynamo — the evacuation of British and French troops from the Dunkirk beaches — began.

It lasted until June 4.

1941 The German battleship Bismarck was sunk by the Royal Navy west of Brest.

1964 Jawalharlal Nehru, Indian politician, died.

[Bizarra]

On This Day Over The Years

1871 Whit Monday became the first Bank Holiday in Britain.

1874 GK Chesterton, author and poet, was born in Kensington, London.

His detective Father Brown was based on Father John O'Connor, who received him into the Catholic Church.

1884 Oscar Wilde married Constance Mary Lloyd, of whom he said she was "a grave, slight, violet-eyed little Artemis with great coils of heavy brown hair which make her head droop like a blossom".

1896 The Irish Republican Socialist Party was founded by James Connolly.

1917 John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 35th President of the US, born.

1942 Bing Crosby recorded the top selling disc, White Christmas, for the soundtrack of the film Holiday Inn.

1953 Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing became the first two climbers to reach the summit of Everest.

1982 Pope Paul II became the first Pope in 450 years to step on to British soil and the first to pray side by side with the Archbishop of Canterbury in Canterbury Cathedral.

1985 39 football fans were killed when a wall collapsed during crowd violence at Heysel Stadium, Brussels, before the Liverpool v Juventus European Cup Final.

[Bizarra]

1035 - Boudouin V van Rijsel becomes earl of Flanders

1087 - German emperor Henry IV crowns his son Koenraad

1100 - Burchard becomes bishop of Utrecht

1381 - English boer uprising begins in Essex

1416 - Jerome of Prague burned as a heretic by Church

1431 - Hundred Years' War: in Rouen, France, 19-year-old Joan of Arc is burned at the stake by an English-dominated tribunal.

1434 - Battle at Lipany

1498 - Columbus departs with 6 ships for 3rd trip to America

1522 - French troops driven out of Genoa

1527 - U of Marburg (Germany) founded

1536 - English king Henry VIII marries Jane Seymour

1539 - Spanish explorer Fernando de Soto discovers Florida

1574 - Henry III follows brother Charles IX as king of France

1574 - Sea battle at Lillo Belgium (Adolf Van Haemstede vs Louis de Boisot)

1584 - Earl Adolf van Nieuwenaar/Meurs becomes viceroy of Gelderland

1588 - Spanish Aramada under Medina-Sidonia departs Lisbon to invade England

1631 - France/Maximilian van Bavarian signs Accord of Fontainebleau

1635 - Emperor Ferdinand II & Saksen sign Peace of Prague

1642 - From this date all honours granted by Charles I are retrospectively annulled by Parliament

1646 - Spain & Netherlands signs temporary cease fire

1783 - Benjamin Tower of Phila publishes 1st daily newspaper in US

1793 - Georges Couthon chosen member of French Committee the Salut Public

1806 - Andrew Jackson kills Charles Dickinson in a duel after Dickinson had accused Jackson's wife of bigamy.

1808 - Napoleon annexes Tuscany & gave it seats in French Senate

1814 - Napoleonic Wars: War of the Sixth Coalition - the Treaty of Paris (1814) is signed returning French borders to their 1792 extent.

1821 - James Boyd patents Rubber Fire Hose

1822 - House slave betrays Denmark Vesey conspiracy (37 blacks hanged)

1832 - Evariste Galois give his theory on free assembly (dies in duel May 31)

1832 - The Rideau Canal in eastern Ontario is opened.

1842 - John Francis attempts to assassinate Queen Victoria

1848 - 2nd battle at Gioto: Sardinia-Piemonte beats Austrians

1848 - William G Young patents ice cream freezer

1848 - Mexico ratifies treaty giving US; New Mexico, California & parts of Nevada, Utah, Arizona & Colorado in return for $15 million

1854 - Kansas-Nebraska Act repealed Missouri Compromise opens north slavery

1854 - Territories of Kansas & Nebraska created

1858 - Hudson's Bay Co rights to Vancouver Island revoked

1862 - Battle of Booneville MS - captured Gen Beauregard evacuates Corinth

1862 - Battle of Front Royal, VA

1864 - Battle of Bethesda Church VA

1864 - Cavalry fight at Old Church (Totopotomoy Creek) Virginia

1866 - Opera "Die Verkaufte Braut" premieres (Prague)

1868 - Memorial Day 1st observed when 2 women in Columbus Mississippi placed flowers on both Confederate & Union graves

1872 - Mahlon Loomis patents wireless telegraphy

1876 - Ottoman sultan Abd-ul-Aziz is deposed and succeeded by his nephew Murat V.

1879 - 92°F highest temperature ever recorded in Cleveland in May

1879 - Gilmore Garden (NYC) renamed Madison Square Garden

1879 - An F4 tornado strikes Irving, Kansas, killing 18 and injuring 60.

1883 - Rumor that the Brooklyn Bridge is going to collapse caused a stampede that kills 12

1889 - Brassier invented

1890 - 1st Dodger home run (Dave Foutz)

1894 - Bobby Lowe is 1st to hit 4 HRs in 1 baseball game

1895 - W G Grace scores his 1,000th Cricket run of the season after 22 days

1896 - 1st car accident occurs, Henry Wells hit a bicyclist (NYC)

1899 - 24th Preakness: R Clawson aboard Half Time wins in 1:47

1901 - Hall of Fame for Great American on NYU campus dedicated

1901 - Memorial Day 1st observed in US

1903 - 28th Preakness: W Gannon aboard Flocarline wins in 1:44.8

1904 - Frank Chance gets hit by pitch 5 times in a doubleheader

1906 - 40th Belmont: Lucien Lyne aboard Burgomaster wins in 2:20

1907 - 41st Belmont: G Mountain aboard Peter Pan wins

1908 - 1st federal workmen's compensation law approved

1908 - 42nd Belmont: Joe Notter aboard Colin win

1908 - Aldrich Vineland Currency Act forerunner to Federal Reserve System

1908 - Paris advocate E Archdeacon is 1st passenger in a airplane

1908 - US Assay Office in Salt Lake City, Utah authorized

1909 - National Conference on the Negro is held

1909 - Reuben Siegel laid cornerstone of 1st home in Tel-Aviv

1910 - 44th Belmont: James Butwell aboard Sweep wins in 2:22

1911 - 1st Indianapolis 500 car race, Ray Harroun wins at 74.59 MPH (120 KPH)

1912 - US Marines sent to Nicaragua

1913 - 1st Balkan War ends, Treaty of London

1913 - New country of Albania, forms

1913 - John McGraw joins Fred Clarke, Cap Anson, Frank Selee, & Connie Mack

1913 - as managers who have won 1,000 games

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.

1921 - Lord Dunsany's "If," premieres in London

1921 - Memorial to Capt Eddie Grant, killed in WW I, unveiled at Polo Grounds

1921 - Salzburg, Austria, votes to join Germany

1922 - Latvia & Vatican sign accord

1922 - Lincoln Memorial dedicated

1922 - Cubs swap Max Flack for Cards Cliff Heathcote during middle of doubleheader. Both play for both teams that day

1923 - Howard Hanson's 1st Symphony "Nordic," premieres

1924 - Socialist Matteotti falls in Italian parliament by fascists

1925 - British mariners shoot on demonstrators

1925 - Peter DePaolo became 1st man to average over 100 mph at Indy

1925 - Rogers Hornsby replaces Branch Rickey as manager of Cardinals

1925 - In China protests erupt against the Great Powers infringing on Chinese sovereignty.

1927 - Walter Johnson records 113th & last shutout of his career

1930 - Bill Arnold wins Indianapolis 500 car race (161.6 kph)

1931 - Phillies Chuck Klein homers off Ben Cantwell (Braves) in both ends DH

1932 - Yankees dedicate a plaque to Miller Huggins

1933 - Patent on invisible glass installation

1935 - Babe Ruth's final game, goes hitless for Braves against Phillies

1937 - 20th PGA Championship: Denny Shute at Pittsburgh FC Aspinwall PA

1937 - Memorial Day Massacre - Chicago police shoot on union marchers, 10 die

1937 - Pitcher Carl Hubbell's 24th consecutive victory

1937 - Police kill 10 strikers at Republic Steel Plant in Chicago

1937 - 61,756, 2nd-largest crowd in Polo Grounds history, sees Dodgers ends Carl Hubbell's consecutive-game winning streak at 24

1938 - Yanks sweep Red Sox 10-0 & 5-4 in front of 83,533 at Yankee Stadium

1941 - 1st anti semitic measures in Serbia

1941 - English Army enters Baghdad, chasing pro-German coup government

1941 - German capture Kreta

1942 - 1,047 bombers bomb Cologne in RAF's raid of WW II

1942 - Reichsfuhrer Himmler arrives in Prague

1942 - Satchel Paige pitches 5 innings to defeat Dizzy Dean All-Stars 8-1

1942 - US aircraft carrier Yorktown leaves Pearl Harbor

1943 - French general De Gaulle arrives in Algiers

1943 - US troops reconquer Attu Aleutians

1944 - Transport nr 75 departs with French Jews to nazi-Germany

1946 - Braves Bernard Malamud HR shatters Bulova clock in Ebbets Field

1946 - United flight 521 crashes on takeoff at LaGuardia Airport (NY) 42 die

1948 - Schenectady Blue Jays Tom Lasorda strikes out 25 in 15-inning game

1948 - A dike along the flooding Columbia River breaks, obliterating Vanport, Oregon within minutes. Fifteen people die and tens of thousands are left homeless.

1949 - East Germans constitution approved

1949 - NPS/VHP win 1st general election in Suriname

1949 - WRTV TV channel 6 in Indianapolis, IN (ABC) begins broadcasting

1950 - Patty Berg wins LPGA Eastern Golf Open

1951 - Ezzard Charles beats Joey Maxim in 15 for heavyweight boxing title

1952 - Charlie Grimm succeeds Tommy Holmes as manager of Boston Braves

1952 - Darius Milhaud's "West Point Suite," premieres

1953 - 1st major league network baseball game-Cleveland 7, Chicago 2

1953 - 23rd French Mens Tennis: Ken Rosewall beats V Seixas (63 64 16 62)

1953 - 23rd French Womens Tennis: Maureen Connolly beats Doris Hart (62 64)

1954 - Dutch bishops forbid membership to non-catholic sporting clubs

1954 - Emile Zatopek runs world record 5K (13:57.2)

1954 - Hector Villa-Lobos' "Odisseia de Uma Raca," premieres

1955 - KMVT TV channel 11 in Twin Falls, ID (CBS/NBC/ABC) begins broadcasting

1955 - Said el-Mufti forms Jordan govt

1955 - Tunisia begins domestic self governing

1956 - Bus boycott begins in Tallahassee Florida

1956 - Mickey Mantle misses by 18" hitting 1st HR out of Yankee Stadium

1956 - US performs nuclear test at Enwetak (atmospheric tests)

1957 - Real Madrid wins 2nd Europe Cup 1 in Madrid

1957 - Test Cricket debut for Rohan Kanhai v England at Edgbaston

1958 - US performs nuclear test at Enwetak (atmospheric tests)

1958 - Unidentified soldiers killed in WW II & Korean War buried in Arlington

1959 - "First Impressions" closes at Alvin Theater NYC after 84 performances

1959 - "Nervous Set" closes at Henry Miller's Theater NYC after 23 perfs

1959 - Iraq terminates milt assistance pact with US due to neutrality

1959 - Pres Somoza ends emergency crisis in Nicaragua

1959 - Pres Stroessner disbands Paraguay's parliament

1959 - World's 1st hovercraft (SR-N1) tested at Cowes England

1959 - The Auckland Harbour Bridge is officially opened today in Auckland, New Zealand.

1961 - Dutch DC-8 crashes after takeoff at Lisbon, 62 die

1961 - Maris hits his 10th & 11th of 61 HRs

1961 - Long time Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo is assassinated in Santo Domingo,Dominican Republic.

1962 - 69 killed in bus crash (Ahmedabad India)

1962 - Benjamin Britten's "War Requiem," premieres

1964 - "Beyond the Fringe" closes at John Golden Theater NYC after 673 perfs

1964 - Beatles 1961 record of "Cry for a Shadow" is #1 in Australia

1964 - Beatles' "Love Me Do," single goes #1

1964 - Giants sweep Mets 5-3 & 8-6 in 23 inn, records include elapsed time of 9:50, 47 strikeouts, 7:22 for 2nd game & NY's 22 K's in 2nd games

1965 - France performs nuclear test at Ecker Algeria (Underground)

1965 - Marlene Hagge wins LPGA Babe Didrikson-Zaharias Golf Open

1965 - Viet Cong offensive against US base Da Nang, begins

1965 - Vivian Malone, is 1st black to graduate from University of Alabama

1966 - 300 US airplanes bomb North Vietnam

1966 - Graham Hill wins Indianapolis 500 car race (232.2 kph)

1966 - US launches Surveyor 1 to Moon

1967 - Biafra declares independence from Nigeria

1967 - King Hussein of Jordan visits Cairo

1967 - Robert "Evel" Knievel's motorcycle jumps 16 automobiles

1967 - Yankee Whitey Ford, nearing 41, announces his retirement from baseball

1968 - Beatles begin work on their only double album "Beatles"

1968 - President De Gaulle disbands French parliament

1968 - University church in Leipzig German DR, blown up

1968 - West German Parliament accepts emergency crisis law

1969 - Derek Clayton runs world record marathon (2:08:33.6) at Antwerp

1969 - Gibraltar adopts constitution

1969 - People revolt in Willemstad, Curacao

1969 - Riots on the Caribbean island of Curaçao

1970 - "Minnie's Boys" closes at Imperial Theater NYC after 80 performances

1970 - Baseball All-Star voting is returned to fans

1971 - 36 hospitalized during Grateful Dead concert; drunk LSD Apple juice

1971 - Train crash at Duivendrecht Neth, 5 die

1971 - US Mariner 9 1st satellite to orbit Mars launched

1971 - Willie Mays hits his 638th HR, sets NL record of 1,950 runs scored

1972 - 3 Jap PFL terrorists kills 24, wound 72 at Tel Aviv's Lod Intl airport

1972 - The Angry Brigade goes on trial over a series of 25 bombings throughout Britain.

1973 - Ajax wins 3rd Europe Cup

1974 - 10th Mayor's Trophy Game, Yanks beat Mets 9-4

1975 - European Space Agency (ESA) forms

1975 - Wings release "Venus & Mars" album

1976 - 22nd LPGA Championship won by Betty Burfeindt

1976 - Bobby Unser sets world record for fastest pit stop (4 seconds)

1977 - Cleve Indian Dennis Eckersley no-hits Calif Angels, 2-0

1979 - Nottingham Forrest wins 24th Europe Cup 1 at Munich

1979 - Pat Underwood makes his pitching debut for Detroit beats brother Tom

1979 - Percom Data Company Inc release Microdos for Radio Shack's TRS-80

1979 - Ted Coombs begins a 5,193 mile roller skate from LA to NYC

1980 - 1st papal visit to France since 1814

1980 - Tiger reliever John Hiller, 37, (who had a 1971 heart attack), retires

1980 - Turner's painting "Juliet & Her Nurse" sells for $6.4 million

1980 - Twins Ken Landreaux ends his hitting streak after 31 games

1981 - "Nightline" extends from 4 nights to 5 nights a week (Friday)

1981 - Bangladesh Pres Ziaur Rahman is shot by group of rebel officers

1981 - LA Dodgers are quickest to get 1,000,000 attendence (22 games)

1982 - "Do Black Patent Leather Shoes..." closes at Alvin NYC after 5 perf

1982 - Closest Indy 500, Gordon Johncock beats Rick Mears by 0.16 seconds

1982 - Sandra Spuzich wins LPGA Corning Golf Classic

1982 - Spain becomes 16th member of NATO

1983 - Surrey all out for 14 vs Essex, their lowest score ever

1983 - AL Pres Lee MacPhail suspends Yankees owner George Steinbrenner for one week, for his public criticism of umpires

1984 - Bomb explodes in rebel leader Eden Pastora headquarters in Nicaragua

1984 - Liverpool wins 29th Europe Cup 1 in Rome

1984 - NL suspends Mario Soto 5 days for Reds-Cubs fight on May 27th

1985 - Stanley Cup: Edmonton Oilers beat Phila Flyers, 4 games to 1

1986 - Ariane-2 (ESA) launched

1986 - Bobby Rahal is 1st to avg over 170 mph in Indianapolis 500

1986 - France performs nuclear test

1987 - Mike Tyson TKOs Pinklon Thomas in 6 for heavyweight boxing title

1987 - North American Philips Company unveils compact disc video

1987 - Tony Tucker TKOs Buster Douglas in 10 for heavyweight boxing title

1987 - West German Mathias Rust lands airplane on Red Square

1989 - Margaret Ray pleads guilty to breaking into David Letterman's house

1990 - 135 die in a (6.4) earthquake in Peru

1990 - Dow Jones avg hits a record 2,878.56

1990 - Earthquake hit Peru, killing 135

1991 - 64th National Spelling Bee: Joanne Lagatta wins spelling antipyretic

1991 - Arturo Barrios runs world record one-hour distance (21,096 km)

1991 - Supreme Court rules prosecutors can be sued for legal advice they give police & can be held accountable

1992 - Minn Twin Bert Blyleven is 2nd to win as teenager & 40 year old

1992 - NY Lotto pays $30 million to one winner (#s are 12-15-30-33-40-48)

1992 - NY Yankee Scott Sanderson becomes 9th to beat all 26 teams

1992 - Paul Simon weds Edie Brickell

1992 - UN votes for sanctions against Serb-led Yugoslavia to halt fighting

1993 - Betsy King wins J C Penney/LPGA Skins Game Golf Tournament

1993 - Kelly Robbins wins LPGA Corning Golf Classic

1996 - 69th National Spelling Bee: Wendy Guey wins spelling vivisepulture

1996 - John Tesh's final day as host of "Entertainment Tonight"

1996 - Albert Belle uses a forearm to break up a double play & nearly breaks Brewer 2nd baseman Fernando Vina's nose, Belle gets 2 game suspension

1997 - Betty Shabazz, widow of Malcolm X, set afire by 12 year old grandson

1997 - Ken Dryden becomes president of NHL's Toronto Maple Leafs

1998 - A magnitude 6.6 earthquake hits northern Afghanistan, killing up to 5,000.

<< 29th May

[Raistlin]

Births

1672 Peter the Great, tsar of Russia

1757 Henry Addington, British politician

1846 Peter Carl Fabergé, Russian goldsmith and jeweller

1896 Howard Hawks, US film director

1909 Benny Goodman, US bandleader

Deaths

1593 Christopher Marlowe, English playwright

1640 Peter Paul Rubens, Flemish painter

1744 Alexander Pope, English poet and satirist

1770 François Boucher, French painter

1778 Voltaire, French author and philosopher

1960 Boris Pasternak, Russian novelist and poet

1967 Claude Rains, British-born film actor

1993 Ra Sun, US jazz keyboard player and bandleader

1994 Juan Onetti, Uruguyan novelist

Events

1431 Joan of Arc was burnt as a heretic at Rouen, France.

1536 English king Henry VIII married Jane Seymour, his third wife.

1592 The Spanish defeated an English force under Sir John Norris at Cranon, Brittany.

1913 A peace treaty between Turkey and the Balkan states was signed in London.

1925 The shooting of Chinese students by municipal police in Shanghai and other incidents in Canton provoked a Chinese boycott of British goods.

1929 The British Labour Party won the general election with 287 seats.

1948 The British Citizenship Act conferred the status of British subjects on all Commonwealth citizens.

1954 Diane Leather of Birmingham University, England, was the first woman to run a mile in under 5 minutes.

1997 More than 900 US and other Western citizens were airlifted to safety from Freetown, in Sierra Leone, as the US embassy urged all Americans to leave the country.

[Raistlin]

Births

1443 Margaret Beaufort, consort of Henry VII of England

1443 Matthias Corvinus, king of Hungary

1443 Rudolphus Agricola, Dutch humanist

1664 Guilio Alberoni, Italian cardinal and politician

1750 Karl August von Hardenberg, Prussian politician

1819 Walt Whitman, US poet

1863 Francis Younghusband, English explorer

1872 William Heath Robinson, English illustrator

1908 Don Ameche, US film actor

1930 Clint Eastwood, US film actor and director

1939 Terry Waite, religious adviser to the Archbishop of Canterbury

Deaths

1594 Jacopo Tintoretto, Italian painter

1740 Frederick William I of Prussia

1740 Jean Cavalier, French Huguenot preacher and leader

1809 Joseph Haydn, Austrian composer

1837 Joseph Grimaldi, English clown

1960 Walther Funk, German Nazi economist

1962 Adolf Eichmann, Nazi leader, hanged as a war criminal

Events

1287 The Genoese defeated the Venetian fleet off Acre and blockaded the coast of Outremer.

1902 The Peace of Vereeniging ended the Boer War, in which British casualties numbered 5,774 killed (and 16,000 deaths from disease) against 4,000 Boers killed in action.

1916 The Battle of Jutland began, in which Royal Navy losses exceeded those of the German fleet.

1942 Czech patriots assassinated Gestapo leader Heydrich.

1952 In the USSR, the Volga Don Canal was opened.

1961 South Africa became an independent republic outside the Commonwealth, with C R Swart as president.

1974 Henry Kissinger secured an agreement between Syria and Israel to disengage forces on Golan Heights.

1997 Ghana dispatched troops to join a Nigerian-led force already in Sierra Leone, urging the coup leaders to respond to diplomatic efforts and warning that if they do not, West African countries might have to use force to restore civilian rule.

[Bizarra]

June 1 Events in History - June 1 Birthdays - June 1 Deaths

2005 Dutch reject a referendum on the E.U. constitution

2001 The heir to the Nepalese throne killed his parents and eight other family members before shooting himself, after an argument over his choice of a bride

1997 10th Children's Miracle Network Telethon raises $5,400,186

1997 1st New York Women Film Festival opens

1997 51st Tony Awards: Titanic and Last Night of Ballyhoo win

1997 Ameritech Senior Golf Open

1997 Annika Sorenstam wins LPGA Michelob Light Classic

1997 Donovan Bailey beats Michael Johnson in 150m race

1997 Heartland LPGA Classic

1997 Los Angeles Dodger Wilton Guerrero's bat breaks, revealing it is corked

1997 Vijay Singh wins Golf Memorial at Muirfield Village CC, 14 under par

1996 MTV Movie Awards

1996 Sony does not renew lease on megatron in Times Square

1995 68th National Spell Bee: Justin Tyler Carroll wins spelling xanthosis

1995 Rangers' Kenny Rogers scoreless inning streak ends after 39

1994 FX Channel, Cable Network, debuts

1994 General H Norman Schwarzkopf released from hospital after prostate surgery

1994 Guns n Roses drummer Matthew Sorum files to divorce Kai

1993 Connie Chung joins Dan Rather as anchors of CBS Evening News

1993 Guatemala president Jorge Serrano overthrown by army

1993 Melchior Ndadaye elected President of Burundi

1992 America West Arena opens in Phoenix

1992 Stanley Cup: Pittsburgh Penguins sweep Chicago Blackhawks in 4 games

1991 Mount Pinatubo (Philippines) erupts for 1st time in 600 years

1991 Roseanne Arnold and Tom Arnold wed again, they divorced later

1990 "Cemetery Club" closes at Brooks Atkinson Theater New York City after 56 performances

1990 Cowboy Channel on cable TV begins transmitting

1990 Detroit Pistons beat Trailblazers in Portland for 1st time since 1974

1990 Dow Jones Avg hits a record high of 2,900.97

1989 62nd National Spelling Bee: Scott Isaacs wins spelling spoliator

1989 Margaret Ray pleads guilty to breaking into David Letterman's house

1989 Robin Givens and Mike Tyson granted final divorce in New Jersey

1988 "Les Miserables," opens at Shubert Theatre, Los Angeles

1988 "Morton Downey, Jr. Show," debuts in TV syndication

1988 Train crash in Zeeland, Netherlands, kills 2

1987 Phil Niekro 314th combines with Joe to have most wins by bros (530)

1986 32nd LPGA Championship won by Pat Bradley

1986 40th Tony Awards: I'm Not Rappaport and Mystery of Edwin Drood win

1985 "Just A Gigolo/I Ain't Got Nobody" by David Lee Roth hits #12

1985 Viv Richards scores 300 in a day on the way to 322 vs. Warwicks cricket

1985 Weird Al Yankovic released his Dare To Be Stupid LP

1984 Douglas H Mitchell, QC of Calgary becomes 6th CFL Commissioner

1984 KWK-AM in St. Louis MO changes call letters to KGLD

1984 Netherlands' Lubbers government gives 48 sites for cruise missiles

1984 Weightlifter Alexander Gunyashev of U.S.S.R. snatches a record 211 kg

1982 Rickey Henderson is fastest to reach 50 stolen bases in a year

1980 1st transmission of CNN, Cable News Network

1980 ANC sets fire to Sasol oil installations in South Africa

1980 Barbra Streisand appears at an ACLU Benefit in California

1980 Beth Daniel wins LPGA Golden Lights Golf Championshipship

1980 Steve Garvey, hits the 7,000th Dodger home run

1980 Ted Turner's Cable News Network begins broadcasting

1979 33rd NBA Championship: Sea Supersonics beat Washington Bullets, 4 games to 1

1979 Rhodesian bishop Able Muzorewa becomes premier

1979 Ted Coombs began a 5,193 mile roller skate from LA to New York City

1979 Wings release "Old Siam, Sir"

1978 Cricket Test debut of David Gower, vs. Pakistan, Edgbaston, scores 58

1978 High Council destroys judgment against war criminal Pieter Menten

1977 British Virgin Islands adopts constitution

1977 Russia charges Jewish rights activist Anatoly Shcharansky with treason

1977 South Carolina Heerenveen soccer team forms in Heerenveen

1975 "Chicago" opens at 46th St. Theater New York City for 947 performances

1975 21st LPGA Championship won by Kathy Whitworth

1975 California Angel Nolan Ryan 4th no-hitter beats Baltimore Orioles, 1-0

1975 Cars in Netherlands must have seatbelts

1975 Ron Woods replaces Mick Taylor as Rolling Stone guitarist

1974 "My Girl Bill" by Jim Stafford hits #12

1974 Chemical plant explodes in Flixborough Lincs kills 29 in UK

1973 George Harrison's "Living in the Material World" goes gold

1973 Greek President Papadopoulos asks for "parliamentary presidential republic"

1973 Paul McCartney and Wings release "Live and Let Die"

1972 Dmitri Shostakovich's 15th Symphony, Dutch premieres in West Berlin

1972 Tswanaland becomes Bophuthatswana in South Africa

1972 West German police arrest RAF-leader Andreas Baader

1971 "You're a Good Man Charlie Brown" opens at Golden New York City for 31 performances

1971 Ed Sullivan's final TV show on CBS

1970 "Everything Is Beautiful" by Ray Stevens hits #1

1970 Com Bowie Kuhn reprimands Astro Jim Bouton for writing "Ball Four"

1970 Soyuz 9 launched into Earth orbit for 18 days

1970 Tigers Al Kaline collides with another player and swallows his tongue

1969 Tobacco advertising is banned on Canadian radio and TV

1968 100th Belmont: Gus Gustines aboard Stage Door Johnny wins in 2:27.2

1968 Simon and Garfunkel's "Mrs Robinson" hits #1

1967 Beatles release Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in U.S. and goes gold

1967 Mayor-council form of government instituted for Washington, D.C.

1966 2,400 persons attend White House Conference on Civil Rights

1966 George Harrison is impressed by Ravi Shankar's concert in London

1966 Joaquin Balaguer elected president of Dominican Republic

1966 Shortwave station Radio New York Worldwide changes calls from WRUL to WNYW

1965 A Penzias and R Wilson detect 3 degrees K primordial background radiation

1965 coal mine explosion in ********uoka Japan kills 236

1963 "El Watusi" by Ray Barreto hits #17

1963 Jomo Kenyatta becomes 1st premier of Kenya

1963 King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy, becomes Emperor of Ethiopia

1962 Oscar 2 (ham radio satellite) launched into Earth orbit

1962 Roda JC soccer team reforms in Kerkrade

1962 USAF Major Robert M White takes X-15 to 40,420 m

1961 FM multiplex stereo broadcasting 1st heard

1960 "Finian's Rainbow" closes at 46th St. Theater New York City after 12 performances

1960 WDTV TV channel 5 in Clarksburg-Weston, WV (CBS) begins broadcasting

1959 2-time champ Monterrey Mexico barred from 1959 Little League competition for using players outside predetermined geographical area

1959 Constitution of Tunisia promulgated (National Day)

1958 Belgian christian-democrats win parliamentary election

1958 Charles de Gaulle elected premier of France

1958 Louise Suggs wins LPGA Gatlinburg Golf Open

1957 1st U.S. runner breaks 4 minute mile (Don Bowden)

1955 Habib Bourguiba ends exile from Tunisia

1954 Emile Zatopek runs record 6 mile: (27:59.2)/10,000m (28:54.2)

1953 KMJ (now KSEE) TV channel 24 in Fresno, California (NBC) begins broadcasting

1953 WDAY TV channel 6 in Fargo, ND (ABC/NBC) begins broadcasting

1952 Betsy Rawls wins LPGA Cross Country Weathervane Golf Tournament

1952 Catholic church puts Andre Gides "Labor" on the index

1951 1st self-contained titanium plant opens (Henderson Nevada)

1951 International Cheese treaty signed

1950 WKZO (now WWMT) TV channel 3 in Kalamazoo, MI (CBS) 1st broadcast

1949 1st magazine on microfilm offered to subscribers (Newsweek)

1949 British government grants Cyrenaica (East-Libya) independence

1949 KSL TV channel 5 in Salt Lake City, UT (CBS) begins broadcasting

1949 Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz wed for the second time

1949 Microfilm copies of "Newsweek" magazine 1st offered

1948 Israel and Arabs agree to a cease fire

1947 OPA, which issued WW II rationing coupons, disbands

1947 Photosensitive glass developed

1946 78th Belmont: Warren Mehrtens aboard Assault wins in 2:30.8

1946 Spijkenisse soccer team forms in Spijkenisse

1945 WLB-AM in Minneapolis Minnesota changes call letters to KUOM

1944 General Montgomery/Patton/Bradley/Dempsey/Crerar meet in Portsmouth

1944 Nazi occupiers make it punishable to give aid to allied pilots

1943 Germany shoots down a civilian flight from Lisbon to London, all die

1943 Pirates Rip Sewell 1st throws his dew-drop (eephus) ball in a game

1941 12.59" (31.98 cm) rainfall, Burlington Kansas (state 24-hr record)

1941 British troops occupy Bagdad Iraq

1941 Germany bans all Catholic publications

1941 Germany occupies Kreta

1941 New York Giant Mel Ott hits his 400th HR and his 1,500th RBI

1940 Coffee and tea rationed in Holland

1940 General-major Bernard Montgomery returns to London

1940 Nazi occupiers kick Jews out of Dutch air guard

1939 1st boxing match to be televised, Lon Nova defeats Max Baer

1939 1st night game at Phil's Shribe Park (Pirates 5, Phillies 2)

1939 British sub "Thetis" sinks in Liverpool Bay with all 99 aboard

1939 Retired German Colonel General Gerd von Runstedt returns to service

1938 Protective baseball helmets 1st worn by batters

1938 Superman 1st appears in DC Comics' Action Comics Series issue #1

1937 Chicago White Sox Bill Dietrich no-hits St. Louis Browns, 8-0

1937 Prince Konoye becomes Japanese premier

1936 "Lux Radio Theater" moved from New York City to Hollywood

1936 Queen Mary completes its maiden voyage, arriving in New York

1935 Yankees set solo HR record with 6 beat Boston 7-2

1934 AFC '34 soccer team forms in Alkmaar

1933 Century of Progress world's fair opens in Chicago

1933 Charlie Chaplin weds Paulette Goddard

1932 Lunteren soccer team forms in Lunteren

1931 Rozenburg soccer team forms in Rozenburg

1930 6th French Mens Tennis: Henri Cochet beats Bill Tilden (36 86 63 61)

1930 6th French Womens Tennis: Helen Moody beats Helen Jacobs (62 61)

1930 Alphense Boys soccer team forms in Alphen on Rhine

1930 Bradman scores cricket 191 Australia vs. Hampshire, 240 minutes, 26 fours

1926 Ignacy Mocicki elected president of Poland

1925 Lou Gehrig replaces Wally Pipp (1st of record 2130 consec games)

1923 New York Giants beat Phillies, 22-5, Giants score in every inning

1921 Race riot in Tulsa, Oklahoma, 61 people killed

1920 RKSV Volendam soccer team forms in Volendam

1919 Rhineland Republic forms in Wiesbaden

1918 Excelsior Maassluis soccer team forms in Maassluis

1918 White Sox losing 5-4 against New York Yankees, load the bases in 9th with no outs Chick Gandil lines to Frank Baker who turns a triple play

1917 Hank Gowdy is 1st baseball player to enlist during WW I

1916 German attack on Fort Vaux, Verdun

1915 1st Zeppelin air raid over England

1914 Oscar Egg bicycles world record time (44,247 km)

1912 Stormvogels soccer team forms in Ijmuiden

1911 1st U.S. group insurance policy written, Passaic, New Jersey

1910 South Carolina Enschede soccer team forms in Enschede

1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition opens in Seattle

1908 John Krohn begins walk around perimeter of U.S., which took 357 days

1907 -27 degrees F (-33 degrees C), Sarmiento, Argentina (South American record)

1905 Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition opens in Portland, Oregon

1902 Blue-White United soccer team of Amsterdam forms

1900 British army occupiers Pretoria South Africa

1899 Cricket test debut of Wilfred Rhodes and Victor Trumper in Grace's last

1898 Trans-Mississippi International Exposition opens in Omaha

1893 Opera "Falstaff" is produced (Berlin)

1890 U.S. census at 62,622,250

1888 California gets its 1st seismograph

1881 Bell Phone opens 1st Dutch telephone exchange

1880 1st pay telephone installed

1880 U.S. census at 50,155,783

1877 Society of American Artists forms

1877 U.S. troops authorized to pursue bandits into Mexico

1872 6th Belmont: James Roe aboard Joe Daniels wins in 2:58

1869 Voting machine patented by Thomas A. Edison

1868 Texas constitutional convention meets in Austin

1866 General Dutch Typographer Union forms

1866 Renegade Irish Fenians invade Ft. Erie, Ontario from U.S.

1864 Battle of Cold Harbor, Virginia (Gaines' Mill, Gaines' Farm)

1864 Confederate cruiser The Georgia sold to The English

1862 2nd/last day of battle at Fair Oaks/7 Pines Virginia (11,165 casualties)

1862 General Lee assumes command after Joe Johnston is injured at 7 Pines

1862 Slavery abolished in all U.S. possessions

1861 1st skirmish in Civil War, Fairfax Court House, Virginia

1861 British territorial waters and ports off-limits during Civil War

1861 Skirmish at Arlington Mills, Virginia

1861 U.S. and Confederacy simultaneously stop mail interchange

1855 U.S. adventurer Wm Walker conquers Nicaragua, reestablishes slavery

1845 Homing pigeon completes 11,000 km trip (Namibia-London) in 55 days

1843 It snows in Buffalo and Rochester New York and Cleveland Ohio

1843 Sojourner Truth leaves New York to begin her career as antislavery activist

1836 Charles Darwin returns to Capetown

1835 6th national black convention in Philadelphia

1834 HMS Beagle for anchor in Port Famine, Magallanes Street

1813 Captain John Lawrence utters Navy motto "Don't give up the ship"

1809 Allardyce Barclay begins a bet of walking 1 mile every hour for 1,000 hours. Each hour he walked a mile round trip from his home

1808 1st U.S. land-grant university founded at Ohio University, Athens, Ohio

1796 Last of Britain's troops withdraws from U.S.

1796 Tennessee admitted as 16th U.S. state

1794 English fleet under Richard Earl Howe defeats French

1792 Kentucky admitted as 15th U.S. state

1789 1st U.S. congressional act becomes law (on administering oaths)

1774 Boston Port Bill, British government orders Port of Boston closed

1746 French troops conquer Antwerp

1679 Battle at Bothwell Bridge on Clyde: Duke of Monmouth beats Scottish

1670 English king Charles II and French king Louis XIV sign anti-Dutch treaty

1657 1st Quakers arrives in New Amsterdam (New York)

1649 Czar Aleksei throws out English merchants from Moscow

1641 France and Portugal sign anti-Spanish covenant

1638 1st earthquake recorded in U.S., at Plymouth, Mass

1608 Valse Dimitri forms his 2nd Russian anti-govt

1568 Duke van Alva beheads 18 nobles in Brussels

1562 Emperor Ferdinand and Sultan Suleiman signs treaty

1533 Anna Boleyn crowned queen of England

1526 Parliament of Spiers: Lutheran monarchy freed of their belief

1495 1st written record of Scotch Whiskey appears in Exchequer Rolls of Scotland, Friar John Cor is the distiller

1459 Pope Pius II opens congress of Mantua

1283 Albrecht I van Habsburg becomes ruler of Austrian/Bull market

[ewen1605]

On this day, June 2009 started...

Ta da!

[Raistlin]

Births

1624 John Sobieski, King of Poland

1840 Thomas Hardy, English novelist and poet

1857 Edward Elgar, English composer

1887 Julian Huxley, English biologist

1903 Johnny Weissmuller, US swimmer who played Tarzan in films

1942 Barry Levinson, US film director

Deaths

1581 James Douglas, Earl of Morton

1882 Giuseppe Garibaldi, Italian nationalist

1886 Alexander Ostrovsky, Russian playwright

1913 Alfred Austin, English poet

1962 Vita Sackville-West, English writer

1987 Andrés Segovia, Spanish classical guitarist

1990 Rex Harrison, British actor

1997 Adolphus 'Doc' Cheatham, US jazz trumpeter.

Events

1619 A treaty was signed between England and Holland, regulating the trade in the East between the English and Dutch East India Companies.

1627 British king Charles I granted a charter of incorporation to the Guiana Company.

1627 The Duke of Buckingham sailed from Portsmouth with a fleet to aid the Huguenots in the defence of La Rochelle.

1780 The Gordon riots began in London, when Lord George Gordon headed a procession for presenting a petition to Parliament for repealing the Catholic Relief act of 1778; Roman Catholic chapels were pillaged.

1793 The final overthrow of Girondins and arrest of Jacques Brissot began the Reign of Terror in the French Revolution.

1949 Transjordan was renamed the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

1953 The coronation of Queen Elizabeth II took place in Westminster Abbey, London.

1995 Hansjörg Vogel, the youngest bishop in Switzerland, resigned after announcing that he had made his girlfriend pregnant, hitting the Roman Catholic church with yet another episcopal sex scandal.

1997 The ruling prime minister Jean Chrétien's Liberal Party was re-elected with a majority of four in the Canadian general election.