On May 28th...

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1357 King Afonso IV of Portugal died.

1660 King George I of England was born.

1750 Emperor Sakuramachi of Japan died.

1759 English statesman William Pitt was born.

1779 Poet-composer Thomas Moore was born.

1807 Naturalist Louis Agassiz was born.

1818 The first steamship to sail the Great Lakes was launched.
1818 Confederate General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard was born.

1830 The U. S. Congress authorized the removal of all Indians fromtheir native lands to the western prairie.

1843 Noah Webster, creator of the first dictionary of American English, died.

1845 Fire destroyed about 1,500 houses in Quebec, Canada.

1849 Princess Marianne of the Netherlands and Albrecht of Prussia separated.
1849 Novelist Anne Brontë died.

1863 The first regiment of black soldiers, the 54th Massachusetts, left Boston, Massachusetts, to fight in the American Civil War.

1867 The Senate ratified the Treaty of Cession of Russian America to the United States, authorizing the purchase of Alaska from Russia.

1875 L. Hughes rode Tom Ochiltree to victory in the Preakness Stakes.

1878 John Russell, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, died.

1880 L. Hughes rode Grenada to victory in the Preakness Stakes.

1888 Athlete Jim Thorpe was born.

1889 Édouard and André Michelin incorporated the Michelin Tyre Company.

1892 John Muir and others organized the Sierra Club.

1900 Paul Kruger, President of the Boer Republic of South Africa, fled Pretoria ahead of British troops.

1901 Fred Landry rode The Parader to victory in the Preakness Stakes.

1904 Eugene Hildebrand rode Bryn Mawr to victory in the Preakness Stakes.

1908 Author Ian Fleming was born.

1910 Blues guitarist Aaron Thibeaux "T-Bone" Walker was born.

1911 Actress Thora Hird was born.

1917 Biologist Barry Commoner was born.

1918 Americans engaged in their first military action with the Allied Forces in France.
1918 Azerbaijan declared itself an independent Democratic Republic.

1919 Armenia declared its independence.

1923 The Attorney General of the United States declared it legal for women to wear trousers in public.

1926 General Manuel Gomes da Costa led a military coup in Portugal.

1928 Dodge Brothers Inc. and Chrysler Corporation merged.

1929 The first all-color "talking picture," On With the Show, was exhibited in New York City, New York.

1932 The first modern Purple Hearts were awarded.

1934 The Dionne Quintuplets were born.

1936 Alan Turing submitted On Computable Numbers, in which he set out the theoretical basis for modern computers, for publication.

1940 The Belgian Army surrendered to Germany.
1940 British and French troops captured Narvik, Norway.

1944 New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani was born.
1944 Singer Gladys Knight was born.

1945 Doctor Hunter Campbell "Patch" Adams was born.
1945 Musician John Fogerty was born.

1948 The Israeli Air Force was officially founded.

1949 Frank Parker won the Men's French Championship and Margaret Osborne won the Women's Championship.

1951 Willie Mays hit his first Major League home run.

1952 Women in Greece were given the right to vote.

1955 Eddie Arcaro rode Nashua to victory in the Preakness Stakes.
1955 Bob Sweikert won the Indianapolis 500.

1956 The Ryan X-13 "Vertijet" made its first vertical test flight.

1957 National League team owners voted to allow the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New Yotk Giants to move to Los Angeles and San Francisco, California, respectively.

1959 The United States launched two monkeys into space and recovered them unharmed.

1960 Rainstorms touched off floods that left more than 166 persons dead in Luzon, Philippines.
1960 General Cemal Gursel formed a provisional Turkish government with himself as President and Premier.
1960 Nicola Pietrangeli won the Men's French Championship, and Darlene Hard won the Women's title.

1961 Amnesty International was founded.

1963 The roof of the Casi de Sodre railway station in Lisbon, Portugal, collapsed during the evening rush hour, killing 48 persons and injuring 36 others.

1964 The Palestine Liberation Organization was formed.

1965 An explosion in the Bhori Coal Mine, near Dhanbad, Bihar, India, killed about 400 men.

1967 Sir Francis Chichester completed a solo 226-day, 28,500-mile sailing trip around the world.

1968 Singer Kylie Minogue was born.

1971 Actor Audie Murphy died.

1972 Edward VIII, the only King of the United Kingdom to voluntarily abdicate, died.

1973 Gordon Johncock won the Indianapolis 500.

1974 Italian fascists bombed demonstrators in Brescia, killing 6 persons.
1974 The first Daytime Emmys were awarded.

1975 The Economic Community of West African States was established.

1977 Fire at the Beverly Hills Supper Club in Southgate, Kentucky, killed 168 persons.

1978 Al Unser won the Indianapolis 500.

1982 John Paul II became the first reigning Pope to visit Great Britain.

1984 An Unknown from the Vietnam War was interred at the Tomb of the Unknowns.

1985 David Jacobsen was taken hostage in Beirut, Lebanon.

1987 Stephanie Petit won the U. S. National Spelling Bee with the word "staphylococci."
1987 West German pilot Mathias Rust landed his private plane near Red Square, Moscow, Russia.
1987 The Civil War ironclad Monitor was discovered by a deep sea robot.

1989 Emerson Fittipaldi won the Indianapolis 500.

1990 Actor Joseph Hardy died.
1990 Hussein Bin Onn, former First Minister of Malaysia, died.

1991 Ethiopian rebels captured Addis Ababa.

1995 An earthquake killed approximately 2,000 people in Khabarovsk, Russia.
1995 The Chicago WhiteSox and Detroit Tigers combined for a record 12 home runs at Tiger Stadium.
1995 Jacques Villeneuve won the Indianapolis 500.

1996 "Whitewater Scandal" defendants James McDougal, Susan McDougal, and Jim Guy Tucker were convicted of fraud.

1997 A tornado killed 28 persons in Jarrell, Texas.

1998 Actor Phil Hartman was murdered.

1999 Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper was put back on display in Milan, Italy, after 22 years of restoration work.
1999 Two Swedish police officers were killed with their own guns by bank robbers Jackie Arklöv and Tony Olsson after a car chase.

2000 Juan Pablo Montoya won the Indianapolis 500.

2001 Joe Moakley, U. S. Congressman from Massachusetts, died.

2002 NATO declared Russia a limited partner.

2003 Actress Martha Scott died.

2004 The Iraqi Governing Council chose Ayad Allawi to become Prime Minister of an interim government.

2006 Barry Bonds hit his 715th home run, surpassing Babe Ruth's record.
2006 Sam Hornish, Jr., won the Indianapolis 500.

2008 The first meeting of the Constituent Assembly of Nepal formally declared the nation a republic.

2010 Actor Gary Coleman died.

2014 Poet Maya Angelou died.

2016 Harambe, a gorilla at the Cincinnati (Ohio) Zoo, was shot and killed after dragging a 3-year-old boy who had gotten into his enclosure.

2017 Floods and landslides killed at least 151 people in Sri Lanka.
2017 Takuma Sato won the Indianapolis 500.

2018 Coca-Cola launched its first alcoholic drink, Lemon-Do, in Kyushu, Japan.

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This page was last updated on June 02, 2018.