On May 30th...

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1431 Joan of Arc was burned at the stake by the English at the Place du Vieux Marché in Rouen, France.

1498 Christopher Columbus embarked on his third voyage.

1527 The University of Marburg (Germany) was founded.

1539 Hernando de Soto landed at present-day Tampa Bay, Florida..

1574 King Charles IX of France died.

1593 Playwright Christopher Marlowe died.

1626 An explosion at the Wanggongchang Gunpowder Factory in Peking, China, killed approximately 20,000 people.

1640 Painter Peter Paul Rubens died.

1744 Poet Alexander Pope died.

1778 Author Voltaire died.

1783 Benjamin Tower published the first daily newspaper in the United States, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

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

1821 James Boyd patented rubber fire hose.

1832 The Rideau Canal in Ontario, Canada, opened.

1842 John Francis attempted to assassinate Queen Victoria.

1848 William G. Young patented an ice cream freezer.
1848 Mexico ratified a treaty giving New Mexico, California, and parts of Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and Colorado to the United States in return for $15 million.

1854 The Kansas-Nebraska Act became law.

1858 The Hudson's Bay Company's rights to Vancouver Island were revoked.

1868 Memorial Day was first observed in the United States.

1900 The Manchus declared war against all foreign powers in China.

1908 Voice actor Mel Blanc was born.

1909 Jazz clarinetist Benny Goodman was born.

1911 Ray Harroun won the first Indianapolis 500, with an average speed of 74.59 miles per hour.
1911 Board game magnate Milton Bradley died.

1912 U.S. Marines were sent to Nicaragua.
1912 Joe Dawson won the Indianapolis 500.
1912 Wilbur Wright, co-inventor of the airplane, died.

1913 The First Balkan War ended with the signing of a treaty in London.
1913 Jules Goux won the Indianapolis 500.

1914 René Thomas won the Indianapolis 500.

1915 Dario Resta won the Indianapolis 500.

1921 Tommy MIlton won the Indianapolis 500.

1922 The Lincoln Memorial was dedicated.
1922 Jimmy Murphy won the Indianapolis 500.

1923 Tommy Milton won the Indianapolis 500.

1925 Peter DePaolo became the first man to average over 100 mph in the Indianapolis 500.

1927 George Souders won the Indianapolis 500.

1928 Louis Meyer won the Indianapolis 500.

1929 Ray Keech won the Indianapolis 500.

1931 Louis Schneider won the Indianapolis 500.

1932 Fred Frame won the Indianapolis 500.

1933 Louis Meyer won the Indianapolis 500.

1934 Bill Cummings won the Indianapolis 500.
1934 Cosmonaut Alexsei A. Leonov was born.

1935 Babe Ruth played his final game.
1935 Kelly Petillo won the Indianapolis 500.

1936 Louis Meyer won the Indianapolis 500.

1937 Police in Chicago, Illinois, shot and killed 10 unarmed demonstrators during the "Little Steel Strike."

1938 Floyd Roberts won the Indianapolis 500.

1939 Wilbur Shaw won the Indianapolis 500.

1940 Wilbur Shaw won the Indianapolis 500.

1943 Football player Gale Sayers was born.

1946 United Flight 521 crashed soon after taking off from LaGuardia Airport in New York City, New York, killing 42 persons.
1946 George Robson won the Indianapolis 500.

1947 Mauri Rose won the Indianapolis 500.
1947 An Eastern Airlines plane bound for Miami, Florida, crashed into a wooded area near Bainbridge, Maryland, killing all 53 persons aboard.

1949 Bill Holland won the Indianapolis 500.

1951 Lee Wallard won the Indianapolis 500.

1952 Troy Ruttman won the Indianapolis 500.

1953 Bill Vukovich won the Indianapolis 500.

1956 PatFlaherty won the Indianapolis 500.

1957 Sam Hanks won the Indianapolis 500 with a record average speed of 135.6 miles per hour.

1958 Unidentified soldiers killed in World War II and the Korean War were interred at the Tomb of the Unknowns.
1958 Jimmy Bryan won the Indianapolis 500.

1959 The world's first hovercraft (SR-N1) was tested at Cowes, England.
1959 Rodger Ward won the Indianapolis 500.

1960 Jim Rathmann won the Indianapolis 500.
1960 Author Boris Pasternak died.

1961 Dominican Republic dictator Rafael Trujillo was assassinated.
1961 A Venezuelan airliner crashed near Lisbon, Portugal, during a rainstorm, killing all 61 persons aboard.
1961 A. J. Foyt, Jr., won the Indianapolis 500.

1962 An overloaded bus plunged into the Mahor River Gorge nearAhmedabad, India, killing 69 of the 87 persons aboard.
1962 Rodger Ward won the Indianapolis 500.

1963 Parnelli Jones won the Indianapolis 500.

1964 A. J. Foyt won the Indianapolis 500.
1964 Singer Wynonna Judd was born.

1965 A total solar eclipse was observed along an 8,000-mile path from New Zealand, across the Pacific, to Peru.
1965 The Bell System's first electronic central office opened at Succasunna, New Jersey.

1966 Surveyor 1 was launched from Cape Canaveral on a course to the Moon.
1966 Graham Hill won the Indianapolis 500.

1967 Colonel Odumegwu Ojukwu declared the Eastern Region of Nigeria an independent republic called Biafra.
1967 Actor Claude Rains died.

1968 Panama's National Electoral Tally Board declared Dr. Arnulfo Arias the winner of the presidential election.
1968 Bobby Unser won the Indianapolis 500.

1969 Gibraltar adopted a constitution.
1969 Mario Andretti won the Indianapolis 500.

1970 Al Unser won the Indianapolis 500.

1972 Three Japanese gunmen attacked a crowd at Lydda Airport in Israel, killing 25 persons and wounding 72.

1975 The European Space Agency was formed.

1976 Betty Burfeindt won the LPGA Championship.
1976 Johnny Rutherford won the Indianapolis 500.

1981 Bangladesh President Ziaur Rahman was shot by a group of rebel officers.

1982 Gordon Johncock beat Rick Mears by 0.16 seconds in the closest Indianapolis 500 to date.

1985 The Edmonton Oilers won the Stanley Cup.

1986 Bobby Rahal won the Indianapolis 500.

1987 Mike Tyson TKO'd Pinklon Thomas in the 6th round for the heavyweight boxing title.

1990 A magnitude 6.4 earthquake killed 135 persons in Peru.

1991 The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that prosecutors can be sued for legal advice they give police and can be held accountable for actions resulting from that advice.

1993 Emerson Fittapaldi won the Indianapolis 500.

1994 Ezra Taft Benson, President of the Mormon Church, died.

1997 Betty Shabazz, widow of Malcolm X, was set on fire by her 12-year-old grandson.

1998 A magnitude 6.6 earthquake killed approximately 5,000 people in northern Afghanistan.

1999 Kenny Bräck won the Indianapolis 500.

2003 The film Finding Nemo was released.

2004 Buddy Rice won the Indianapolis 500.

2010 Dario Franchitti won the Indianapolis 500.

2015 Arsenal beat Aston Villa 4-0 to win the FA Cup.

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This page was last updated on June 01, 2018.