May 31

May 31 is the 151st day of the year (152nd every 4 years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 214 days remaining until the end of the year.

Events

Up to 1900

• 1279 BC – Rameses II (the Great) becomes Pharaoh of Egypt.
• 455 – Roman Emperor Petronius Maximus is stoned to death by an angry mob while fleeing Rome.
• 526 – Antioch, Turkey is hit by an earthquake kills 250,000 people.
• 1578 – Henry II of France lays the first stone of the Point Neuf (New Bridge) in Paris.
• 1578 – Martin Frobisher sails from Harwich, England to Frobisher Bay, Canada to mine fool's gold, used to pave the streets in London.
• 1669 – Citing poor eyesight, Samuel Pepys makes the last entry in his diary.
• 1740 – Frederick II of Prussia becomes King.
• 1790 – Alferez Manuel Quimper explores the strait of Juan de Fuca.
• 1795 – French Revolution: The Revolutionary Tribunal is suppressed.
• 1813 – In Australia, William Lawson, Gregory Blaxland and William Wentworth reach Mount Blaxland, effectively marking the end of a route crossing the Blue Mountains in New South Wales.
• 1854 – The civil death procedure is banned in France.
• 1859 – Big Ben in London, UK starts keeping time.
• 1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Cold Harbor.
• 1884 – John Harvey Kellogg receives a patent for Cornflakes.
• 1889 – Johnstown flood: A dam break causes a flash flood in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, killing more than 2,000 people.
• 1890 – In Ulm, southern Germany, Ulm Minster, the city's cathedral, is completed.

1901 – 2000

• 1902 – The Second Boer War ends, through the Treaty of Vereeniging, ensuring British control over South Africa.
• 1906 – An attack on the wedding of King Alfonso XIII of Spain kills more than 20 people.
• 1910 – The Union of South Africa is formed.
• 1911 – The hull of the ocean liner RMS Titanic is launched.
• 1911 – President Porfirio Díaz flees Mexico during the Mexican Revolution.
• 1916 – World War I: The Battle of Jutland is fought.
• 1921 – Tulsa, Oklahoma race riot: At least 39 people are killed.
• 1927 – The last Ford Model T rolls off the assembly line.
• 1929 – The first talking cartoon of Mickey Mouse is released.
• 1935 – An earthquake in Quetta, Pakistan, kills around 40,000 people.
• 1941 – World War II: 38 people are killed in an air raid in Dublin.
• 1942 – World War II: Imperial Japanese Navy Submarines begin a series of attacks on Sydney, Australia.
• 1946 – A magnitude 6 earthquake in Turkey kills around 1,200 people.
• 1952 – Dwight D. Eisenhower ends his service with the United States Military.
• 1961 – The Republic of South Africa is founded.
• 1962 – The West Indies Federation dissolves.
• 1962 – Nazi official Adolf Eichmann is executed.
• 1970 – Ancash Earthquake: Southern Peru is hit by a major earthquake. Along with resulting avalanches, it kills 47,000 people. 20,000 people alone are killed in a single avalanche that hit the town of Yungay.
• 1970 – Brasilia Cathedral, designed by Oscar Niemeyer, is completed.
• 1970 – The 1970 FIFA World Cup in Mexico begins.
• 1971 – Memorial Day in the United States is held on the last Monday in May for the first time, instead of the traditional May 30 date.
• 1973 – The United States Senate votes to cut off funding for the bombing of Khmer Rouge targets in Cambodia.
• 1977 – The Trans–Alaska Oil Pipeline is completed.
• 1981 – Burning of the Jaffna Library in Sri Lanka.
• 1985 – 76 people are killed in a tornado outbreak in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and Ontario.
• 1991 – Civil War political parties in Angola agree on a ceasefire and fire elections.

From 2001

• 2002 – The 2002 FIFA World Cup in South Korea and Japan begins, where the Senegal national football team beats the France national football team 1–0.
• 2003 – Aung San Suu Kyi is arrested in Burma.
• 2005 – Mark Felt is revealed to have been 'Deep Throat', a key figure in the Watergate scandal.
• 2009 – The last-living survivor of the RMS Titanic sinking, Millvina Dean, dies aged 97.
• 2010 – Germany's President Horst Koehler resigns from office. Christian Wulff succeeds him over a month later.
• 2010 – Israeli forces storm the Gaza–bound international flotilla in the Mediterranean Sea, killing 9 Turkish activists.
• 2013 – A series of anti–government protests in Turkey begins in Istanbul.
• 2013 – Asteroid (285263) 1998 GE-2 and its moon make their closest approach to Earth for the next two centuries.
• 2013 – A tornado measuring 2.6 miles (4.2 kilometers) wide hits El Reno, Oklahoma.
• 2017 – A massive bomb attack in central Kabul kills at least 150 people.
• 2018 – The discovery of dunes of methane on the dwarf planet Pluto is announced.
• 2018 – US President Donald Trump imposes tariffs on products from the European Union, Canada and Mexico.
• 2019 – Virginia Beach shooting: 12 government employees are shot dead by their colleague DeWayne Craddock in Virginia Beach, before he is killed in a shoot-out with police.

Births

Up to 1800

• 1048 – Omar Khayyám, Persian poet, astronomer, mathematician and philosopher (d. 1131)
• 1162 – Genghis Khan, Mongol ruler (d. 1227)
• 1243 – King James II of Majorca (d. 1311)
• 1443 – Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII of England (d. 1509)
• 1469 – King Manuel I of Portugal (d. 1521)
• 1491 – Ignatius of Loyola, Spanish Jesuit (d. 1556)
• 1535 – Alessandro Allori, Italian painter (d. 1607)
• 1557 – Feodor I of Russia (d. 1598)
• 1577 – Nur Jahan, Mughal Empress (d. 1645)
• 1613 – John George II, Elector of Saxony (d. 1680)
• 1640 – Michael of Poland (d. 1673)
• 1641 – Dositheus, Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem (d. 1707)
• 1656 – Marin Marais, French composer and violin player (d. 1728)
• 1683 – Jean-Pierre Christin, French physicist, mathematician and astronomer (d. 1755)
• 1744 – Richard Lovell Edgeworth, Irish writer and engineer (d. 1817)
• 1750 – Karl August of Hardenberg, statesman and reformer (d. 1822)
• 1753 – Pierre Victurnien Vergniaud, French revolutionary (d. 1793)
• 1754 – Andrea Appiani, Italian painter (d. 1817)
• 1773 – Ludwig Tieck, German poet and writer (d. 1853)
• 1791 – John Brown Francis, Governor of Rhode Island (d. 1864)

1801 – 1900

• 1801 – Johann Georg Baiter, Swiss philologist (d. 1887)
• 1809 – Federico de Roncali, 1st Count of Alcoy, Prime Minister of Spain (d. 1857)
• 1816 – Dimitrie Ghica, Prime Minister of Romania (d. 1897)
• 1817 – Georg Herwegh, German poet (d. 1875)
• 1817 – Edouard Deldevez, French violinist and conductor (d. 1897)
• 1818 – John Albion Andrew, 25th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1867)
• 1819 – Walt Whitman, American poet (d. 1892)
• 1825 – Domenico Agostini, Italian cardinal (d. 1891)
• 1838 – Henry Sidgwick, English philosopher (d. 1900)
• 1852 – Francisco Moreno, Argentine explorer (d. 1919)
• 1852 – Julius Richard Petri, German bacteriologist (d. 1921)
• 1857 – Pope Pius XI (d. 1939)
• 1858 – Graham Wallas, English socialist, psychologist and educator (d. 1932)
• 1860 – Walter Sickert, English painter (d. 1942)
• 1862 – Mikhail Nesterov, Russian painter (d. 1942)
• 1863 – Francis Younghusband, English army officer, explorer and writer (d. 1942)
• 1866 – Vladimir Rebikov, Russian composer (d. 1920)
• 1872 – Heath Robinson, English cartoonist (d. 1944)
• 1872 – Charles Greeley Abbot, American astrophysicist (d. 1973)
• 1882 – Sándor Festetics, Hungarian politician (d. 1956)
• 1883 – Lauri Kristian Relander, 2nd President of Finland (d. 1942)
• 1885 – Alois Hudal, Austrian Roman Catholic bishop, helped Nazi war criminals escape (d. 1963)
• 1887 – Saint-John Perse, French diplomat and poet (d. 1975)
• 1892 – Michel Kikoine, Belarussian painter (d. 1968)
• 1892 – Konstantin Paustovsky, Russian writer (d. 1968)
• 1892 – Gregor Strasser, German politician (d. 1934)
• 1894 – Fred Allen, American comedian (d. 1956)
• 1898 – Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, American clergyman (d. 1993)
• 1899 – Madge Blake, American actress (d. 1969)

1901 – 1950

• 1901 – Alfredo Antonini, Italian-American conductor and composer (d. 1983)
• 1908 – Don Ameche, American actor (d. 1993)
• 1908 – Nils Poppe, Swedish actor, director and screenwriter (d. 2000)
• 1909 – Aurore Gagnon, Canadian child abuse victim (d. 1920)
• 1909 – Art Coulter, Canadian-American ice hockey player (d. 2000)
• 1911 – Maurice Allais, French economist (d. 2010)
• 1912 – Chien-Shiung Wu, Chinese-American physicist (d. 1997)
• 1912 – Alfred Deller, English countertenor (d. 1979)
• 1914 – Akira Ifukube, Japanese composer (d. 2006)
• 1915 – Carmen Herrera, Cuban-American artist
• 1916 – Bert Haanstra, Dutch movie and documentary director (d. 1997)
• 1916 – Bernard Lewis, British-American historian (d. 2018)
• 1917 – Jean Rouch, French filmmaker and anthropologist (d. 2004)
• 1921 – Alida Valli, Italian actress (d. 2006)
• 1921 – Edna Doré, English actress (d. 2014)
• 1922 – Denholm Elliott, English actor (d. 1992)
• 1923 – Prince Rainier III of Monaco (d. 2005)
• 1923 – Ellsworth Kelly, American painter, sculptor and printmaker (d. 2015)
• 1925 – Frei Otto, German architect (d. 2015)
• 1926 – Domenico De Simone, Italian politician (d. 2019)
• 1926 – James Krüss, writer (d. 1997)
• 1927 – Red Holloway, American musician (d. 2012)
• 1927 – Joe Robinson, British actor (d. 2017)
• 1928 – Édouard Molinaro, French actor, director and screenwriter (d. 2013)
• 1929 – Menahem Golan, Israeli director, screenwriter and producer (d. 2014)
• 1929 – Andreas Meyer-Landrut, German diplomat
• 1930 – Clint Eastwood, American actor, director, producer
• 1930 – Elaine Stewart, American actress (d. 2011)
• 1931 – Shirley Verrett, American soprano (d. 2010)
• 1931 – John Robert Schrieffer, American physicist
• 1932 – Jay Miner, American microchip designer (d. 1994)
• 1933 – Sadashiv Vasantrao Gorakshkar, Indian writer and curator (d. 2019)
• 1935 – Jim Bolger, 35th Prime Minister of New Zealand
• 1938 – Johnny Paycheck, American country music singer (d. 2003)
• 1938 – John Prescott, former Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
• 1938 – Peter Yarrow, American folk singer ("Peter, Paul and Mary")
• 1939 – Terry Waite, British humanitarian
• 1939 – Haraldur Sigurdsson, Icelandic volcanologist and geochemist
• 1940 – Anatoliy Bondarchuk, Ukrainian hammer thrower and coach
• 1941 – Louis Ignarro, American pharmacologist
• 1942 – Minos Kyriakou, Greek businessman (d. 2017)
• 1943 – Sharon Gless, American actress
• 1943 – Joe Namath, American football star
• 1945 – Pepe Eliaschev, Argentine journalist and writer (d. 2014)
• 1945 – Rainer Werner Fassbinder, German actor and director (d. 1982)
• 1945 – Laurent Gbagbo, former President of Ivory Coast
• 1947 – Junior Campbell, Scottish singer-songwriter
• 1948 – Svetlana Alexievich, Belarussian journalist and writer
• 1948 – John Bonham, English musician, drummer with Led Zeppelin (d. September 25, 1980)
• 1948 – Lynda Bellingham, English actress and broadcaster (d. 2014)
• 1948 – Duncan Hunter, American lieutenant, lawyer and politician
• 1949 – Tom Berenger, American actor
• 1950 – Gregory Harrison, actor

1951 – 1975

• 1952 – Karl Bartos, German musician (Kraftwerk)
• 1955 – Tommy Emmanuel, Australian guitarist and singer
• 1955 – Lynne Truss, English writer
• 1956 – Gerd Weber, East German footballer
• 1959 – Andrea de Cesaris, Italian racing driver (d. 2014)
• 1960 – Peter Winterbottom, English rugby player
• 1960 – Chris Elliott, American comedian
• 1961 – Lea Thompson, American actress
• 1962 – Corey Hart, Canadian singer-songwriter
• 1963 – Viktor Orban, Prime Minister of Hungary
• 1963 – Wesley Willis, American musician
• 1964 – Yukio Edano, Japanese politician
• 1965 – Brooke Shields, American model and actress
• 1966 – Roshan Mahamana, Sri Lankan cricketer
• 1966 – Nick Scotti, American model, actor and singer
• 1967 – Sandrine Bonnaire, French actress
• 1972 – Antti Niemi, Finnish footballer
• 1972 – Frode Estil, Norwegian cross-country skier
• 1972 – Sarah Murdoch, English-Australian model and actress
• 1973 – Kate Howey, British judoka
• 1974 – Chad Campbell, American golfer
• 1974 – Kenan Dogulu, Turkish singer
• 1974 – Tristram Hunt, English politician
• 1975 – Toni Nieminen, Finnish ski jumper
• 1975 – Antonín Kinsky, Czech footballer

From 1976

• 1976 – Colin Farrell, Irish actor
• 1976 – Matt Harping, American basketball player
• 1976 – Tonka Tomicic, Chilean model and television host
• 1977 – June Sarpong, British television presenter
• 1977 – Eric Christian Olsen, American actor
• 1977 – Katrín Jónsdóttir, Icelandic footballer
• 1977 – Moses Sichone, Zambian footballer
• 1978 – Eric Moussambani, Equatoguinean swimmer
• 1978 – Robert Rinder, English barrister and television personality
• 1979 – Jean-François Gillet, Belgian footballer
• 1980 – Andy Hurley, American musician (Fall Out Boy)
• 1981 – Yoon Mi-rae, American-Korean singer and songwriter
• 1981 – Mikael Antonsson, Swedish footballer
• 1981 – Daniele Bonera, Italian footballer
• 1981 – Marlies Schild, Austrian skier
• 1983 – Reggie Yates, British television presenter
• 1984 – Jason Smith, Australian actor
• 1984 – Nate Robinson, American basketball player
• 1984 – Daniela Samulski, German swimmer (d. 2018)
• 1986 – Sopho Khalvashi, Georgian singer
• 1988 – Lisa Bund, German singer
• 1989 – Marco Reus, German footballer
• 1989 – Pablo Alboran, Spanish singer
• 1989 – Bas Dost, Dutch footballer
• 1990 – Erik Karlsson, Swedish ice hockey player
• 1991 – Azealia Banks, American rapper, singer and songwriter.

Deaths

Up to 1900

• 455 – Petronius Maximus, West Roman Emperor
• 1076 – Waltheof, Earl of Northumbria (b. 1050)
• 1162 – Geza II of Hungary (b. 1130)
• 1246 – Isabella of Angoulême, queen of John of England (b. 1188)
• 1349 – Thomas Wake
• 1408 – Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, Ashikaga shogun (b. 1358)
• 1495 – Cecily Neville, mother of Edward IV of England and Richard III of England (b. 1415)
• 1594 – Tintoretto, Italian painter (b. 1518)
• 1680 – Joachim Neander, German Calvinist clergyman (b. 1650)
• 1740 – King Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia (b. 1688)
• 1747 – Andrei Osterman, Russian statesman (b. 1686)
• 1799 – Pierre Lemonnier, French astronomer (b. 1715)
• 1809 – Joseph Haydn, Austrian composer (b. 1732)
• 1809 – Jean Lannes, French Marshal of Empire (b. 1769)
• 1831 – Samuel Bentham, mechanical engineer (b. 1757)
• 1832 – Evariste Galois, French mathematician (b. 1811)
• 1837 – Joseph Grimaldi, British clown (b. 1779)
• 1846 – Philip Marheineke, German Protestant divine (b. 1780)
• 1847 – Thomas Chalmers, Scottish pastor, social reformer, educator, writer, and scientist (b. 1780)
• 1848 – Eugénie de Guérin, writer (b. 1805)
• 1881 – Hugh J. Anderson, Governor of Maine (b. 1801)
• 1887 – Moritz Wagner, German geographer and naturalist (b. 1813)
• 1899 – Elisha Baxter, Governor of Arkansas (b. 1827)

1901 – 2000

• 1908 – Louis-Honoré Fréchette, Canadian writer, poet and politician (b. 1839)
• 1910 – Elizabeth Blackwell, first female physician in the United States (b. 1821)
• 1918 – Alexander Mitscherlich, German chemist (b. 1836)
• 1920 – Nasrullah Khan, Emir of Afghanistan
• 1945 – Odilo Globocnik, Austrian Nazi officer (b. 1904)
• 1957 – Stefanos Sarafis, Greek Resistance activist (b. 1890)
• 1957 – Leopold Staff, Polish poet (b. 1878)
• 1960 – Walther Funk, Nazi leader (b. 1890)
• 1960 – Willem Elsschot, Flemish writer (b. 1882)
• 1961 – Walter Little, Canadian politician (b. 1877)
• 1962 – Adolf Eichmann, Nazi official (b. 1906)
• 1963 – Edith Hamilton, German-American writer and teacher (b. 1867)
• 1967 – Billy Strawhorn, American composer, pianist and arranger (b. 1915)
• 1970 – Terry Sawchuk, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1929)
• 1976 – Jacques Monod, French biologist (b. 1910)
• 1977 – William Castle, American director (b. 1914)
• 1978 – Jozsef Bozsik, Hungarian footballer (b. 1925)
• 1981 – Gyula Lorant, Hungarian footballer (b. 1928)
• 1981 – Giuseppe Pella, Italian politician (b. 1902)
• 1982 – Carlo Mauri, Italian mountaineer (b. 1930)
• 1983 – Jack Dempsey, American boxer (b. 1895)
• 1986 – James Rainwater, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1917)
• 1986 – Gaston Rebuffat, French mountaineer (b. 1921)
• 1994 – Herva Nelli, Italian-American soprano (b. 1909)
• 1996 – Paul Peter Piech, artist (b. 1920)
• 1996 – Timothy Leary, American LSD advocate (b. 1920)
• 1999 – Gene Sarazen, American golfer (b. 1902)
• 2000 – Tito Puente, musician (b. 1923)
• 2000 – Johnnie Taylor, vocalist (b. 1938)

From 2001

• 2001 – Arlene Francis, American actress (b. 1907)
• 2002 – Subhash Gupte, Indian cricketer (b. 1929)
• 2003 – Francesco Colasuonno, Italian cardinal (b. 1925)
• 2004 – Robert Quine, guitarist (b. 1942)
• 2006 – Raymond Davis Jr., American physicist (b. 1914)
• 2009 – Millvina Dean, last-living RMS Titanic survivor (b. 1912)
• 2009 – George Tiller, American abortion doctor (b. 1941)
• 2010 – Louise Bourgeois, French-born sculptor (b. 1911)
• 2011 – Pauline Betz, American tennis player (b. 1919)
• 2011 – Andy Robustelli, American football player (b. 1925)
• 2011 – Ezzatollah Sahabi, Iranian politician (b. 1930)
• 2013 – Jean Stapleton, American actress (b. 1923)
• 2013 – Tim Samaras, American storm chaser (b. 1957)
• 2013 – Paul Samaras, American storm chaser (b. 1988)
• 2014 – Marilyn Beck, American entertainment journalist (b. 1928)
• 2014 – Hoss Ellington, American NASCAR driver (b. 1935)
• 2014 – Martha Hyer, American actress (b. 1924)
• 2014 – Brajanath Ratha, Indian poet (b. 1936)
• 2014 – Mary Soames, Baroness Soames, daughter of Winston Churchill (b. 1922)
• 2014 – Marinho Chagas, Brazilian footballer (b. 1952)
• 2015 – Karl Wlaschek, Austrian executive (b. 1917)
• 2015 – Mario Saliwa, South African cricketer (b. 1984)
• 2015 – Slim Richey, American guitarist (b. 1938)
• 2016 – Mohamed Abdelaziz, President of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (b. 1947)
• 2016 – Jan Crouch, American televangelist and broadcasting executive (b. 1938)
• 2016 – Antonio Imbert Barrera, President of the Dominican Republic (b. 1920)
• 2016 – Carla Lane, English television writer (b. 1928)
• 2016 – Rupert Neudeck, German journalist and humanitarian (b. 1939)
• 2016 – David Tod Roy, Chinese translator (b. 1933)
• 2016 – Corry Brokken, Dutch singer (b. 1932)
• 2017 – Lubomyr Husar, Ukrainian religious figure (b. 1933)
• 2017 – Tino Insana, American actor (b. 1948)
• 2017 – Fred Kummerow, American science professor (b. 1914)
• 2017 – Bern Nix, American jazz guitarist (b. 1947)
• 2017 – Jiri Belohlavek, Czech conductor (b. 1946)
• 2018 – Michael D. Ford, English art director and set decorator (b. 1928)
• 2018 – Aníbal Quijano, Peruvian sociologist (b. 1928)
• 2019 – Roky Erickson, American singer-songwriter (b. 1947)

Observances

• Visitation of the Virgin Mary (Christian liturgical feast)
• Anti–Tobacco Day
• Castile-La Mancha Day