May 31



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 author 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 author
 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 author, 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 
 Anti-Tobacco Day
 Castile-La Mancha Day

Days of the year