May 31
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(Redirected from 31 May)
May 31 is the 151st day of the year (152nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 214 days remaining after May 31 until the end of the year.
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[change] Births
- 1048 – Omar Khayyám, Persian poet, astronomer, mathematician and philosopher (d. 1131)
- 1443 – Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII of England (d. 1509)
- 1469 – King Manuel I of Portugal (d. 1521)
- 1656 – Marin Marais, French composer and violin player (d. 1728).
- 1750 – Karl August of Hardenberg, statesman and reformer (d. 1822)
- 1753 – Pierre Victurnien Vergniaud, French revolutionary (d. 1793)
- 1773 – Ludwig Tieck, German poet and writer (d. 1853)
- 1801 – Johann Georg Baiter, Swiss philologist (d. 1887)
- 1819 – Walt Whitman, American poet (d. 1892)
- 1838 – Henry Sidgwick, English philosopher (d. 1900)
- 1857 – Pope Pius XI (d. 1939)
- 1860 – Walter Sickert, English painter (d. 1942)
- 1872 – Heath Robinson, English cartoonist (d. 1944)
- 1883 – Lauri Kristian Relander, Finnish President (d. 1942)
- 1887 – Saint-John Perse, French diplomat and poet (d. 1975)
- 1892 – Michel Kikoine, Belarussian paitner (d. 1968)
- 1894 – Fred Allen, American comedian (d. 1956)
- 1898 – Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, American clergyman (d. 1993)
- 1908 – Don Ameche, American actor (d. 1993)
- 1911 – Maurice Allais, French economist (d. 2010)
- 1912 – Alfred Deller, English countertenor (d. 1979)
- 1922 – Denholm Elliott, English actor (d. 1992)
- 1923 – Prince Rainier III of Monaco (d. 2005)
- 1926 – James Krüss, author (d. 1997)
- 1929 – Menahem Golan, producer
- 1930 – Clint Eastwood, American actor, director, producer
- 1931 – Shirley Verrett, American soprano (d. 2010)
- 1931 – John Robert Schrieffer, American physicist
- 1932 – Jay Miner, American microchip designer (d. 1994)
- 1935 – Jim Bolger, 35th Prime Minister of New Zealand
- 1938 – Johnny PayCheck, American country music singer (d. 2003)
- 1938 – John Prescott, Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
- 1938 – Peter Yarrow, American folk singer ("Peter, Paul and Mary")
- 1939 – Terry Waite, British humanitarian
- 1943 – Sharon Gless, American actress
- 1943 – Joe Namath, American football star
- 1945 – Rainer Werner Fassbinder, director (d. 1982)
- 1945 – Laurent Gbagbo, former President of Ivory Coast
- 1948 – John Bonham, British musician, drummer with Led Zeppelin (d. September 25, 1980)
- 1949 – Tom Berenger, American actor
- 1950 – Gregory Harrison, actor
- 1960 – Chris Elliott, American comedian
- 1961 – Lea Thompson, American actress
- 1962 – Corey Hart, American singer/songwriter
- 1963 – Viktor Orban, Prime Minister of Hungary
- 1963 – Wesley Willis, American musician
- 1965 – Brooke Shields, American model and actress
- 1972 – Antti Niemi, Finnish footballer
- 1976 – Colin Farrell, Irish actor
- 1980 – Andy Hurley, American musician (Fall Out Boy)
- 1984 – Jason Smith, Australian actor
- 1986 – Sopho Khalvashi, Georgian singer
- 1989 – Marco Reus, German footballer
[change] Deaths
- 1246 – Isabella of Angouleme, 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, author, and scientist (b. 1780)
- 1848 – Eugénie de Guérin, writer (b. 1805)
- 1910 – Elizabeth Blackwell, first female physician in the United States (b. 1821)
- 1957 – Leopold Staff, Polish poet (b. 1878)
- 1960 – Walther Funk, Nazi leader (b. 1890)
- 1960 – Willem Elsschot, Flemish writer (b. 1882)
- 1962 – Adolf Eichmann, Nazi official (b. 1906)
- 1970 – Terry Sawchuk, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1929)
- 1976 – Jacques Monod, French biologist (b. 1910)
- 1977 – William Castle, American director (b. 1914)
- 1983 – Jack Dempsey, American boxer (b. 1895)
- 1986 – James Rainwater, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1917)
- 1996 – Paul Peter Piech, artist (b. 1920)
- 1996 – Timothy Leary, American LSD advocate (b. 1920)
- 2000 – Tito Puente, musician (b. 1923)
- 2000 – Johnnie Taylor, vocalist (b. 1938)
- 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 – Ezzatollah Sahabi, Iranian politician (b. 1930)
[change] Events
- 1669 – Citing poor eyesight, Samuel Pepys makes the last entry in his diary.
- 1859 – Big Ben in London, UK starts keeping time.
- 1889 – A Dam break causes a flash Flood in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, killing more than 2,000 people.
- 1910 – The Union of South Africa is formed.
- 1911 – The hull of the ocean liner RMS Titanic is launched.
- 1916 – The Battle of Jutland is fought.
- 1935 – An earthquake in Quetta, Pakistan, kills around 40,000 people.
- 1961 – The Republic of South Africa is founded.
- 1962 – Nazi official Adolf Eichmann is executed.
- 1970 – Southern Peru is hit by a major earthquake. Along with resulting avalanches, it kills tens of thousands of people.
- 2005 – W. 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.
[change] Observances
- Anti-Tobacco Day
