TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON: MAY 31
1279 BC Ramesses II, also known as Ramesses the Great becomes Pharaoh of Ancient Egypt (19th Dynasty)
0070 Rome captures 1st wall of the city of Jerusalem
1578 Martin Frobisher sails from Harwich, England, to Frobisher Bay, Canada. Eventually mines fools gold, famously used to pave the streets of London.
1634 US colony Massachusetts Bay annexes Maine colony
1665 Jerusalem’s rabbi Sjabtai Tswi proclaims himself Messiah
1678 The Godiva procession, commemorating Lady Godiva’s legendary ride while naked, becomes part of the Coventry Fair
1790 The first U.S. Copyright Law was enacted, protecting books, maps, and other original materials.
1879 Werner von Siemens presents the world’s first electric locomotive
1879 New York’s Madison Square Garden opens its doors for the first time.
1884 Dr John Harvey Kellogg patents “flaked cereal”
1889 Heavy rains caused the South Fork Dam to collapse, sending 20 million tons of water into Johnstown, Pa. Over 2,200 people were killed and the town was nearly destroyed.
1900 U.S. troops arrive in Peking to help put down the Boxer Rebellion.
1909 The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) holds its first conference.
1912 US marines land on Cuba
1913 The 17th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, providing for direct election of senators, is ratified.
1955 The Supreme Court orders that states must end racial segregation “with all deliberate speed.”
1958 Dick Dale invents “surf music” with “Let’s Go Trippin”
1961 South Africa becomes an independent republic
1962 Adolf Eichmann, the former SS commander, is hanged near Tel Aviv, Israel.
1969 John Lennon and Yoko Ono record “Give Peace a Chance.”
1974 Israel and Syria sign an agreement on the Golan Heights.
1988 President Ronald Reagan arrives in Moscow, the first American president to do so in 14 years.
1995 Bob Dole singled out Time Warner for “the marketing of evil” in movies and music. Dole later admitted that he had not seen or heard much of what he had been criticizing
2003 In North Carolina, Eric Robert Rudolph was captured. He had been on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted list for five years for several bombings including the 1996 Olympic bombing.
2004 Alberta Martin, 97, one of the last widows of a U.S. Civil War veteran, died. She had married Confederate veteran William Martin in 1927 when she was 21 and he was 81.
2005 Deep Throat reveals himself. Former FBI agent Mark Felt admitted that he was the most important informant in the 1970’s Watergate scandal which uncovered the dirty tricks of the Nixon administration, ultimately leading to Nixon’s resignation.
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
