240 BC First recorded perihelion passage of Halley’s Comet.
615 Pope Boniface IV (died) (born 550)
1085 Pope Gregory VII (died) (born 1020)
1261 Pope Alexander IV (died) (born 1185)
1458 Mahmud Begada (born), Indian sultan (died 1511)
1521 The Diet of Worms ends when Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, issues the Edict of Worms, declaring Martin Luther an outlaw.
1555 Gemma Frisius (died), Dutch physician, mathematician, and cartographer (born 1508)
1659 Richard Cromwell resigns as Lord Protector of England following the restoration of the Long Parliament, beginning a second brief period of the republican government called the Commonwealth of England.
1803 Ralph Waldo Emerson (born), American poet and philosopher (died 1882)
1805 William Paley (died), English philosopher (born 1743)
1878 Gilbert and Sullivan’s comic opera H.M.S. Pinafore opens at the Opera Comique in London.
1889 Igor Sikorsky (born), Russian-American aircraft designer, founded Sikorsky Aircraft (died 1972)
1895 The playwright, poet, and novelist Oscar Wilde is convicted of “committing acts of gross indecency with other male persons” and sentenced to serve two years in prison.
1897 Gene Tunney (born), American boxer (died 1978)
1898 Bennett Cerf (born), American publisher, co-founded Random House (died 1971)
1921 Hal David (born), American songwriter and composer (died 2012)
1925 Scopes Trial: John T. Scopes is indicted for teaching Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution in Tennessee.
1927 Robert Ludlum (born), American author (died 2001)
1929 Beverly Sills (born), American soprano (died 2007)
1934 Gustav Holst (died), English composer (born 1874)
1935 Jesse Owens of Ohio State University breaks three world records and ties a fourth at the Big Ten Conference Track and Field Championships in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
1936 Tom T. Hall (born), American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1943 Jessi Colter (born), American singer-songwriter and pianist
1943 John Palmer (born), English keyboard player (Family, Eclection, and Blossom Toes)
1943 Leslie Uggams (born), American actress and singer
1953 The first public television station in the United States officially begins broadcasting as KUHT from the campus of the University of Houston.
1953 At the Nevada Test Site, the United States conducts their first and only nuclear artillery test.
1955 First ascent of Kangchenjunga 28,128 ft (8,586 m), the third-highest mountain in the world, by a British expedition led by Charles Evans. Joe Brownand George Band reached the summit on May 25, followed by Norman Hardie and Tony Streather the next day.
1961 Apollo program: The U.S. President John F. Kennedy announces before a special joint session of the Congress his goal to initiate a project to put a “man on the Moon” before the end of the decade.
1962 The Old Bay Line, the last overnight steamboat service in the United States, goes out of business.
1963 In Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the Organisation of African Unity is established.
1965 Sonny Boy Williamson II (died), American singer-songwriter and harmonica player (born 1908)
1966 Explorer program: Explorer 32 launches.
1968 Saint Louis Gateway Arch is dedicated.
1969 Glen Drover (born), Canadian guitarist and songwriter (Megadeth, Eidolon, and King Diamond)
1977 Chinese government removes a decade old ban on William Shakespeare’s work, effectively ending the Cultural Revolution started in 1966.
1977 Star Wars (retitled Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope in 1981) is released in theaters, inspiring the Jediism religion and Geek Pride Day holiday.
1979 Etan Patz, who is six years old, disappears from the street just two blocks away from his home in New York City, prompting an international search for the child, and causing the U.S. President Ronald Reagan to designate May 25 as National Missing Children’s Day (in 1983).
1981 In Riyadh, the Gulf Cooperation Council is created between Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
1982 HMS Coventry is sunk during the Falklands War.
1984 A. J. Foyt IV (born), American race car driver
1985 Bangladesh is hit by a tropical cyclone and storm surge, which kills approximately 10,000 people.
1986 Hands Across America takes place.
1999 The United States House of Representatives releases the Cox Report which details the People’s Republic of China’s nuclear espionage against the U.S. over the prior two decades.
2000 Israel withdraws its army from most of the Lebanese territory after 22 years of its first invasion in 1978.
2001 Erik Weihenmayer, 32 years old, of Boulder, Colorado, becomes the first blind person to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
2003 Sloan Wilson (died), American author (born 1920)
2004 Roger Williams Straus, Jr. (died), American publisher, co-founded Farrar, Straus and Giroux Publishing Company (born 1917)
2007 Charles Nelson Reilly (died), American actor, director, and educator (born 1931)
2008 NASA’s Phoenix lander lands in Green Valley region of Mars to search for environments suitable for water and microbial life.
2009 North Korea allegedly tests its second nuclear device. Following the nuclear test, Pyongyang also conducted several missile tests building tensions in the international community.
2010 Gabriel Vargas (died), Mexican painter and illustrator (born 1915)
2011 Oprah Winfrey airs her last show, ending her twenty-five-year run of The Oprah Winfrey Show.
2012 The Dragon spacecraft became the first commercial spacecraft to successfully rendezvous with the International Space Station.
2013 Marshall Lytle (died), American bass player and songwriter (Bill Haley & His Comets and The Jodimars) (born 1933)
EO Smith
Latest posts by EO Smith (see all)
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