May29
Today is the 150th day of the year.
1453 –
Fall of Constantinople: Ottoman armies under Sultan
Mehmed II Fatih capture Constantinople after a 53-day siege, ending the
Byzantine Empire.
1660 –
English Restoration:
Charles II is restored to the throne of England, Scotland and Ireland. On his birthday, no less.
1727 –
Peter II becomes Czar of Russia.
1790 – Rhode Island becomes the last of the original United States' colonies to ratify the Constitution and is admitted as the 13th U.S. state.
1798 –
United Irishmen Rebellion: Between
300 and 500 United Irishmen are massacred by the British Army in County Kildare, Ireland.
1848 –
Wisconsin is admitted as the 30th U.S. state.
1886 – The pharmacist
John Pemberton places his first advertisement for Coca-Cola, which appeared in
The Atlanta Journal.
1914 – The Ocean liner
RMS Empress of Ireland sinks in the
Gulf of Saint Lawrence with the loss of 1,012 lives.
1919 – Albert Einstein's
theory of general relativity is tested (later confirmed) by
Arthur Eddington and
Andrew Claude de la Cherois Crommelin.
1935 – First flight of the
Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter aeroplane.
1940 – The first flight of the
Vought F4U Corsair.
1942 – Bing Crosby, the Ken Darby Singers and John Scott Trotter and his Orchestra record Irving Berlin's
"White Christmas", the best-selling single in history.
1945 – First combat mission of the
Consolidated B-32 Dominator heavy bomber.
1953 –
Edmund Hillary and Sherpa
Tenzing Norgay become the first people to reach the summit of Mount Everest, on Tenzing Norgay's (adopted) 39th birthday.
1971 - Three dozen
Grateful Dead fans were treated for hallucinations caused by LSD after they unwittingly drank spiked apple juice served at a gig at San Francisco's
Winterland.
1999 –
Space Shuttle Discovery completes the first docking with the
International Space Station.
Skeletal remains are found by photographers looking for old car wrecks to shoot at the bottom of Decker Canyon near Malibu, California. Based on forensic evidence the remains were identified as
Philip Kramer, former bassist with rock group
Iron Butterfly, who had disappeared on his way home from work on February 12, 1995. Based on calls he made to police, his death was ruled as a probable suicide.
2001 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules that the disabled golfer
Casey Martin can use a cart to ride in tournaments.
2008 – A
doublet earthquake, of combined magnitude 6.1,
strikes Iceland near the town of Selfoss, injuring 30 people, and killing a number of sheep.
2015 - Michael Jackson's
Neverland Ranch goes up for sale with an asking price of $100,000,000.
Births
1630 – Charles II of England; 1736 – Patrick Henry; 1874 – G. K. Chesterton; 1893 – Max Brand; 1903 – Bob Hope; 1914 –
Stacy Keach, Sr., Tenzing Norgay; 1916 – Carl Story; 1917 – John F. Kennedy; 1921 –
Clifton James; 1929 – Peter Higgs (
Higgs Boson); 1939 – Al Unser; 1941 – Bob Simon; 1942 –
Kevin Conway; 1945 – Gary Brooker; 1947 – Anthony Geary; 1948 – Nick Mancuso; 1953 – Danny Elfman; 1955 – John Hinckley Jr.; 1955 – Mike Porcaro; 1955 – Ken Schrader; 1956 – La Toya Jackson; 1958 – Annette Bening; 1958 – Wayne Duvall ('Homer Stokes' in "O Brother Where Art Thou"); 1959 – Rupert Everett; 1961 – Melissa Etheridge; 1967 – Noel Gallagher; 1975 – Mel B (Scary Spice); 1989 – Riley Keough (actress & Elvis Presley's granddaughter)
Deaths
1866 – Winfield Scott; 1911 – W. S. Gilbert (Gilbert & Sullivan); 1942 – John Barrymore; 1948 – Dame May Whitty; 1951 – Fanny Brice (Baby Snooks); 1953 – Man Mountain Dean (wrestler); 1979 – Mary Pickford; 1982 – Romy Schneider; 1997 – Jeff Buckley; 1998 – Barry Goldwater; 2006 – Steve Mizerak; 2008 – Harvey Korman; 2010 – Dennis Hopper; 2012 – Doc Watson