May 30th in History

The Lincoln Memorial, dedicated May 30, 1922

Today in History

  • Henry VIII marries Jane Seymour (1536)
  • The last ship of the Spanish Armada departs Lisbon (1588)
  • The first American daily newspaper, The Pennsylvania Evening Post, is first published (1783)
  • Future US president Andrew Jackson kills Charles Dickinson in a duel (1806)
  • The first “Decoration Day” (predecessor to Memorial Day) is celebrated in the US (1868)
  • The first automobile accident in the US takes place (1896)
  • The first Indianapolis 500 race takes place (1911)
  • The Lincoln Memorial is dedicated in Washington, DC (1922)
  • Errol Flynn comes home after a night on the town to find John Barrymore’s corpse sitting in a chair — friends had bribed the funeral director to let them borrow the body for a prank (1942)
  • Surveyor 1 (1966) and Mariner 9 (1971) are launched

Birthdays

  • Алекса́ндр Не́вский (Alexander Nevsky), ruler and saint (1220)
  • Михаил Бакунин (Mikhail Bakunin), anarchist (1814 — O.S.* 18 May)
  • Карл Фаберже (Peter Carl Fabergé), jeweler (1846)
  • Howard Hawks, filmmaker (1896)
  • Irving Thalberg, filmmaker and award namesake (1899)
  • Cornelia Otis Skinner, author (1901)
  • Stepin Fetchit, entertainer (1902)
  • Mel Blanc, voice artist (1908)
  • Benny Goodman, clarinetist and bandleader (1909)
  • Bob Evans, restauranteur (1918)
  • Hal Clement, science fiction writer (1922)
  • Christine Jorgensen, transgender, first person widely known in the US for having sex reassignment surgery (1926)
  • Clint Walker, actor (1927)
  • Алексе́й Лео́нов (Alexey Leonov), astronaut, first human to conduct a spacewalk (1934)
  • Keir Dullea, actor (1936)
  • Ruta Lee, actress (1936)
  • Michael J. Pollard, actor (1939)
  • Gale Sayers, football player (1943)
  • Meredith MacRae, actress (1944)
  • Colm Meaney, actor (1953)
  • Ted McGinley, actor (1958)
  • Kevin Eastman, co-creator of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1962)
  • Wynonna Judd, singer-songwriter (1964)
  • Manny Ramirez, baseball player (1972)
  • Cee Lo Green, singer-songwriter (1974)

Deaths

  • Joan of Arc, military leader and saint (1431)
  • Christopher Marlowe, playwright (1593)
  • Peter Paul Rubens, painter (1640)
  • Alexander Pope, poet (1744)
  • Voltaire, philosopher and author (1778)
  • Milton Bradley, game company founder (1911)
  • Wilbur Wright, aviation pioneer (1912)
  • Baron Georg Johannes von Trapp, military officer and singer (1947)
  • Dooley Wilson, piano player in Casablanca (1953)
  • Бори́с Пастерна́к (Boris Pasternak), author (1960)
  • Rafael Trujillo, president of the Dominican Republic (1961)
  • Leó Szilárd, physicist (1964)
  • Claude Rains, actor (1967)
  • Max Carey, baseball player (1976)
  • Perry Ellis, fashion designer (1986)
  • Sun Ra, composer and bandleader (1993)
  • Ezra Taft Benson, Mormon leader (1994)
  • Tex Beneke, bandleader (2000)

Holidays and Celebrations

  • Anguilla Day (Anguilla)
  • Canary Islands Day (Canary Islands)
  • El Dia del Arbol (Honduras)
  • Feast Day of Joan of Arc (Catholicism)
  • Indian Arrival Day (Trinidad and Tobago)
  • First day of Kaamatan (Kadazandusuns of Sabah)
  • Lod Massacre Remembrance Day (Puerto Rico)
  • Mother’s Day (Nicaragua)
  • Parliament Day (Croatia)

Informal and made-up holidays include Brassiere Day, Fairies’ This Day, Frozen Ice Cream Day (first ice cream freezer patented, May 30, 1948), Heirloom Seed Day, Hug Your Cats Day, Loomis Day (Malholm Loomis patented a wireless telegraph on this day in 1872), Mint Julep Day, My Bucket’s Got a Hole In It Day, Stiff Drink Day (commemorating Errol Flynn finding John Barrymore’s body), and Water a Flower Day.

(*O.S., or Old Style, when used, refers to the fact that Russia did not convert from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar until 1918.)