On this day in history

May 31

27 births · 10 deaths · 5 events

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Anniversary highlights

Event anniversary

110

Battle of Jutland

110 years ago

Born this day

1162

Genghis Khan

Died aged 65

Photo (modified): Unknown author · Public domain

Oldest record

864th

Genghis Khan

birth anniversary

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Famous births27

1162 · 864 yrs

Genghis Khan

Genghis Khan (born Temüjin; c. 1162 – 18 or 25 August 1227), also known as Chinggis Khan, was the founder and first khan of the Mongol Empire. After spending most of his life uniting the Mongol tribes, he launched a series of military campaigns, conquering large parts of China and Central Asia.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

RoyaltyDied aged 65

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · Public domain

1469 · 557 yrs

Manuel I of Portugal

Manuel I (European Portuguese:; 31 May 1469 – 13 December 1521), known as the Fortunate (Portuguese: O Venturoso), was King of Portugal from 1495 to 1521. A member of the House of Aviz, Manuel was Duke of Beja and Viseu prior to succeeding his cousin, John II of Portugal, as monarch.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

RoyaltyDied aged 52

View profile Photo (modified): Attributed to Colijn de Coter · Public domain

1773 · 253 yrs

Ludwig Tieck

Johann Ludwig Tieck (German:; 31 May 1773 – 28 April 1853) was a German poet, fiction writer, translator, and critic. He was one of the founding fathers of the Romantic movement in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

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LiteratureDied aged 79

View profile Photo (modified): Gbi.bytos · CC BY-SA 4.0

1819 · 207 yrs

Walt Whitman

Walter Whitman Jr. (May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist, and journalist; he also wrote two novels.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureDied aged 72

View profile Photo (modified): George Collins Cox / Adam Cuerden · Public domain

1857 · 169 yrs

Pius XI

Pope Pius XI (Italian: Pio XI; born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti, Italian:; 31 May 1857 – 10 February 1939) was head of the Catholic Church from 6 February 1922 until his death in February 1939. He was also the first sovereign of Vatican City upon its creation on 11 February 1929.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ReligionDied aged 81

View profile Photo (modified): Nicola Perscheid · Public domain

1887 · 139 yrs

Saint-John Perse

Alexis Leger (French:; 31 May 1887 – 20 September 1975), better known by his pseudonym Saint-John Perse (also Saint-Leger Leger), was a French poet, writer and diplomat, awarded the 1960 Nobel Prize in Literature "for the soaring flight and the evocative imagery of his poetry which in a visionary fashion reflects the…

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureWould be 139

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown · Public domain

1908 · 118 yrs

Don Ameche

Don Ameche (born Dominic Felix Amici; May 31, 1908 – December 6, 1993) was an American actor, comedian and vaudevillian. After playing in college shows, repertory theatre, and vaudeville, he became a major radio star in the early 1930s, which led to the offer of a movie contract from 20th Century Fox in 1935.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

FilmWould be 118

View profile Photo (modified): NBC Television · Public domain

1911 · 115 yrs

Maurice Allais

Maurice Félix Charles Allais (French pronunciation:; 31 May 1911 – 9 October 2010) was a French physicist and economist, the 1988 winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences "for his pioneering contributions to the theory of markets and efficient utilization of resources", along with John Hicks (Value and…

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ScienceWould be 115

View profile Photo (modified): ALLAIS_PN_Maurice-24x30-2001.jpg : Studio Harcourt derivative work: Materialscientist ( talk ) · CC BY 3.0

1912 · 114 yrs

Chien-Shiung Wu

Chien-Shiung Wu (Chinese: 吳健雄; pinyin: Wú Jiànxióng; May 31, 1912 – February 16, 1997) was a Chinese-American particle and experimental physicist who made significant contributions in the fields of nuclear and particle physics.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceWould be 114

View profile Photo (modified): Smithsonian Institution from United States · No restrictions

1923 · 103 yrs

Rainier III, Prince of Monaco

Rainier III (Rainier Louis Henri Maxence Bertrand Grimaldi; 31 May 1923 – 6 April 2005) was Prince of Monaco from 1949 until his death in 2005. Rainier was born at the Prince's Palace of Monaco as the only son of Hereditary Princess Charlotte and Prince Pierre.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

RoyaltyWould be 103

View profile Photo (modified): Robert LeRoy Knudsen · Public domain

1930 · 96 yrs

Clint Eastwood

Clinton Eastwood Jr. (born May 31, 1930) is a retired American actor and filmmaker.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

FilmAge 96

View profile Photo (modified): Raffi Asdourian · CC BY 2.0

1931 · 95 yrs

John Robert Schrieffer

John Robert Schrieffer (May 31, 1931 – July 27, 2019) was an American theoretical physicist who, with John Bardeen and Leon Cooper, was a recipient of the 1972 Nobel Prize in Physics for developing the BCS theory, the first successful quantum description of superconductivity.

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ScienceWould be 95

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Showing 12 of 27

Famous deaths10

1594 · 432 yrs

Jacopo Tintoretto

Jacopo Robusti (late September or early October 1518 – 31 May 1594), best known as Tintoretto ( TIN-tə-RET-oh; Italian:; Venetian:), was an Italian Renaissance painter of the Venetian school. His contemporaries both admired and criticised the speed with which he painted and the unprecedented boldness of his brushwork.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ArtDied aged 75

View profile Photo (modified): Jacopo Tintoretto · Public domain

1740 · 286 yrs

Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia

Frederick William I (German: Friedrich Wilhelm I.; 14 August 1688 – 31 May 1740), known as the Soldier King (German: Soldatenkönig), was King in Prussia and Elector of Brandenburg from 1713 until his death in 1740, as well as Prince of Neuchâtel.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

RoyaltyDied aged 51

View profile Photo (modified): Antoine Pesne · Public domain

1809 · 217 yrs

Joseph Haydn

Franz Joseph Haydn ( HY-dən; German:; 31 March 1732 – 31 May 1809) was an Austrian composer of the Classical period. He was pivotal in the evolution of chamber music forms such as the string quartet and piano trio.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MusicDied aged 77

View profile Photo (modified): Thomas Hardy · Public domain

1832 · 194 yrs

Évariste Galois

Évariste Galois (French:; 25 October 1811 – 31 May 1832) was a French mathematician and political activist. While still in his teens, he was able to determine a necessary and sufficient condition for a polynomial to be solvable by radicals, thereby solving a problem that had been open for 350 years.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 20

View profile Photo (modified): Alfred Galois · Public domain

1910 · 116 yrs

Elizabeth Blackwell

Elizabeth Blackwell (3 February 1821 – 31 May 1910) was an English-American physician, notable as the first woman to earn a medical degree in the United States, and the first woman on the Medical Register of the General Medical Council for the United Kingdom.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 89

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown artist · Public domain

1962 · 64 yrs

Adolf Eichmann

Otto Adolf Eichmann ( EYEKH-mən; German pronunciation:; 19 March 1906 – 1 June 1962) was a German-Austrian official of the Nazi Party, an officer of the Schutzstaffel (SS), a convicted war criminal, and one of the major organizers of the Holocaust.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MilitaryWould be 120

View profile Photo (modified): Author and location unknown. Bettina Stangneth's caption for the image says: "Unknown photographer, undated (1941), AKG · Public domain

1976 · 50 yrs

Jacques Monod

Jacques Lucien Monod (French:; 9 February 1910 – 31 May 1976) was a French biochemist. He shared the 1965 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with François Jacob and André Lwoff "for their discoveries concerning genetic control of enzyme and virus synthesis" Monod and Jacob became famous for their work on the E.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceWould be 116

View profile Photo (modified): Farabola · Public domain

1996 · 30 yrs

Timothy Leary

Timothy Francis Leary (October 22, 1920 – May 31, 1996) was an American psychologist and author known for strongly advocating psychedelic drugs. Evaluations of Leary are polarized, ranging from "bold oracle" to "publicity hound".

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

FilmWould be 106

View profile Photo (modified): AP News · Public domain

2006 · 20 yrs

Raymond Davis Jr.

Raymond Davis Jr. (October 14, 1914 – May 31, 2006) was an American chemist and physicist.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceWould be 112

View profile Photo (modified): National Science Foundation · Public domain

2010 · 16 yrs

Louise Bourgeois

Louise Joséphine Bourgeois (French:; 25 December 1911 – 31 May 2010) was a French-American artist. Although she is best known for her large-scale sculpture and installation art, Bourgeois was also a prolific painter and printmaker.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ArtWould be 114

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · CC BY-SA 4.0

Events5

1223 · 803 yrs

Battle of the Kalka River

The Battle of the Kalka River was fought between the Mongol Empire, whose armies were led by Jebe and Subutai, and a coalition of several Rus' principalities, including Kiev and Galicia-Volhynia, and the Cumans under Köten. They were under the joint command of Mstislav the Bold and Mstislav III of Kiev.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

War

1916 · 110 yrs

Battle of Jutland

The Battle of Jutland (German: Skagerrakschlacht, lit. 'Battle of the Skagerrak') was a naval battle between Britain's Royal Navy Grand Fleet, under Admiral Sir John Jellicoe, and the Imperial German Navy's High Seas Fleet, under Vice-Admiral Reinhard Scheer, during the First World War.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

War

1921 · 105 yrs

Tulsa Race Massacre

The Tulsa race massacre was a two-day-long terrorist massacre perpetrated by white supremacists that took place in the Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States, between May 31 and June 1, 1921.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Tragedy

1972 · 54 yrs

1972 European Cup Final

The 1972 European Cup final was a football match held at De Kuip, Rotterdam, on 31 May 1972, that was contested between Internazionale of Italy and AFC Ajax of the Netherlands to determine the champions of the 1971–72 European Cup.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Sports

2010 · 16 yrs

2010 Gaza flotilla raid

Six civilian ships of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla were raided by Israel on 31 May 2010 in international waters in the Mediterranean Sea. Nine of the flotilla passengers were killed during the raid, with 30 wounded (including one who later died of his wounds).

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

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