On this day: 31 May

Years ago today

Events · 28

• 1223(Julian date)
  Battle of the Kalka River — 1223 middle ages battle
• 1293(Julian date)
  Surabaya — city in East Java Province, Indonesia
• 1468
  Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana — library in Venice, Italy
• 1775
  Mecklenburg Resolves
• 1805
  Battle of Diamond Rock — 1805 battle during the War of the Third Coalition
• 1862
  Battle of Seven Pines — 1862 battle of the American Civil War
• 1864
  Battle of Cold Harbor — 1864 battle of the American Civil War
• 1889
  Johnstown Flood — massive flood of Johnstown, Pennsylvania caused by the collapse of the South Fork Dam
• 1902
  Treaty of Vereeniging — peace treaty that ended the Second Anglo-Boer War
• 1906
  Morral affair — attempted regicide of Spanish King Alfonso XIII and his bride, Victoria Eugenie, on their wedding day, May 31, 1906
• 1910
  Union of South Africa — state in southern Africa from 1910 to 1961, predecessor to the Republic of South Africa
• 1916
  Battle of Jutland — 1916 naval battle during World War I
• 1921
  Tulsa Race Massacre — racially charged mass attack in Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA in May-June 1921
• 1933
  Tanggu Truce — peace treaty
• 1935
  1935 Quetta earthquake — Magnitude 7.7 earthquake in Quetta (now Pakistan)
• 1942
  Attack on Sydney Harbour — 1942 World War II attack by Japan
• 1945
  Raid on Taipei — 1945 large-scale air raids on Taipei during World War II
• 1970
  1970 Ancash earthquake — earthquake in Peru
• 1973
  Indian Airlines Flight 440 — Aviation accident
• 1985
  1985 United States – Canadian tornado outbreak — Major tornado outbreak across the United States and Canada
• 1986
  Ariane 2 — rocket of the Ariane family
• 1997
  Confederation Bridge — fixed link connecting Canadian province of Prince Edward Island with the mainland, at New Brunswick
• 2010
  2010 Gaza flotilla raid — 2010 Israeli military operation against a activist ship convoy
• 2013
  2013 El Reno tornado — Widest and second-strongest tornado ever recorded
• 2017
  May 2017 Kabul attack — car bomb explosion in the centre of Afghanistan, killing 100+ people
• 2019
  Virginia Beach shooting — 2019 mass shooting in Virginia Beach
• 2021
  three-child policy — population control policy in China
• 2026
  2026 Namhkam Township explosion — explosion in Myanmar op 31 mei 2026

Births · 60

• 1162(Julian date)
  Genghis Khan — founder and first khan of the Mongol Empire (1162–1227)
• 1469(Julian date)
  Manuel I of Portugal — King of Portugal from 1495 to 1521
• 1535(Julian date)
  Alessandro Allori — Italian painter (1535–1607)
• 1577
  Nur Jahan — Padshah Begum of the Mughal Empire (1577-1645)
• 1640
  Michał Korybut Wiśniowiecki — King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania (1669-1673)
• 1725
  Ahilyabai Holkar — queen of Indore
• 1773
  Ludwig Tieck — German poet, writer, and critic (1773–1853)
• 1819
  Walt Whitman — American poet, essayist and journalist (1819–1892)
• 1838
  Henry Sidgwick — English philosopher (1838–1900)
• 1852
  Julius Richard Petri — German microbiologist (1852–1921)
• 1857
  Pius XI — pope of the Catholic Church from 1922 to 1939
• 1863
  Francis Younghusband — British army explorer (1863–1942)
• 1872
  Charles Greeley Abbot — American astrophysicist and the 5th Secretary of the Smithsonian (1872–1973)
• 1883
  Lauri Kristian Relander — Finnish politician; the 2nd President of Finland (1883–1942)
• 1887
  Saint-John Perse — French poet and diplomat (1887–1975)
• 1892
  Gregor Strasser — German politician, rival of Adolf Hitler inside the Nazi Party (1892-1934)
• 1894
  Fred Allen — American comedian (1894–1956)
• 1898
  Norman Vincent Peale — American writer and minister (1898-1993)
• 1908
  Don Ameche — American actor (1908–1993)
• 1911
  Maurice Allais — French economist (1911–2010)
• 1912
  Chien-Shiung Wu — Chinese-American physicist (1912–1997) (death at 85 years)
• 1921
  Alida Valli — Italian actress (1921–2006)
• 1922
  Denholm Elliott — British actor (1922–1992)
• 1923
  Rainier III, Prince of Monaco — Prince of Monaco from 1949 to 2005 (1923-2005)
• 1929
  Menahem Golan — Israeli film director and producer (1929–2014)

Deaths · 60

• 455(Julian date)
  Petronius Maximus — 5th century western Roman emperor (396-455)
• 1076
  Waltheof, Earl of Northumbria — Anglo-Saxon earl
• 1162(Julian date)
  Géza II of Hungary — King of Hungary and Croatia (1130-1162)
• 1321(Julian date)
  Birger, King of Sweden — King of Sweden
• 1408(Julian date)
  Ashikaga Yoshimitsu — The third shōgun of the Ashikaga shogunate of Japan (1358–1408)
• 1410
  Martin of Aragon — King of Aragon from 1396 to 1410
• 1594
  Jacopo Tintoretto — Renaissance painter (1518/1519–1594)
• 1601
  Gebhard Truchsess of Waldburg — Archbishop of Cologne (1547-1601)
• 1665
  Pieter Jansz. Saenredam — painter of the Dutch Golden Age (1597-1665)
• 1680
  Joachim Neander — German minister and composer
• 1740
  Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia — king of Prussia (1688-1740)
• 1809
  Joseph Haydn — Austrian composer (1732–1809)
• 1809
  Jean Lannes — Marshal of France (1769-1809)
• 1832
  Évariste Galois — French mathematician (1811-1832)
• 1837
  Joseph Grimaldi — English actor, comedian and dancer
• 1841
  George Green — British mathematical physicist (*1793 – †1841)
• 1847
  Thomas Chalmers — Scottish mathematician and leader of the Free Church of Scotlandl (1780-1847)
• 1848
  Eugénie de Guérin — French women writer (1805-1848)
• 1908
  Louis-Honoré Fréchette — Canadian poet, politician and playwright (1839-1923)
• 1910
  Elizabeth Blackwell — American physician, abolitionist, women's rights activist (1821-1910)
• 1912
  Wilhelm August Heinrich Blasius — German ornithologist (1845-1912)
• 1931
  Willy Stöwer — German artist and illustrator (1864-1931)
• 1945
  Odilo Globočnik — Austrian-German SS officer, SS-Group Leader and Lieutenant General of the Police, temporary leader of Operation Reinhardt (1904–1945)
• 1957
  Leopold Staff — Polish poet (1878-1957)
• 1960
  Walther Funk — German economist, Nazi politician and convicted war criminal (1890-1960)