Wikipedia defines history as the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. It came from the Greek word ‘historia’ – which means ‘inquiry, knowledge acquired by investigation’.
Did you know? There are many who claim Herodotus, a fifth century BC Greek historian, as the “father of history”.
This website utilizes pages from Wikipedia to extract historical events from 3761 BC up to the present. There are 105,060 records in the database that include events, births and deaths of popular individuals. The present day Gregorian calendar was adopted to show dates of interest.
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What are the important events that happened on May 31? Here are historical events, facts, and some myths about this day.
May 31: Facts & Myths About This Day
May 31 is the 152nd day of the year 2020 in the Gregorian calendar. There are 214 days remaining until the end of this year. The day of the week is Sunday.
Under the Julian calendar, this day is May 18, 2020 – a Sunday. Both day of the week are the same but did you notice the difference with the Gregorian calendar?
When this day started, 1,590,883,200 seconds has elapsed since midnight of January 1, 1970 – the Unix epoch.
Strange as it may, if we name this day after a polygon then it will be called ‘hectapentacontadigon’ day.
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Gemini is the zodiac sign of a person born on this day. Emerald is the modern birthstone for this month. Sapphire is the mystical birthstone from Tibetan origin that dates back over a thousand years.
According to the lunisolar Chinese calendar, there are 257 days remaining before the start of the next Chinese New Year.
The ancient Maya civilization believes that the end of the world will happen on December 21, 2012. There are now 2,718 days since this fabled cataclysmic event.
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May 31 Historical Events
- 1813 –In Australia, Lawson, Blaxland and Wentworth, reached Mount Blaxland, effectively marking the end of a route across the Blue Mountains.
- 1916 –World War I: Battle of Jutland – The British Grand Fleet under the command of Sir John Jellicoe & Sir David Beatty engage the Kaiserliche Marine under the command of Reinhard Scheer & Franz von Hipper in the largest naval battle of the war, which proves indecisive.
- 1927 –The last Ford Model T rolls off the assembly line after a production run of 15,007,003 vehicles.
- 1961 –The Union of South Africa becomes the Republic of South Africa.
- 2010 –In international waters, armed Shayetet 13 commandos, intending to force the flotilla to anchor at the Ashdod port, boarded ships trying to break the ongoing blockade of the Gaza Strip, resulting in 9 civilian deaths when teams of IHH activists on the MV Mavi Marmara attacked them with knives and metal rods and abducted one of the soldiers.
Who were born on May 31?
- 1535 –Alessandro Allori, Italian painter (d. 1607)
- 1613 –John George II, Elector of Saxony (d. 1680)
- 1948 –Duncan Hunter, American politician
- 1973 –Dominique Van Roost, Belgian tennis player
- 1974 –Sean Kent, American stand-up comedian, actor and writer
Who died on May 31?
- 1809 –Joseph Haydn, Austrian composer (b. 1732)
- 1993 –Francis Lynch, American state legislator (b. 1920)
- 1996 –Timothy Leary, American professor and LSD advocate (b. 1920)
- 2006 –Ryan Bennett, American sportscaster (b. 1970)
- 2010 –Louise Bourgeois, French-born American sculptor (b. 1911)
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