Weekend Humor: Trump clarifies that civilization he intends to end is America

Okay, so yes, it is a weekend.

But (a) I just got back from vacation, and (b) my busiest time for work tends to be on the weekends.

Thus, I feel a bit down right now. A bit depressed.

Yet, I am also happy, and trying to remain upbeat and grateful for the wonderful trip that I had. I knew it would pass quickly, and it went even faster than expected. Despite being a week-and-a-half, it felt shorter than other trips of comparable length, for some reason.

Still, it is back to the grind.

And to help keep things relatively light, at least for the duration of this weekend, it seemed like a good time for a humorous post.

This one I never published, and I am not quite sure why. It harkens back to Easter Sunday, which was just about two months ago now (hard to believe we are almost to June). 

Remember when Trump promised to destroy a civilization on Easter? Well, this is a spoof headline and story, where Trump clarifies that the civilization he intends to destroy is none other than that of the United States, the country he was elected to lead.

Funny, because it's true, seemingly.

Take a look and enjoy:

Trump clarifies that civilization he intends to end is America by Rob Ito (@theFakeRobIto ), published 2 months ago:

https://www.thebeaverton.com/2026/04/trump-clarifies-that-civilization-he-intends-to-end-is-america/

Trump clarifies that civilization he int...

For a Second Year in a Row, PSG Wins the Prestigious UEFA Champions League Title

 ⚽️ ⚽️ Paris Saint-Germain 1, Arsenal 1 (PSG wins on penalties, 4-3) ⚽️  ⚽️ 

PSG won their first UEFA Champions League title.

This year, they successfully defended their title.

What a huge accomplishment!

After an iconic semifinal against Bayern Munich earlier this month, PSG faced England's Arsenal in the UEFA Champions League Final earlier today.

For a while there, it seemed like PSG might never win a European title. Now, they are champions in back-to-back years. 

Quite the accomplishment.

Early in the game, however, the outlook seemed decidedly bleak. Arsenal struck first, as Kai Havertz gave them an early goal and a 1-0 lead in just the 5th minute.

That was how it would remain for the duration of the first half.

However, Ousmane Dembélé tied it for PSG after a successful penalty kick conversion in the 64th minute.

Neither team would score again for the rest of regulation or extra time. 

That led to a penalty kick shootout, which was close. PSG won it in dramatic fashion.

Now, they are European champions in back-to-back years. That is a first for a French football franchise.

History has been made.

2026 NBA Finals Match-Up Now Set

   

2026 NBA Finals Update

2026 NBA Finals: New York Knicks at San Antonio Spurs

So we have known for a while now that the New York Knickerbockers won the Eastern Conference, and thus would play in the 2026 NBA Finals.

But we had to wait quite a while to find out who their opponents would be. While the Knicks quickly and convincingly dispatched with their opponents, the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Spurs and defending champion Thunder went the distance in their tough Western Conference Finals series. 

In the end, however, the Spurs outlastedthem  the Thunder, handing them a devastating Game 7 loss in Oklahoma City, before their home fans. 

So while the NBA - almost alone among major North American sports leagues - had seemingly seen an endless run of multiple NBA champions winning again and again from 1984 until perhaps 2019, more or less, the NBA currently now has a still relevant streak of one championship wonders. Honestly, I thought that OKC might just be the team that finally broke that streak. They looked good - like, really, even historically, good - for much of the season. Yet in the end, they fall before even getting an opportunity to defend their NBA title in the Finals.

What that means is that this year's NBA Finals will be a rematch (of sorts) of the 1999 NBA Finals. The New York Knicks will face off against the San Antonio Spurs. 

It should be a good series. Better, I would think, than the 1999 series proved to be. The Spurs were just quite dominant back then. They made relatively short work of the Knicks, winning the title in Game 5, at Madison Square Garden.

This time, I feel that the Knicks have a better shot. In fact, I believe they have a real shot at finally ending their championship drought. As a franchise, the Knickerbockers have not won an NBA title since back in 1973. The Knicks have qualified for the NBA Finals for a sixth time in franchise history. They won the NBA Championship in 1970 and again in 1973. They also qualified for the NBA Finals (but did not win) in 1972, 1994, and 1999. The Knicks will seek their third ever NBA title.

As for the Spurs, they qualified for the seventh NBA Finals appearance in franchise history. They won five of them, which places them fifth overall among NBA franchises. Now they have a chance to capture their sixth NBA title, which would tie them with the Chicago Bulls for fourth overall. 

French Roadway Kilometer Marker

When I was a kid, my family used to play a French card game called Milles Bornes.  On some of the cards, they used to have the distinctive kilometer distance markers.

Those were a bit old-fashioned. Most of them were eventually replaced for newer styles. 

However, not all of them.  

For some time now, I wanted to simply pull over and just take a picture of one of these signs, or markers, or whatever they would be called. And I finally gave in and took a picture of one of these signs when we encountered them after the family gathering in Leffond. They thought I was crazy,  but that's okay. 

I know, I know. This is hardly something beautiful that most people would even give a second thought to, let alone make a point of stopping to take a picture. I am not kidding by saying that my family thought me crazy for stopping to take q picture of one.

And yet, this is just one of those small things that are different about France, and which holds a certqin charm (at least to me).

Fact of the matter is; you just do not see tend to see these things around very much anymore. My guess is that they belong to another era. Thus; they serve more now as relics to the past.

We do not see these signs at all in the United States, or in North America more generally. So I took advantage of the opportunity to take the picture while the opportunity presented itself.

Funny thing. While seeing the image of these signs on the card game used to remind me of France, seeing the actual ones reminds me now of playing Milles Bornes and reminiscing about France. 

Anyway, it seemed worth both taking some pictures and sharing them here,  as well. 

Enjoy. 

May 31st: This Day in History

  

Once again, it should be reiterated, that this does not pretend to be a very extensive history of what happened on this day (nor is it the most original - the links can be found down below). If you know something that I am missing, by all means, shoot me an email or leave a comment, and let me know!

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

This day in history was particularly important in southern Africa. The HMS Beagle, with Charles Darwin inside of it, anchored by the Cape of Good Hope. The doomed Conference of Bloemfontein was on this day, and a year later, the British occupied Johannesburg on this date. The Boer War ended on this date, and South Africa  The Union of South Africa was proclaimed, and the Cape of Good Hope became part of South Africa. Much later in the century, South Africa signed an agricultural treaty with the Netherlands. Later still, it became a republic, and withdrew from the British Commonwealth on this date. Zimbabwe declared it's independence. The civil war in Angola ended. A busy day in history for southern Africa indeed.

Other interesting things that happened on this date: Rameses II became Pharaoh of Egypt. Rome captured walls of Jerusalem. Massachusetts annexed Maine. Big Ben went into operation in London. There was a treaty between Hawaii and the United States. American troops entered China to help put down the Boxer Rebellion. The Titanic was launched. Babe Ruth had a disappointing last at bat. British Prime Minister Churchill flew to France to meet with Petain and, two decades later, American President John F. Kennedy went to France to meet with Charles de Gaulle. Eichmann's sentence of hanging was executed in Israel. An earthquake in Peru killed over 50,000 people. Guatemala approved a new constitution.

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/big-ben-goes-into-operation-in-london

May 31, 1859: Big Ben goes into operation in London

The famous tower clock known as Big Ben, located at the top of the 320-foot-high St. Stephen's Tower, rings out over the Houses of Parliament in Westminster, London, for the first time on this day in 1859.

After a fire destroyed much of the Palace of Westminster--the headquarters of the British Parliament--in October 1834, a standout feature of the design for the new palace was a large clock atop a tower. The royal astronomer, Sir George Airy, wanted the clock to have pinpoint accuracy, including twice-a-day checks with the Royal Greenwich Observatory. While many clockmakers dismissed this goal as impossible, Airy counted on the help of Edmund Beckett Denison, a formidable barrister known for his expertise in horology, or the science of measuring time.

Denison's design, built by the company E.J. Dent & Co., was completed in 1854; five years later, St. Stephen's Tower itself was finished. Weighing in at more than 13 tons, its massive bell was dragged to the tower through the streets of London by a team of 16 horses, to the cheers of onlookers. Once it was installed, Big Ben struck its first chimes on May 31, 1859. Just two months later, however, the heavy striker designed by Denison cracked the bell. Three more years passed before a lighter hammer was added and the clock went into service again. The bell was rotated so that the hammer would strike another surface, but the crack was never repaired.

The name "Big Ben" originally just applied to the bell but later came to refer to the clock itself. Two main stories exist about how Big Ben got its name. Many claim it was named after the famously long-winded Sir Benjamin Hall, the London commissioner of works at the time it was built. Another famous story argues that the bell was named for the popular heavyweight boxer Benjamin Caunt, because it was the largest of its kind. 

Even after an incendiary bomb destroyed the chamber of the House of Commons during the Second World War, St. Stephen's Tower survived, and Big Ben continued to function. Its famously accurate timekeeping is regulated by a stack of coins placed on the clock's huge pendulum, ensuring a steady movement of the clock hands at all times. At night, all four of the clock’s faces, each one 23 feet across, are illuminated. A light above Big Ben is also lit to let the public know when Parliament is in session.




•  1279 BC - Rameses II (The Great) (19th dynasty) becomes pharaoh of Ancient Egypt.

70 - Rome captures 1st wall of the city of Jerusalem

•  1223 - Mongol invasion of the Cumans: Battle of the Kalka River - Mongol armies of Genghis Khan lead by Subutai defeat Kievan Rus and Cumans.

1417 - Jacoba van Bavarian becomes countess of Holland/Zealand/Henegouwen

1433 - Sigismund was crowned Holy Roman Emperor (Germany)

1495 - Emperor Maximilian, Pope Alexander VI, Milan, King Ferdinand, Isabella and Venice sign anti-French Saint League

1531 - "Women's Revolt" in Amsterdam: wool house in churchyard aborted

1564 - Battle on Gotland: Lubeck and Denmark beat Sweden

1578 - Martin Frobisher sails from Harwich, England to Frobisher Bay, Canada, eventually to mine fool's gold, used to pave streets in London.

The Tower of London

•  1621 - Sir Francis Bacon thrown into Tower of London for 1 night

1634 - US colony Massachusetts Bay annexed Maine colony

1659 - Netherlands, England and France sign Treaty of The Hague

1665 - Jerusalem's rabbi Sjabtai Tswi proclaims himself Messiah

1669 - Citing poor eyesight, Samuel Pepys records the last event in his diary.

1696 - John Salomonsz elected chief of Saint-Eustatius

1727 - France, England and Netherlands sign accord of Paris

1744 - French troops conquer Kortrijk

1759 - The Province of Pennsylvania bans all theater productions.

1790 - The first U.S. Copyright Law was enacted, protecting books, maps, and other original materials.

1790 - Alferez Manuel Quimper explores the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

Flag of Australia

•  1813 - In Australia, Lawson, Blaxland and Wentworth, reached Mount Blaxland, effectively marking the end of a route across the Blue Mountains.

1821 - Cathedral of Assumption of Blessed Virgin Mary, first US Catholic cathedral, is dedicated in Baltimore

British Botanist Charles Darwin

•  1836 - HMS Beagle anchors in Simons Bay, Cape of Good Hope

1837 - Astor Hotel opens in NYC, it later becomes the Waldorf-Astoria

1847 - Rotterdam-Hague Railway opens

1849 - Last edition of Orange sheet "Journal de La Haye"

1853 - Elisha Kane's Arctic expedition leaves NY aboard Advance

1854 - The Kansas-Nebraska Act passed by the U.S. Congress.

1859 - The Philadelphia Athletics were formally organized to play the game of "Town Ball", which would eventually become baseball some twenty years down the line.

The tower where the Big Ben is housed, right next to the Parliament in London, United Kingdom

1859 - In London, Big Ben went into operation. The name Big Ben initially referred to the bell inside the tower but later came to refer to the tower.

1861 - Gen Beauregard is given command of Confederate Alexandria Line

1861 - Mint at New Orleans closes

1862 - Battle of Seven Pines VA (Fair Oaks)

1864 - Raid at Morgan's Kentucky

1868 - First Memorial Day parade held in Ironton, Ohio

1868 - Dr James Moore (UK) wins 1st recorded bicycle race, (2k) velocipede race at Parc fde St Cloud, Paris

1870 - Congress passes 1st Enforcement Act (rights of blacks)

1870 - E.J. DeSemdt patented asphalt.

1875 - Reciprocity Treaty between US and Hawaii ratified

1878 - German battleship Grosser Kurfurst sinks, 284 killed

1878 - US Congress accept decrease in dollar circulation

1879 - 1st electric railway opens at Berlin Trades Exposition

1879 - New York's Madison Square Garden opened.

1880 - The first U.S. national bicycle society was formed in Newport, RI. It was known as the League of American Wheelman.

1883 - French fleet under Pierre begins siege of Tamatave, Madagascar

1884 - Dr John Harvey Kellogg patented "flaked cereal"

1889 - Johnstown Flood: 2,209 die in Penn after heavy rains caused the South Fork Dam to collapse, sending 20 million tons of water into Johnstown, Pa. The town was nearly destroyed.

1891 - Work on trans-Siberian railway begins

1893 - Whitcomb Judson, Chicago, patents a hookless fastening (zipper)

1899 - -June 5] Conference of Bloemfontein fails

1899 - Bronx acquires Keltch Memorial Park

1900 - British troops under Lord Roberts occupy Johannesburg

1900 - U.S. troops arrived in Peking to help put down the Boxer Rebellion.

1900 - Piet de Law captures Lt-Col Spragges Irish Yeomanry

1900 - Tom Hayward scores 1,000th cricket run of season (sets record 1074)

1902 - Australia Cricket all out 36 v England, Edgbaston, their lowest ever

The Voortrekker Monument in Pretoria, South Africa.

•  1902 - The Boer War ended between the Boers of South Africa and Great Britain with the Treaty of Vereeniging. The Treaty of Unity signed, Britain annexes Transvaal

1905 - Emperor Wilhelm II lands in Tanger

1906 - Attack on King Alfonso XIII & Victoria von Battenberg in Madrid

1907 - The first taxis arrived in New York City. They were the first in the United States.

1908 - Miss Pottelsberghe de la Pottery is 1st airplane passenger (Belgium)

1909 - The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) held its first conference (United Charities Building, NYC)

This was a picture (which I have since cropped) of the new South Africa flag of the post-apartheid era. I actually took this one at the apartheid museum, as this was the final display, if you will, of the museum, the symbol of the emergence of a "new South Africa."

•  1910 - The Union of South Africa was founded. Cape of Good Hope becomes part of Union of South Africa

1910 - Glenn Curtiss flies from Albany to NYC

1910 - Union of South Africa declares independence from UK

1911 The hull of the R.M.S. Titanic was launched in Belfast. At the ceremony, a White Star Line employee claimed, “Not even God himself could sink this ship.”

1912 - US marines land on Cuba

1913 - Alexis Ahlgren runs world record maraton (2:36:06.6)

1913 - The 17th Amendment went into effect. It provided for popular election of U.S. senators.

1914 - Chic White Sox Joe Benz no-hits Cleve Indians, 6-1

1915 - A German LZ-38 Zeppelin makes an air raid on London

1916 - Battle of Skagerrak: Brit-German sea battle at Jutland (10,000 dead)

1916 - British battle cruiser Invincible explodes, killing all but 6

1917 - 1st jazz record released (Dark Town Strutters Ball)

1919 - NC-4 aircraft commanded by AC Read completes 1st crossing of Atlantic

1921 - Suffy McInnis (1st base) begins an errorless string of 1,700

1923 - China and USSR exchange diplomats

1926 - Portuguese president Bernardino Machedo resigns after coup

1926 - Sesquicentennial Exposition opens in Philadelphia

1927 - Ford Motor Company produced the last "Tin Lizzie" in order to begin production of the Model A.

1927 - Tiger 1st baseman Johnny Neun makes an unassisted triple play

1928 - 1st aerial cross of Pacific takes off from Oakland

1928 - Charlie Hallows scores his 1,000th run of Cricket season

1929 - Atlantic City Convention Center opens

1929 - In Beverly, MA, the first U.S. born reindeer were born.

1930 - Bradman gets his 1,000th run of the English Cricket season

1930 - Building begins on Albert Canal in Belgium

1930 - Comet 73P/1930 (Schwassmann-Wachmann 3) approaches 0.0617 AUs of Earth

1931 - 7.1 magnitude Earthquake destroys Quetta in modern-day Pakistan: 40,000 dead.

1935 - Babe Ruth grounds out in his final at bat

1935 - Quake kills 50,000 in Quetta Pakistan

1937 - 1st quadruplets to finish college (Baylor University)

1937 - Bkln Dodgers snap NY Giant Carl Hubbell's 24-game winning streak

1937 - German battleships bomb Almeria Spain

1938 - Bill Edrich scores his 1,000th run of cricket season, all at Lord's

1940 - Gen-major Bernard Montgomery leaves Duinkerken

Statue of soldier, author and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in Parliament Square, London

•  1940 - Premier Winston Churchill flies to Paris to meet with Marshal August Pétain who announces he is willing to make a separate peace with Germany

1941 - -June 1) 32.0 cm rain falls on Burlington Kansas (state record)

1941 - The first issue of "Parade: The Weekly Picture Newspaper" went on sale.

1941 - 41 U boats sunk this month (325,000 ton)

1941 - British troops vacate Kreta

1941 - German occupiers forbids Jews access to beach and swimming pools

1941 - A Luftwaffe air raid in Dublin, Ireland claims 38 lives.

1942 - Luftwaffe bombs Canterbury

1943 - "Archie" (best known for comic strip) was aired on the Mutual Broadcasting System for the first time.

1943 - Cards Mort Cooper pitches 1st of back-to-back one-hitters

1944 - Allied breakthrough in Italy

1947 - 79th Belmont: Ruperto Donoso aboard Phalanx wins in 2:29.6

1947 - Communists seized control of Hungary.

1947 - Eastern DC-4 crashes between Ft Deposit & Perryville Md, kills 53

1947 - Italian government of Gasperi forms

1948 - Tommy Lasorda strikes out 25 Amsterdam Rugmakers (in 15 innings)

1949 - Charley Lupica begins stay on 4 foot square platform atop a 60' pole, vowing to stay until Indians clinch pennant. (They don't, and stays 117 days)

1950 - Due to rain, Indy 500 shortened to 345 miles, Johnny Parson wins

1950 - Laker takes 14-12-2-8 in Test Cricket trial

1951 - Neth and; South Africa sign cultural accord

1953 - Lebanese president Camille Shamun disbands government

1953 - WSUN TV channel 38 in St Petersburg-Tampa, FL (IND) 1st broadcast

1955 - Construction begins on Soviet cosmodrome launch facilities

1955 - Great Britain proclaims emergency crisis due to railroad strike

1955 - The U.S. Supreme Court ordered that all states must end racial segregation "with all deliberate speed."

1956 - Mickey Mantle HR just misses clearing Yankee Stadium's roof

1957 - Great Britain performs nuclear test at Christmas Island (atmospheric)

1958 - Dick Dale invents "surf music" with "Let's Go Trippin"

1958 - US performs nuclear test at Bikini Island (atmospheric tests)

1961 - Benfica wins 6th Europe Cup 1 at Bern

1961 - Chuck Berry's amusement park, Berryland in St Louis, opens

French President Charles De Gaulle

•  1961 - JFK visits Charles de Gaulle in Paris

1961 - Judge Irving Kaufman orders Board of Ed of New Rochelle, to integrate

Flag of South Africa during the apartheid era

•  1961 - Union of South Africa becomes a republic, leaves Commonwealth

•  1962 - Adolf Eichmann was hanged in Israel. Eichmann had been a Gestapo official and was executed for his actions in the Nazi Holocaust.

1962 - "Tell It To Groucho" last airs on CBS-TV

1962 - The West Indies Federation dissolves.

1964 - Charles Schmid kills first Pied Piper victim

1964 - SF Giants beat NY Mets, 8-6, in 23 innings (2nd game) (7 hrs 32 mins)

1965 - Jim Clark becomes 1st foreigner in 49 years to win Indy

1967 - Bayern Munchen wins 7th Europe Cup II at Neurenberg

1969 - "Dear World" closes at Mark Hellinger Theater NYC after 132 perfs

1969 - "Gitarzan" by Ray Stevens peaks at #8

•  1969 - John Lennon and Yoko Ono record "Give Peace a Chance"

1969 - Stevie Wonder releases "My Cherie Amore"

1970 - An earthquake in Peru left more than 50,000 dead. At 03:23 PM, Yungay Peru levelled by 7.75 earthquake (50-70,000 die)

1970 - KDUB TV channel 40 in Dubuque, IA (ABC) begins broadcasting

1971 - WDXR (now WKPD) TV channel 29 in Paducah, KY (PBS) begins broadcasting

1972 - Ajax wins Europe Cup 1 in Rotterdam

1973 - Glenn Turner scores his 1,000th cricket run of English season

1974 - Israel and Syria sign an agreement concerning Golan Heights

1974 - USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR

1975 - "Goodtime Charley" closes at Palace Theater NYC after 104 performances

1975 - Fred Newman makes 12,874 baskets in a one-day exhibition

1976 - Loudest PA (76 KW) for Who's Quadrophenia in London

1977 - "Beatlemania" opens at Winter Garden Theater NYC for 920 performances

1977 - Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani becomes heir apparent to throne of Qatar

1977 - The trans-Alaska oil pipeline was finished after 3 years of construction.

1979 - "I Remember Mama" opens at Majestic Theater NYC for 108 performances

1979 - Radio City Music Hall (NYC) reopens

Flag of Zimbabwe

•  1979 - Zimbabwe proclaims independence

1980 - "Love Stinks" by J Geils Band peaks at #38

1980 - Police and youthful rebels battle in Zurich

1982 - "Best Little Whorehouse in Tx" opens at Eugene O'Neill NYC for 63 perf

1983 - 37th NBA Championship: Phila 76ers sweep LA Lakers in 4 games

1984 - 57th National Spelling Bee: Daniel Greenblatt wins spelling luge

1984 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

1984 - Viv Richards hits 189* (170 balls) v England, ODI cricket record

1985 - 41 tornadoes hit Northeast US, killing 88

1985 - Guatemala adopts constitution

1985 - New Orleans Saints are sold for $70,204,000

1985 - Tornados in Penn, Ohio, NY and Canada kill 88 and injured more than 1,000

1985 - 1985 United States-Canadian tornado outbreak: Forty-one tornadoes hit Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and Ontario, leaving 76 dead.

1985 - Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) became a Schedule I drug in the United States.

1987 - Cindy Rarick wins LPGA Corning Golf Classic

1987 - Saul Ballesteros drives 3 golf balls off Mt McKinley, Alaska

1987 - Stanley Cup: Edmonton Oilers beat Phila Flyers, 4 games to 3

1989 - "Rambling with Gambling" 20,000th radio program on WOR-AM (NYC)

1989 - First International Rock Awards

1989 - First presentation of rock n roll Elvis awards

1989 - Speaker of House Jim Wright resigns

1990 - 63rd National Spelling Bee: Amy Marie Dimak wins spelling fibranne

1990 - BPAA US Women's Bowling Open won by Dana Miller-Mackie

1990 - NYC's Zodiac killer shoots 3rd victim, Joseph Ponce

1990 - Seinfeld starring Jerry Seinfeld, debuts on NBC as Seinfeld Chronicles

1991 - Sides in Angola sign a treaty ending 16 year civil war

1992 - 46th Tony Awards: Dancing at Lughnasa & Crazy For You win

1992 - 5th Children's Miracle Network Telethon raises $1,060,000

1993 - President Dobrica Cosic of little Yugoslavia flees

1994 - Padres scores 13 in 2nd vs Pirates

1994 - The U.S. announced it was no longer aiming long-range nuclear missiles at targets in the former Soviet Union.

1995 - Bob Dole singled out Time Warner for "the marketing of evil" in movies and music. Dole later admitted that he had not seen or heard much of what he had been criticizing.

1996 - Mark Van Thillo and Abigail Alling, former biospherian win $100,000 lawsuit against Biospheric Development for Space Biospheres Ventures

1997 - "Once Upon a Matress," closes at Broadhurst Theater NYC after 187 perf 1997 - Donovan Bailey beats Michael Johnson in 150m race

1997 - The Confederation Bridge opens, linking Prince Edward Island with mainland New Brunswick.

2002 - The New Jersey Nets defeat the Boston Celtics 96-88 in Game 6 of the NBA's Eastern Conference Championship, winning the series 4 games to 2 to advance to their first NBA Finals appearance.

2003 - In North Carolina, Eric Robert Rudolph was captured. He had been on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list for five years for several bombings including the 1996 Olympic bombing.

2004 - Alberta Martin, 97, one of the last widows of a U.S. Civil War veteran, died. She had married Confederate veteran William Martin in 1927 when she was 21 and he was 81.

2008 - Usain Bolt breaks the world record in the 100m sprint, with a wind-legal (+1.7m/s) 9.72 seconds.

2010 - Nine people are dead after an Israeli navy commando attacks a flotilla of cargo ships and passenger boats on their way to Gaza to provide aid and supplies for the area.  Shayetet 13 soldiers tried to stop the flotilla that wanted to break the blockade on Gaza Strip. During the boarding on the MV Mavi Marmara ship, a violent confrontation had started. It caused the death of 9 activists who were on board, and several more injured activists. Moreover, several israeli soldiers were injured.

2012 - Egypt formally ends its 31 year state of emergency

The following links are to web sites that were used to complete this blog entry:

http://www.historyorb.com/today/events.php

http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/may31.htm

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory

Flying Over Greenland

 

While taking the flight back from Reykjavik to Newark yesterday, we flew over Greenland. It was bright and sunny, and generally optimal conditions for flying over a place like that.

Now, I did not actually have a window seat or anything. In fact, I had one of the middle seats, which was a bit of a drag. Those are my least favorite seats. 

But the guy who did have the window seat at some point opened it up. He had it closed almost for the entire trip, which is something that I never understood. Yet he opened it at the precise moment that we suddenly had a wonderful view over Greenland. Not sure if he saw it from the corner of his eye from someone else's window, or what, but he looked and then snapped a few pictures.

So I imposed and asked if he would not mind if I took some pictures, and he was agreeable. And so I snapped these pictures while we were flying over Greenland, maybe an hour and change or so after leaving Reykjavik on our IcelandAir flight.

It just looked spectacular. 

Just like that, there it was, Greenland! That famous, huge, isolated island that is an obvious landmark on world maps. The land which you almost never hear about otherwise, until of course Donald Trump came along and, suddenly, Greenland was regularly dominating world headlines because of Trump's "small ask," as he put it. 

Anyway, just flying over Greenland was very cool. That is more than most people will ever see of Greenland, which is difficult and often quite expensive to get to.

While I cannot say that I was there, I actually saw a part of it. And it was a part that most people will never see, the interior and snow-covered mountains.

Simply spectacular.

Below are the pictures which I took of the views from above Greenland.

Enjoy.

May 30th: This Day in History

  

Once again, it should be reiterated, that this does not pretend to be a very extensive history of what happened on this day (nor is it the most original - the links can be found down below). If you know something that I am missing, by all means, shoot me an email or leave a comment, and let me know!

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

May 30, 1431: Joan of Arc martyred

At Rouen in English-controlled Normandy, Joan of Arc, the peasant girl who became the savior of France, is burned at the stake for heresy.  

Joan was born in 1412, the daughter of a tenant farmer at Domremy, on the borders of the duchies of Bar and Lorraine. In 1415, the Hundred Years War between England and France entered a crucial phase when the young King Henry V of England invaded France and won a series of decisive victories against the forces of King Charles VI. By the time of Henry's death in August 1422, the English and their French-Burgundian allies controlled Aquitaine and most of northern France, including Paris. Charles VI, long incapacitated, died one month later, and his son, Charles, regent from 1418, prepared to take the throne. However, Reims, the traditional city of French coronation, was held by the Anglo-Burgundians, and the Dauphin (heir apparent to the French throne) remained uncrowned. Meanwhile, King Henry VI of England, the infant son of Henry V and Catherine of Valois, the daughter of Charles VI, was proclaimed king of France by the English.  

Joan's village of Domremy lay on the frontier between the France of the Dauphin and that of the Anglo-Burgundians. In the midst of this unstable environment, Joan began hearing "voices" of three Christian saints—St. Michael, St. Catherine, and St. Margaret. When she was about 16, these voices exhorted her to aid the Dauphin in capturing Reims and therefore the French throne. In May 1428, she traveled to Vaucouleurs, a stronghold of the Dauphin, and told the captain of the garrison of her visions. Disbelieving the young peasant girl, he sent her home. In January 1429, she returned, and the captain, impressed by her piety and determination, agreed to allow her passage to the Dauphin at Chinon.

Dressed in men's clothes and accompanied by six soldiers, she reached the Dauphin's castle at Chinon in February 1429 and was granted an audience. Charles hid himself among his courtiers, but Joan immediately picked him out and informed him of her divine mission. For several weeks, Charles had Joan questioned by theologians at Poitiers, who concluded that, given his desperate straits, the Dauphin would be well-advised to make use of this strange and charismatic girl.  

Charles furnished her with a small army, and on April 27, 1429, she set out for Orleans, besieged by the English since October 1428. On April 29, as a French sortie distracted the English troops on the west side of Orleans, Joan entered unopposed by its eastern gate. She brought greatly needed supplies and reinforcements and inspired the French to a passionate resistance. She personally led the charge in several battles and on May 7 was struck by an arrow. After quickly dressing her wound, she returned to the fight, and the French won the day. On May 8, the English retreated from Orleans.  

During the next five weeks, Joan and the French commanders led the French into a string of stunning victories over the English. On July 16, the royal army reached Reims, which opened its gates to Joan and the Dauphin. The next day, Charles VII was crowned king of France, with Joan standing nearby holding up her standard: an image of Christ in judgment. After the ceremony, she knelt before Charles, joyously calling him king for the first time.  

On September 8, the king and Joan attacked Paris. During the battle, Joan carried her standard up to the earthworks and called on the Parisians to surrender the city to the king of France. She was wounded but continued to rally the king's troops until Charles ordered an end to the unsuccessful siege. That year, she led several more small campaigns, capturing the town of Saint-Pierre-le-Moitier. In December, Charles ennobled Joan, her parents, and her brothers.  

In May 1430, the Burgundians laid siege to Compiegne, and Joan stole into the town under the cover of darkness to aid in its defense. On May 23, while leading a sortie against the Burgundians, she was captured. The Burgundians sold her to the English, and in March 1431 she went on trial before ecclesiastical authorities in Rouen on charges of heresy. Her most serious crime, according to the tribunal, was her rejection of church authority in favor of direct inspiration from God. After refusing to submit to the church, her sentence was read on May 24: She was to be turned over to secular authorities and executed. Reacting with horror to the pronouncement, Joan agreed to recant and was condemned instead to perpetual imprisonment.  

Ordered to put on women's clothes, she obeyed, but a few days later the judges went to her cell and found her dressed again in male attire. Questioned, she told them that St. Catherine and St. Margaret had reproached her for giving in to the church against their will. She was found to be a relapsed heretic and on May 29 ordered handed over to secular officials. On May 30, Joan, 19 years old, was burned at the stake at the Place du Vieux-Marche in Rouen. Before the pyre was lit, she instructed a priest to hold high a crucifix for her to see and to shout out prayers loud enough to be heard above the roar of the flames.  

As a source of military inspiration, Joan of Arc helped turn the Hundred Years War firmly in France's favor. By 1453, Charles VII had reconquered all of France except for Calais, which the English relinquished in 1558. In 1920, Joan of Arc, one of the great heroes of French history, was recognized as a Christian saint by the Roman Catholic Church. Her feast day is May 30.











May 30, 1967: Republic of Biafra proclaimed

After suffering through years of suppression under Nigeria's military government, the breakaway state of Biafra proclaims its independence from Nigeria.  

In 1960, Nigeria gained independence from Britain. Six years later, the Muslim Hausas in northern Nigeria began massacring the Christian Igbos in the region, prompting tens of thousands of Igbos to flee to the east, where their people were the dominant ethnic group. The Igbos doubted that Nigeria's oppressive military government would allow them to develop, or even survive, so on May 30, 1967, Lieutenant Colonel Odumegwu Ojukwu and other non-Igbo representatives of the area established the Republic of Biafra, comprising several states of Nigeria.  

After diplomatic efforts by Nigeria failed to reunite the country, war between Nigeria and Biafra broke out in July 1967. Ojukwu's forces made some initial advances, but Nigeria's superior military strength gradually reduced Biafran territory. The state lost its oil fields--its main source of revenue--and without the funds to import food, an estimated one million of its civilians died as a result of severe malnutrition. On January 11, 1970, Nigerian forces captured the provincial capital of Owerri, one of the last Biafran strongholds, and Ojukwu was forced to flee to the Ivory Coast. Four days later, Biafra surrendered to Nigeria.


















May 30, 1913: The First Balkan War ends

On this day in 1913, a peace treaty is signed ending the First Balkan War, in which the newly aligned Slavic nations of Serbia, Montenegro, Bulgaria and Greece had driven Turkish forces out of Macedonia, a territory of the Ottoman Empire located in the tumultuous Balkans region of southeastern Europe.  

After rebellion in Macedonia—led by a secret society of nationalists known as the Young Turks—shook the stability of the sultan's hold on Ottoman territory in Europe in 1908, the Austro-Hungarian empire acted quickly to annex the dual Balkan provinces of Bosnia-Herzegovina and to encourage Bulgaria, also under Turkish rule, to proclaim its independence. Austria-Hungary's actions clearly upset the delicate balance of power in the Balkans. The small, boisterous monarchy of Serbia was outraged by the annexation, having long regarded Bosnia-Herzegovina as part of its own rightful territory due to their shared South Slavic heritage. Meanwhile, czarist Russia—an important supporter of Serbia and the other great European power with influence in the Balkans region—felt its own interests threatened by its rival's actions.  

In the spring of 1912, Serbia, Bulgaria, Montenegro and Greece, encouraged by Russia, aligned with the objective of taking control of some or all of the lands still occupied by the Ottoman Empire in Europe. Though the disparate Balkan peoples nursed intense hatreds of one another, they were compelled to join forces and act quickly in order to strike at Turkey—now ensnared in a war with Italy over territory in Libya—in its weakness. On October 8, 1912, Montenegro declared war on Turkey; Serbia, Bulgaria, and Greece followed suit on October 17.  

Surprisingly, the Ottoman army was quickly and decisively defeated, as the Balkan forces drove the Turks from almost all of their territory in southeastern Europe over the course of a month. The great powers of Europe—Britain, France, Germany, Austria-Hungary and Russia—scrambled to exert control over the region in the wake of Turkey's withdrawal, and a congress was convened with representatives of the belligerent nations in London in December 1912 to draw up post-war boundaries in the Balkans. Over the course of the next several months and 63 meetings, as well as renewed hostilities on the battlefield, an agreement was reached, and Macedonia was partitioned between the victors of the First Balkan War. Nevertheless, the peace concluded May 30, 1913, was only tenuous, as Bulgaria felt cheated out of its rightful share by Serbia and Greece.  

Exactly a month after the peace treaty was signed, on the night of June 29-30, Bulgaria turned against its former allies, Serbia and Greece, in a surprise attack ordered by King Ferdinand I without consultation with his own government. The attack led to the so-called Second Balkan War, in which Bulgaria was quickly defeated by forces from Serbia, Greece, Turkey and Romania. The Treaty of Bucharest, signed August 10, was negotiated by local states, rather than by the great powers. By its terms, Bulgaria lost a considerable amount of territory and Serbia and Greece received control of most of Macedonia.  

Austria-Hungary, which had badly wanted to see Serbia crushed, was shocked and disappointed by the results of the two Balkan wars. Confident that first Turkey and then Bulgaria would prove victorious, Austria-Hungary had neglected to intervene in either conflict; now, the Dual Monarchy became increasingly fearful—with reason—of the growing Slavic influence in the Balkans, the emergence of a powerful and ambitious Serbia, and what it would all mean for the future of its own declining empire.  

By 1913, many in both Austria-Hungary and Germany—especially within the countries' military leadership—had decided that a preventive war against Serbia would be necessary to restore the empire's prestige and power; as Russia was almost certain to back Serbia in any such conflict, a third war in the Balkans would most likely proceed directly to a general European one, with Germany and Austria-Hungary facing off against Serbia, Russia, Russia's primary ally, France, and possibly Britain. For the time being, however, both Kaiser Wilhelm, emperor of Germany, and Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne, continued to see the possibility of a peaceful resolution of the Balkans question, though they disputed the means of achieving it. Franz Ferdinand's assassination, by a Serbian nationalist, in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914, however, put an end to any such negotiations and toppled Europe, already teeming with unresolved conflict and irreconcilable differences between the great powers, headlong into the First World War.





Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:

1035 - Boudouin V van Rijsel becomes earl of Flanders

1087 - German emperor Henry IV crowns his son Koenraad

1100 - Burchard becomes bishop of Utrecht

1381 - English boer uprising begins in Essex

1416 - Jerome of Prague, burned at the stake for heresy by church Council of Constance

The Statue of Jeanne d'Arc at the Place des Pyramides in Paris, nearby the Louvre Museum and the Tuileries Gardens

1431 - Hundred Years' War: In Rouen, France, 19-year-old Joan of Arc is burned at the stake as a heretic by an English-dominated tribunal.

1434 - Battle at Lipany

1498 - Columbus departs with 6 ships for 3rd trip to America

1522 - French troops driven out of Genoa

1527 - University of Marburg is founded in Germany

1536 - King Henry VIII of England married his 3rd wife, Jane Seymour, 11 days after he had his 2nd wife, Anne Boleyn executed.

1539 - Hernando de Soto, the Spanish explorer, landed in Florida with 600 soldiers to search for gold.

Royal France

1574 - Henry III follows brother Charles IX as king of France

1574 - Sea battle at Lillo Belgium (Adolf Van Haemstede vs Louis de Boisot)

1584 - Earl Adolf van Nieuwenaar/Meurs becomes viceroy of Gelderland

1631 - France/Maximilian van Bavarian signs Accord of Fontainebleau

1635 - Emperor Ferdinand II and Saksen sign Peace of Prague

1642 - From this date all honours granted by Charles I are retrospectively annulled by Parliament

1646 - Spain and Netherlands signs temporary cease fire

1783 - The first daily newspaper was published in the U.S. by Benjamin Towner called "The Pennsylvania Evening Post"

1793 - Georges Couthon chosen member of French Committee the Salut Public


1806 - Andrew Jackson kills Charles Dickinson in a duel after Dickinson had accused Jackson's wife of bigamy.

French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte

1808 - Napoleon annexes Tuscany & gave it seats in French Senate

1814 - Napoleonic Wars: War of the Sixth Coalition - The First Treaty of Paris was declared, which returned France to its 1792 borders.

1821 - James Boyd patents Rubber Fire Hose

1822 - House slave betrays Denmark Vesey conspiracy (37 blacks hanged)

1832 - Evariste Galois give his theory on free assembly (dies in duel May 31)

1832 - The Rideau Canal in eastern Ontario is opened.

1842 - John Francis attempts to assassinate Queen Victoria

1848 - Second battle at Gioto: Sardinia-Piemonte beats Austrians

1848 - W.G. Young patented the ice cream freezer.



1848 - Mexico ratifies treaty giving US; New Mexico, California & parts of Nevada, Utah, Arizona & Colorado in return for $15 million



1854 - Kansas-Nebraska Act repealed Missouri Compromise opens north slavery

1854 - 1854 - The U.S. territories of Nebraska and Kansas were established.

1858 - Hudson's Bay Co rights to Vancouver Island revoked

1862 - Battle of Booneville MS - captured Gen Beauregard evacuates Corinth

1864 - Cavalry fight at Battle of Bethesda Church/Totopotomoy Creek Virginia during US Civil War

1866 - Opera "Die Verkaufte Braut" premieres (Prague)

1868 - Memorial Day first observed when 2 women in Columbus Mississippi placed flowers on both Confederate & Union graves    

1876 - Ottoman sultan Abd-ul-Aziz is deposed and succeeded by his nephew Murat V.

1879 - William Vanderbilt renamed New York City's Gilmore’s Garden to Madison Square Garden.

1879 - An F4 tornado strikes Irving, Kansas, killing 18 and injuring 60.

1883 - Twelve people were trampled to death in New York City in a stampede when a rumor that the Brooklyn Bridge was in danger of collapsing occurred.

1889 - The brassiere was invented.

1890 - First Dodger home run (Dave Foutz)

1894 - Bobby Lowe is first to hit 4 HRs in 1 baseball game

1895 - W G Grace scores his 1,000th Cricket run of the season after 22 days

1896 - First car accident occurs, Henry Wells hit a bicyclist (NYC)

1899 - 24th Preakness: R Clawson aboard Half Time wins in 1:47

1901 - Hall of Fame for Great American on NYU campus dedicated

1901 - Memorial Day is first observed in US

1903 - 28th Preakness: W Gannon aboard Flocarline wins in 1:44.8

1903 - In Riverdale, NY, the first American motorcycle hill climb was held.

1904 - Frank Chance gets hit by pitch 5 times in a doubleheader

1906 - 40th Belmont: Lucien Lyne aboard Burgomaster wins in 2:20

1907 - 41st Belmont: G Mountain aboard Peter Pan wins

1908 - First federal workmen's compensation law approved

1908 - 42nd Belmont: Joe Notter aboard Colin win

1908 - Aldrich Vineland Currency Act forerunner to Federal Reserve System

1908 - Paris advocate E Archdeacon is 1st passenger in a airplane

1908 - US Assay Office in Salt Lake City, Utah authorized

1909 - National Conference on the Negro is held

1909 - Reuben Siegel laid cornerstone of 1st home in Tel-Aviv

1910 - 44th Belmont: James Butwell aboard Sweep wins in 2:22

1911 - 1st Indianapolis 500 car race, Ray Harroun wins at 74.59 MPH (120 KPH)

1911 - Ray Harroun won the first Indianapolis Sweepstakes. The 500-mile auto race later became known as the Indianapolis 500. Harroun's average speed was 74.59 miles per hour (120KPH)

1912 - The U.S. Marines were sent to Nicaragua to protect American interests.



1913 - First Balkan War ends, Treaty of London

1913 - New country of Albania formed

1913 - John McGraw joins Fred Clarke, Cap Anson, Frank Selee, & Connie Mack

1913 - as managers who have won 1,000 games

1914 - The new and then largest Cunard ocean liner RMS Aquitania, 45,647 tons, sets sails on her maiden voyage from Liverpool, England to New York City.

1917 - Alexander I becomes king of Greece.

1921 - Lord Dunsany's "If," premieres in London

1921 - Memorial to Capt Eddie Grant, killed in WW I, unveiled at Polo Grounds



1921 - Salzburg, Austria, votes to join Germany

1921 - The U.S. Navy transferred the Teapot Dome oil reserves to the Department of the Interior.

The exterior of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Lincoln Memorial Sculpture by Daniel French in Washington, D.C.

1922 - The Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, was dedicated by Chief Justice William Howard Taft.

1922 - Latvia and Vatican sign accord

1922 - Cubs swap Max Flack for Cards Cliff Heathcote during middle of doubleheader. Both play for both teams that day

1923 - Howard Hanson's 1st Symphony "Nordic," premieres

1924 - Socialist Matteotti falls in Italian parliament by fascists 1925 - British mariners shoot on demonstrators

1925 - Peter DePaolo became 1st man to average over 100 mph at Indy

1925 - Rogers Hornsby replaces Branch Rickey as manager of Cardinals

1925 - In China protests erupt against the Great Powers infringing on Chinese sovereignty.

 1927 - Walter Johnson records 113th and last shutout of his career

1930 - Bill Arnold wins Indianapolis 500 car race (161.6 kph)

1931 - Phillies Chuck Klein homers off Ben Cantwell (Braves) in both ends DH

1933 - Patent on invisible glass installation

1933 - Sally Rand introduced her exotic and erotic fan dance to audiences at Chicago’s Century of Progress Exposition.

1935 - Babe Ruth's final game, goes hitless for Braves against Phillies

1937 - Memorial Day Massacre - Chicago police shoot on union marchers, 10 die

1937 - Pitcher Carl Hubbell's 24th consecutive victory

1937 - Police kill 10 strikers at Republic Steel Plant in Chicago

1937 - 61,756, 2nd-largest crowd in Polo Grounds history, sees Dodgers ends Carl Hubbell's consecutive-game winning streak at 24

1941 - First anti semitic measures in Serbia

1941 - English Army enters Baghdad, chasing pro-German coup government

1941 - German capture Kreta

1942 - 1,047 bombers bomb Cologne in RAF's raid of WW II

1942 - Reichsfuhrer Himmler arrived in Prague

1942 - Satchel Paige pitches 5 innings to defeat Dizzy Dean All-Stars 8-1

1942 - US aircraft carrier Yorktown leaves Pearl Harbor

French President Charles De Gaulle

1943 - French general De Gaulle arrives in Algiers

1943 - American forces secured the Aleutian island of Attu from the Japanese during World War II.



1944 - Transport nr 75 departs with French Jews to Nazi Germany

1946 - Braves Bernard Malamud HR shatters Bulova clock in Ebbets Field

1946 - United flight 521 crashes on takeoff at LaGuardia Airport (NY) 42 die

1948 - Schenectady Blue Jays Tom Lasorda strikes out 25 in 15-inning game

1948 - A dike along the flooding Columbia River breaks, obliterating Vanport, Oregon within minutes. Fifteen people die and tens of thousands are left homeless.

1949 - East German constitution approved

1949 - NPS/VHP win 1st general election in Suriname

1949 - WRTV TV channel 6 in Indianapolis, IN (ABC) begins broadcasting

1951 - Ezzard Charles beats Joey Maxim in 15 for heavyweight boxing title

1952 - Charlie Grimm succeeds Tommy Holmes as manager of Boston Braves

1952 - Darius Milhaud's "West Point Suite," premieres

1953 - First major league network baseball game-Cleveland 7, Chicago 2

1953 - 23rd French Mens Tennis: Ken Rosewall beats V Seixas (63 64 16 62)

1953 - 23rd French Womens Tennis: Maureen Connolly beats Doris Hart (62 64)

1954 - Dutch bishops forbid membership to non-catholic sporting clubs

1954 - Emile Zatopek runs world record 5K (13:57.2)

1954 - Hector Villa-Lobos' "Odisseia de Uma Raca," premieres

1955 - KMVT TV channel 11 in Twin Falls, ID (CBS/NBC/ABC) begins broadcasting

1955 - Said el-Mufti forms Jordan government



1955 - Tunisia begins domestic self governing



1956 - Bus boycott begins in Tallahassee Florida

1956 - Mickey Mantle misses by 18" hitting 1st HR out of Yankee Stadium

1956 - US performs nuclear test at Enwetak (atmospheric tests)

1957 - Real Madrid wins 2nd Europe Cup 1 in Madrid

1957 - Test Cricket debut for Rohan Kanhai v England at Edgbaston

1958 - US performs nuclear test at Enwetak (atmospheric tests)

1958 - Unidentified soldiers killed in World War II and the Korean conflicts were buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

1959 - "First Impressions" closes at Alvin Theater NYC after 84 performances

1959 - "Nervous Set" closes at Henry Miller's Theater NYC after 23 perfs

1959 - Iraq terminates milt assistance pact with US due to neutrality

1959 - Pres Somoza ends emergency crisis in Nicaragua

1959 - Pres Stroessner disbands Paraguay's parliament

1959 - World's 1st hovercraft (SR-N1) tested at Cowes England

1959 - The Auckland Harbour Bridge is officially opened today in Auckland, New Zealand.

1961 - Dutch DC-8 crashes after takeoff at Lisbon, 62 die

1961 - Maris hits his 10th & 11th of 61 HRs

1961 - Long time Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo is assassinated in Santo Domingo,Dominican Republic.

1962 - 69 killed in bus crash (Ahmedabad India)

1962 - Benjamin Britten's "War Requiem," premieres

1964 - "Beyond the Fringe" closes at John Golden Theater NYC after 673 perfs

    

1964 - Beatles 1961 record of "Cry for a Shadow" is #1 in Australia



1964 - Beatles' "Love Me Do," single goes #1

1964 - Giants sweep Mets 5-3 & 8-6 in 23 inn, records include elapsed time of 9:50, 47 strikeouts, 7:22 for 2nd game & NY's 22 K's in 2nd games

1965 - France performs nuclear test at Ecker Algeria (Underground)

1965 - Viet Cong offensive against US base Da Nang, begins

1965 - Vivian Malone, is 1st black to graduate from University of Alabama

1966 - 300 US airplanes bomb North Vietnam

1966 - Graham Hill wins Indianapolis 500 car race (232.2 kph)

1966 - US launches Surveyor 1 to Moon \

The flag of the short-lived Republic of Biafra, in present-day Nigeria

1967 - The state of Biafra seceded from Nigeria and Civil war erupted.

1967 - Daredevil Evel Knievel jumped 16 automobiles in a row in a motorcycle stunt at Ascot Speedway in Gardena, CA.

1967 - King Hussein of Jordan visits Cairo

1967 - Robert "Evel" Knievel's motorcycle jumps 16 automobiles

1967 - Yankee Whitey Ford, nearing 41, announces his retirement from baseball


1968 - Beatles begin work on their only double album "Beatles"

1968 - President De Gaulle disbands French parliament

1968 - University church in Leipzig German DR, blown up

1968 - West German Parliament accepts emergency crisis law

1969 - Derek Clayton runs world record marathon (2:08:33.6) at Antwerp

1969 - Gibraltar adopts constitution

1969 - People revolt in Willemstad, Curacao

1969 - Riots on the Caribbean island of Curaçao

1970 - "Minnie's Boys" closes at Imperial Theater NYC after 80 performances

1970 - Baseball All-Star voting is returned to fans

1971 - 36 hospitalized during Grateful Dead concert; drunk LSD apple juice

1971 - Train crash at Duivendrecht Neth, 5 die

1971 - Mariner 9, the American deep space probe blasted off on a journey to Mars.

1971 - Willie Mays hits his 638th HR, sets NL record of 1,950 runs scored

1972 - 3 Jap PFL terrorists kills 24, wound 72 at Tel Aviv's Lod Intl airport

1972 - The Angry Brigade goes on trial over a series of 25 bombings throughout Britain.

1973 - Ajax wins 3rd Europe Cup

1975 - European Space Agency (ESA) forms

1975 - Wings release "Venus & Mars" album

1976 - Bobby Unser sets world record for fastest pit stop (4 seconds)

1977 - Cleveland Indian Dennis Eckersley no-hits California Angels, 2-0

1979 - Nottingham Forrest wins 24th Europe Cup 1 at Munich

1979 - Pat Underwood makes his pitching debut for Detroit beats brother Tom

1979 - Percom Data Company Inc release Microdos for Radio Shack's TRS-80

1979 - Ted Coombs begins a 5,193 mile roller skate from LA to NYC

1980 - First papal visit to France since 1814

1980 - Tiger reliever John Hiller, 37, (who had a 1971 heart attack), retires

1980 - Turner's painting "Juliet & Her Nurse" sells for $6.4 million

1980 - Twins Ken Landreaux ends his hitting streak after 31 games

1981 - "Nightline" extends from 4 nights to 5 nights a week (Friday)

1981 - Bangladesh Pres Ziaur Rahman is shot by group of rebel officers

1981 - LA Dodgers are quickest to get 1,000,000 attendence (22 games)

1981 - In Chittagong, Bangladesh, President Ziaur Rahman was assassinated by rebel officers,

Flag of Spain

1982 - Spain became the 16th NATO member. Spain was the first country to enter the Western alliance since West Germany in 1955.

1982 - "Do Black Patent Leather Shoes..." closes at Alvin NYC after 5 perf

1982 - Closest Indy 500, Gordon Johncock beats Rick Mears by 0.16 seconds

1983 - Surrey all out for 14 vs Essex, their lowest score ever

1983 - AL Pres Lee MacPhail suspends Yankees owner George Steinbrenner for one week, for his public criticism of umpires



1983 - Peru's President Fernando Belaunde Terry declared a state of emergency and suspended civil rights after bombings by leftist rebels.

1984 - Bomb explodes in rebel leader Eden Pastora headquarters in Nicaragua

1984 - Liverpool wins 29th Europe Cup 1 in Rome

1984 - NL suspends Mario Soto 5 days for Reds-Cubs fight on May 27th


1985 - Stanley Cup: Edmonton Oilers beat Philadelphia Flyers, 4 games to 1

1986 - Ariane-2 (ESA) launched

1986 - Bobby Rahal is 1st to avg over 170 mph in Indianapolis 500

1986 - France performs nuclear test

1987 - Mike Tyson TKOs Pinklon Thomas in 6 for heavyweight boxing title

1987 - North American Philips Company unveils compact disc video

1987 - Tony Tucker TKOs Buster Douglas in 10 for heavyweight boxing title

1987 - West German Mathias Rust lands airplane on Red Square

Image of the "Goddess of Democracy" statue, which stood at 33 feet in height, and stood briefly in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.

The flag of the People's Republic of China

1989 - The "Goddess of Democracy" statue (33 feet height) was erected in Tiananmen Square by student demonstrators.

1989 - Margaret Ray pleads guilty to breaking into David Letterman's house

1990 - 135 die in a (6.4) earthquake in Peru

1990 - Dow Jones avg hits a record 2,878.56

1990 - Earthquake hit Peru, killing 135

1991 - 64th National Spelling Bee: Joanne Lagatta wins spelling antipyretic

1991 - Arturo Barrios runs world record one-hour distance (21,096 km)

1991 - Supreme Court rules prosecutors can be sued for legal advice they give police & can be held accountable

1992 - Minnesota Twin Bert Blyleven is 2nd to win as teenager & 40 year old

1992 - NY Lotto pays $30 million to one winner (#s are 12-15-30-33-40-48)

1992 - NY Yankee Scott Sanderson becomes 9th to beat all 26 teams

1992 - UN votes for sanctions against Serb-led Yugoslavia to halt fighting

1996 - 69th National Spelling Bee: Wendy Guey wins spelling vivisepulture

1996 - John Tesh's final day as host of "Entertainment Tonight"

1996 - Albert Belle uses a forearm to break up a double play & nearly breaks Brewer 2nd baseman Fernando Vina's nose, Belle gets 2 game suspension

1996 - Britain's Prince Andrew and the former Sarah Ferguson were granted an uncontested decree ending their 10-year marriage.

1997 - Jesse K. Timmendequas was convicted in Trenton, NJ, of raping and strangling a 7-year-old neighbor, Megan Kanka. The 1994 murder inspired "Megan's Law," requiring that communities be notified when sex offenders move in.

1997 - Betty Shabazz, widow of Malcolm X, set afire by 12 year old grandson

1997 - Ken Dryden becomes president of NHL's Toronto Maple Leafs

1998 - A magnitude 6.6 earthquake in Northern Afghanistan (and subsequent aftershocks) killed an estimated 5,000 and injured at least 1,500. A quake on Feb. 4 in the same area had killed about 2,300.

2012 - A number of nations including Germany, Turkey and Canada, expel Syrian diplomats following the Houla massacre

2012 - Vishwanathan Anand wins his fifth World Chess Championship





The following links are to web sites that were used to complete this blog entry:

http://www.historyorb.com/today/events.php

http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/may30.htm

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory