735 AD — Death of the Venerable Bede (b. 672) English historian and theologian, author of the first comprehensive history of the British Isles. The medieval world’s foremost scholar dies at his monastery in Jarrow — his writings would preserve centuries of knowledge through the Dark Ages.
1332 — Birth of Ibn Khaldun (d. 1406) The great Arab polymath whose theory of business cycles and the rise and fall of nations remains foundational to sociology. Born in Tunis, he would write the Muqaddimah — arguably the first work of social science — six centuries before the field had a name.
1419 — First Defenestration of Prague Priest Jan Zelivsky leads a protest past city hall; someone throws a rock at him from a third-story window, the crowd storms the building, and the judge, burgomaster, and thirteen others are thrown out. This triggers the Hussite Wars, lasting until 1436. Prague would make a habit of this particular form of political expression — windows, it seems, were Bohemia’s preferred instrument of grievance.
1453 — Fall of Constantinople After a 53-day siege, Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II takes the Byzantine capital, ending 1,500 years of the Roman Empire and extinguishing Christianity in Anatolia. The city that had held out against countless sieges finally fell — hastened in part by the sacking it had suffered from its own Christian allies 250 years earlier.
1509 — Birth of John Calvin (d. 1541) French religious reformer whose writings became the foundation of the Presbyterian and other Reformed churches, centered largely in Geneva. He died this same date in 1541 — his stern theology of predestination would shape not only churches but entire cultures across the Atlantic world.
1521 — Edict of Worms Holy Roman Emperor Charles V formally declares Martin Luther a heretic and outlaw. His friend Prince Frederick III secretly spirits him away to Wartburg Castle, where Luther begins his German translation of the Bible. The empire’s most wanted man used his forced confinement productively — his German Bible would transform the language as much as the religion.
1588 — Spanish Armada Sets Sail A fleet of 130 ships carrying over 30,000 men departs Lisbon bound for the English Channel, aiming to invade Britain, dethrone Elizabeth I, and restore a Catholic monarchy. Spain was the unquestioned superpower of its day — but between Francis Drake, Walter Raleigh, and the weather, the Armada was not long for the world.
1618 — Second Defenestration of Prague Protestant landowners bribe their way into Prague Castle and throw two Catholic Regents and their secretary from the third-floor window. All three land in a manure pile and survive. Catholics declare it the work of angels; Protestants note it proves Catholics are in league with horse dung. Either way, it triggers the Thirty Years’ War — a conflict that would kill a third of Central Europe’s population, begun with three men falling into a dung heap.
1626 — Purchase of Manhattan Island Director-General Peter Minuit of the Dutch West India Company acquires Manhattan from the local indigenous tribe for goods valued at 60 Guilders — not the famous $24 of wampum. The goods included iron kettles, axe heads, drilling awls, and Jew’s Harps — what historians have called “high-end technology transfer” rather than a swindle.
1655 — Birth of Captain William Kidd (d. 1701) Scottish-American privateer whose story became the basis for countless buried-treasure legends. Whether he was a genuine pirate or an authorized privateer betrayed by his political sponsors remains hotly debated — a cottage industry of rehabilitation efforts continues to this day.
1701 — Hanging of Captain Kidd Convicted of murder and piracy in a London court, Kidd is hanged at Execution Dock and his gibbeted corpse displayed for thirty years as a warning to other would-be pirates. The spectacle was meant to deter — it mostly succeeded in making Kidd the most romantically famous pirate of them all.
1703 — Founding of St. Petersburg Tsar Peter the Great lays the foundation stone of the Peter and Paul Fortress on Hare Island in the Neva delta, commissioning Europe’s northernmost capital as part of his drive to modernize Russia. Built on a swamp at enormous human cost, the city Peter dragged into existence would become one of the most beautiful in Europe — and eventually topple the dynasty that built it.
1738, May 24 — Conversion of John Wesley The Christian conversion of John Wesley, who would go on to lead the Methodist movement throughout Great Britain. He described his heart feeling “strangely warmed” at a meeting in Aldersgate Street — a moment that launched a movement of millions on both sides of the Atlantic.
1738, May 25 — End of Cresap’s War Pennsylvania and Maryland sign a peace treaty ending their boundary dispute, which had escalated from dueling ferry services to militia confrontations. The line that would later divide free and slave states began as an argument over imprecise 17th-century cartography and rival ferryboats on the Susquehanna. The border was definitively settled by the Mason-Dixon survey in 1767.
1759 — Washington’s First Battle The Virginia Militia under 22-year-old Lt. Col. George Washington defeats a French surveying party in western Pennsylvania, opening the French and Indian War. The future commander-in-chief began his military career with a skirmish in the Pennsylvania wilderness — a fight whose ripples ultimately led to American independence.
1787 — Constitutional Convention Opens Under General Washington’s leadership, delegates convene in Philadelphia to replace the failing Articles of Confederation. The framers finished in September — producing in a Philadelphia summer heat a document that has governed the world’s oldest constitutional republic ever since.
1803 — Birth of Edward George Bulwer-Lytton (d. 1873) Prolific English author who coined “the pen is mightier than the sword,” “the great unwashed,” “the almighty dollar,” and “It was a dark and stormy night…” His name lives on chiefly through the annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest — a competition for the most deliberately terrible opening sentence in the English language.
1819 — Birth of Julia Ward Howe (d. 1910) American poet who wrote the lyrics to the Battle Hymn of the Republic — a considerable improvement, it’s noted, on the original John Brown’s Body. She dashed off the words in the pre-dawn hours of a Washington hotel room after watching a Union Army review, and was paid $4 for them.
1856 — Pottawatomie Massacre Radical abolitionist John Brown leads a group that murders five pro-slavery settlers in Kansas, making “Bleeding Kansas” the first violent battleground of the slavery conflict. Brown was hanged three years later for his raid on Harpers Ferry — but by then the nation was already heading toward the war that would accomplish what he’d tried to ignite.
1863 — 54th Massachusetts Leaves Boston The nation’s first all-Black regiment departs for the front. Their assault on Fort Wagner two months later would become one of the war’s defining moments of courage, helping prove that Black soldiers would and could fight for their own freedom.
1866 — Death of General Winfield Scott (b. 1786) “Old Fuss and Feathers” — a 47-year career spanning the War of 1812 through the Civil War’s opening, 20 years as Commanding General, and trainer of a generation of officers who led both sides of the Civil War. His Anaconda Plan for strangling the Confederacy was initially ridiculed and ultimately vindicated — it was essentially the Union’s winning strategy.
1878 — HMS Pinafore Opens Opening night of Gilbert and Sullivan’s rollicking operetta, their first major international success. The show’s gentle mockery of the Royal Navy and class distinction was so popular that audiences saw it multiple times a week — and Queen Victoria was reportedly amused.
1883 — Brooklyn Bridge Opens After 14 years of complex construction, the Brooklyn Bridge opens for traffic. Chief engineer John Roebling died from an injury during the survey; his son Washington directed the final years from his apartment window after being disabled by the bends.
1896, May 26 — Coronation of Czar Nicholas II The 30-year-old Nikolay Romanov is crowned Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias in Moscow. The coronation celebrations were marred by a crowd stampede that killed over 1,000 people — an omen the superstitious Tsar chose not to heed.
1896, May 26 — First Dow Jones Index Published James Dow publishes his first index of 12 key industrial stocks, with a value of 40.94. Twelve companies, one number — the humble origin of what would become the world’s most-watched financial indicator.
1907 — Birth of John Wayne (d. 1979) Born Marion Robert Morrison — the actor who would define the cinematic image of the American West for a generation. Ironically, the icon of rugged American manhood never served in the military, a fact that would haunt and define him for the rest of his life.
1914 — Gavrilo Princip Leaves for Sarajevo Bosnian Serb anarchist Gavrilo Princip departs Belgrade on a secret 10-day journey that will end with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and the ignition of the First World War. A 19-year-old with a pistol and tuberculosis set out on a journey that would kill 20 million people.
1921 — Sacco and Vanzetti Trial Opens Two Italian immigrant anarchists go on trial in Boston for robbery and murder. The internationally-watched case became a cause célèbre, ending in their execution in 1927 amid widespread outrage at the court’s disregard for normal evidentiary rules. The presiding judge privately boasted about what he’d done “with those anarchistic bastards” — not an ideal advertisement for judicial impartiality.
1923 — First 24 Hours of Le Mans The inaugural running of the legendary endurance race in Sarthe, France — still the most prestigious race of its kind a century later. Conceived to test the reliability of road cars, it became the arena for some of the greatest technological battles in motorsport history.
1927 — Last Ford Model T Produced After 15 million units over 19 years — the world’s best-selling car until the VW Beetle in 1972 — the Model T assembly line is retooled for the new Model A. So influential that Ford built six new ones from original parts for its centenary, a tribute rarely paid to a machine.
1928 — Birth of Rosemary Clooney (d. 2002) Beloved American singer and actress. Her warm, effortless voice made her a star, and she came back stronger after a very public breakdown to record some of her finest work in her fifties.
1932 — The Bonus March Arrives Unemployed WWI veterans converge on Washington to demand early payment of promised bonuses, eventually setting up the “Hooverville” shantytown near the Anacostia River. General Douglas MacArthur would forcibly evict them that summer — one of the most politically damaging moments of the Hoover presidency.
1934 — Bonnie and Clyde Killed After four years of robbery and murder, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow are ambushed by a posse on a rural road near Black Lake, Louisiana. The posse fired 167 rounds in less than 20 seconds — the Depression-era outlaws met an end that left no room for myths of survival.
1937 — Golden Gate Bridge Opens Opening day for the bridge linking San Francisco with Marin County — the longest single span (1.5 miles) in the world for over 30 years. Engineers said it couldn’t be built in those currents and fogs; Joseph Strauss built it anyway.
1940, May 24 — First Flight of the Vought F4U Corsair The distinctive gull-winged fighter takes to the air for the first time. The Japanese would call it “Whistling Death.” The gull-wing wasn’t aesthetic — it was engineering: the only way to fit an 18-cylinder engine and a 13-foot propeller onto a carrier-based aircraft.
1940, May 26 — Battle of Dunkirk Begins Allied forces are surrounded on the French beach after Germany sweeps through the Low Countries and bursts from the “impassable” Ardennes. Hitler’s inexplicable three-day ceasefire allows the British to organize, and 338,226 men are eventually evacuated by “the little ships.” Churchill called it a “miracle of deliverance” — the rescued men would form the nucleus of the army that returned to the Continent at Normandy.
1940, May 28 — Belgium Surrenders King Leopold III capitulates to Germany after 18 days of bitter fighting, choosing house arrest over exile — a decision so divisive it nearly tore Belgium apart after the war and led to his abdication in 1951.
1941, May 24 — Birth of Bob Dylan Born Robert Allen Zimmerman in Duluth, Minnesota — he would become the defining voice of a generation and, in 2016, a Nobel Laureate in Literature. The Nobel committee praised his “new poetic expressions”; Dylan reportedly didn’t acknowledge the prize for two weeks, which was very on-brand.
1941, May 24 — Bismarck Sinks HMS Hood On her breakout cruise into the North Atlantic, the German battleship Bismarck engages and sinks HMS Hood — Britain’s pride — with the loss of all 1,418 hands save three. The Hood went down in three minutes after a shell detonated her aft magazine, sending the Royal Navy into a full North Atlantic manhunt.
1941, May 27 — Bismarck Sunk Crippled by a torpedo from an ancient Fairey Swordfish biplane off HMS Ark Royal, the Bismarck is caught by British battleships King George V and Rodney and sunk after a fierce two-hour gun duel. 111 survivors are rescued before a U-boat threat forces the British to leave the area. The ship that seemed unstoppable was undone by a fabric-covered biplane flying at 90 mph.
1945 — Himmler Commits Suicide SS chief Heinrich Himmler, architect of the Holocaust, bites down on a cyanide capsule in his Allied cell, denying any public reckoning for his crimes. The man responsible for industrialized mass murder cheated the gallows — but not history’s verdict.
1953 — First Ascent of Everest Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay become the first humans to reach the summit of Mount Everest at 29,029 feet. The news reached London the morning of Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation — a gift from the far edge of the world that cemented the mystique of both events.
1958 — First Flight of the McDonnell F-4 Phantom II The iconic twin-engine fighter takes its maiden flight. So capable it became the primary fighter, bomber, and reconnaissance aircraft simultaneously for the Navy, Marines, and Air Force — and went on to serve in 11 nations across five decades.
1961 — JFK’s Moon Speech President Kennedy commits the United States to landing a man on the moon and returning him safely before the end of the decade. The U.S. had logged a total of 15 minutes of human spaceflight when he made this promise — eight years later, Neil Armstrong stepped onto the lunar surface.
1971 — Death of Audie Murphy (b. 1924) The most decorated U.S. soldier in history — Medal of Honor, two Silver Stars, three Purple Hearts, and more — dies in a plane crash. Initially rejected by the Navy and Marines for being too small, at his peak he single-handedly held off a German company for an hour from atop a burning tank destroyer.
1972 — ABM Treaty Signed Nixon and Brezhnev sign the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, enshrining Mutually Assured Destruction as the foundation of superpower nuclear relations. The treaty’s logic was grimly elegant: if neither side could shoot down the other’s missiles, neither would dare launch — and it held for 30 years, until U.S. withdrawal in 2002.
1977, May 25 — Star Wars Opens George Lucas’s space opera opens in 32 theaters and quickly becomes the highest-grossing film ever made, permanently changing how Hollywood thought about blockbusters, merchandising, and sequels. It does not, the record shows, contain any singing.
1977, May 26 — George Willig Climbs the World Trade Center Mountaineer George Willig free-climbs the south tower unassisted and is fined $1.10 — one cent per floor. The city initially threatened $250,000; after the public responded with delight rather than outrage, Mayor Beame settled on the penny-per-floor rate — possibly the best-negotiated fine in New York history.
1982 — Battle of Goose Green, Falklands British forces yomp across the island to defeat Argentine defenders in a grueling infantry battle. Lt. Col. H. Jones was killed leading a charge on a machine gun position and received a posthumous Victoria Cross — the conflict’s most celebrated act of individual valor.
1987 — Mathias Rust Lands in Red Square Nineteen-year-old German pilot Mathias Rust flies a Cessna 172 undetected through hundreds of miles of Soviet air defenses and lands on a bridge near Red Square. The humiliation prompted Gorbachev to purge hundreds of Soviet military officers — inadvertently giving reformers the upper hand and accelerating the end of the Cold War.
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