May 31
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Events on This Day
1057 - Lady Godiva (1040-1080 A.D.) went horseback riding through Coventry. Seems it all started when the Godiva’s husband, Leofric, came up with a plan to stop her constant protests about the high taxes he was charging the citizens of Coventry, England (there was even a tax on manure). He told his wife that he would gladly reduce taxes on one condition: that she ride naked on horseback at high noon through the town’s crowded marketplace. And we think you know the rest...1837 - New York’s Astor House hotel opened across from Central Park on the west side of Broadway at 44th Street, New York City. The Astor, founded by fur trader John Jacob Astor, was NYC’s leading and largest hotel, and one of the most elaborate in the U.S.
1870 - As we get ready for the lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer (a great Nat King Cole tune...) we also add ‘sticky’. Edward J. de Smedt of New York City patented the stuff that sticks to car tires and shoes when it gets sticky under the hot sun beginning at this time of year. Mr. DeSemdt came up with the idea of the asphalt pavement, you see.
1880 - The League of American Wheelmen was formed in Newport, RI. It was the first national bicycle society to be organized in the United States.
1889 - 2,300 people died and thousands lost their homes on this unfortunate day in Johnstown, PA. Heavy rains throughout the month caused the Connemaugh River Dam to break, flooding Johnstown. Some 800 unidentified victims were buried in a common grave. The flood was such a tragedy that the phrase “Johnstown Flood” became synonymous with a disaster.
1913 - The 17th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, providing for the popular election of U.S. senators, was certified to have been ratified and, therefore in effect, by Secretary of the State William Jennings Bryan.
1930 - Golfing great Bobby Jones captured the first leg of the golfing grand slam by winning the British Amateur golf title.
1937 - The first quadruplets to complete college courses of study were awarded Bachelor of Arts degrees, individually. Mary, Mona, Roberta and Leota Keys received their degrees from Baylor University in Waco, TX.
1938 - Henry Armstrong defeated Barney Ross in New York City to win the welterweight boxing title.
1941 - The very first issue of Parade: The Weekly Picture Newspaper went on sale. Some 125,000 copies were sold for a nickel each. Parade became the most-read publication in the U.S. with a circulation of over 22-million readers in 132 newspapers.
1943 - A comic strip came to radio, as The Adventures Archie Andrews was heard on the NBC Blue Network for the first time. Archie, Veronica and the gang stayed on radio for about ten years, moving to Mutual Broadcasting in January 1944, and then to NBC in June 1945. The radio sitcom was based on Bob Montana’s comic strip about Archie Andrews and his teen-age pals.
1949 - A crowd of 35,000 people paid tribute to radio personality Mary Margaret McBride at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, (one of the five boroughs that make up New York City). McBride was celebrating her 15th year in radio.
1955 - The Supreme Court ordered “all deliberate speed” in integration of all public schools in the U.S.
1962 - WWII Gestapo official Adolf Eichmann was hanged in Ramleh Prison in Israel for his role in the Nazi Holocaust. Eichmann was head of the Department for Jewish Affairs in the Gestapo from 1941 to 1945 and was chief of operations in the deportation of three million Jews to extermination camps.
1964 - The longest major-league baseball doubleheader (to the time) ended in 9 hours, 52 minutes. The New York Mets and the San Francisco Giants battled it out at Shea Stadium in New York. The first game of the doubleheader set a major-league mark for the longest game (by time) as the Giants beat the Mets 8-6. The game lasted 23 innings and was played in 7 hours and 23 minutes.
1969 - Stevie Wonder’s My Cherie Amour was released by Tamla Records. The song made it to number four on the pop music charts on July 26 and stayed on the nation’s radios for eleven weeks. Trivia: My Cherie Amour was not the original title of the song. Wonder had named the song, Oh My Marcia, for a former girlfriend. Of course, singing it back with the original tune, one could see that Oh My Marcia doesn’t quite fit as well as My Cherie Amour. This is Casey in Hollywood. Now back to the countdown...
1970 - More than 66,000 people in Peru died when a magnitude 7.9 earthquake hit.
1974 - William DeVaughn, a soul singer, songwriter and guitarist from Washington, DC, received a gold record for his only hit, Be Thankful for What You Got. The tune made it to number four on the pop music charts (6/29/74). Ever hear the phrase, “Don’t give up the day job?” This was quite applicable to DeVaughn, who was never heard musically again. His day job was working for the federal government.
1976 - Ear doctors didn’t have to drum up business this day. There were plenty of walk-ins as The Who put out a total of 76,000 watts of power at 120 decibels at the Charlton Athletic Football Club in Charlton, South London. They played the loudest concert anyone had ever heard, making it into The Guinness Book of World Records.
1980 - Alabama debuted on U.S. country music charts with Tennessee River. The song hit #1 on Aug 16, beginning a run of 41 chart-toppers for the country music band -- and we’re still counting...
1984 - Lightweight boxing champion Ray ‘Boom Boom’ Mancini boomed no more. He was defeated in the 14th round of a scheduled 15-round World Boxing Association title fight in Buffalo, NY. Livingstone Bramble is the boxer who did the deed.
1989 - U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Jim Wright, dogged by questions about his ethics, announced that he would resign. Thomas Foley succeeded him. Wright was the first Speaker to resign from office because of scandal.
1989 - Artificial heart valve pioneer Charles A. Hufnagel died. He was 72 years old.
1992 - The (46th annual) Tony Awards show was held at the at the Gershwin Theatre. Winners included Dancing at Lughnasa (best Play); Crazy for You (best Musical); Guys and Dolls (best Revival); Judd Hirsch in Conversations with My Father (best Actor Dramatic); Glenn Close in Death and the Maiden (best Actress Dramatic); Gregory Hines in Jelly’s Last Jam (best Actor Musical); and Faith Prince in Guys and Dolls (best Actress Musical).
1994 - U.S. Representative Dan Rostenkowski (D-IL), was indicted on 17 felony counts alleging he had plundered nearly $700,000 from the government. He later pleaded guilty to two counts of misusing federal funds and spent 451 days in federal custody. (He was pardoned by President Bill Clinton in 2000.)
1996 - The ‘High Priest’ of LSD Dr. Timothy Leary died. The Harvard professor and counterculture guru of the 1960s who urged a generation of Americans to use the drug LSD so they could “turn on, tune in and drop out,” died of prostate cancer in Los Angeles. Leary’s ashes, along with Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, were blasted into Earth orbit on Apr 21, 1997.
1996 - These movies made their U.S. debuts: The Arrival, starring Charlie Sheen, Ron Silver and Lindsay Crouse; Dragonheart, with Dennis Quaid, Sean Connery, David Thewlis, Pete Postlethwaite, Julie Christie and Dina Meyer; and Eddie, starring Whoopi Goldberg, Frank Langella and Dennis Farina.
1996 - Elsbeary Hobbs, bass singer on some of The Drifters biggest hits, died in New York of throat and lung cancer. He was 59. Hobbs’ bass voice was featured on There Goes My Baby (1959), and Save the Last Dance For Me (1960). Hobbs also worked with worked with Ben E. King, The Psychedelic Steppenwolves and Big Charlie Thomas.
2000 - Band leader Tito Puente died in New York at 77 years of age. During his career (from 1949 to 2000), Puente some 120 albums, published more than 400 compositions, and won five Grammy awards. He was internationally recognized for his contributions to Latin music as a bandleader, composer, arranger and percussionist. And, although he played and recorded jazz and salsa, Tito Puente is remembered primarily for his mastery of the mambo.
2001 - Actress and TV personality Arlene Francis died at 93 years of age. She is probably best remembered as a panelist on the long-running TV show, What’s My Line.
2002 - Undercover Brother debuted in U.S. movie theatres. The comedy stars Eddie Griffin, James Brown, Chris Kattan, Denise Richards and David Chappelle. Also opening: The Sum of All Fears, starring Ben Affleck, Morgan Freeman, James Cromwell, Liev Schreiber, Alan Bates, Philip Baker Hall, Ron Rifkin, Bruce Mcgill, Ciaran Hinds and Bridget Moynahan.
2003 - Eric Robert Rudolph, the longtime fugitive charged in the 1996 Olympic Park bombing and in attacks at an abortion clinic and a gay nightclub, was arrested in the mountains of North Carolina.
2003 - The Concorde, the world’s fastest passenger jet, flew from New York to Paris for the last time; Air France had decided to ground its last five Concorde jetliners.
2004 - In Memorial Day tributes, U.S. President George Bush (II) declared that “America is safer” because of its fighting forces. U.S. Senator and presidential candidate John Kerry visited the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
2005 - Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) introduced its first PC microprocessor with a dual-core chip design. The Athlon 64 X2 chip contains two processors on a single piece of silicon, making higher performance possible when tasks are balanced between the two cores/processors.
2005 - Vanity Fair magazine revealed that former FBI official W. Mark Felt was the Watergate whistleblower known as Deep Throat. Felt, as Deep Throat, implicated U.S. President Richard Nixon the Watergate break-ins of 1974.
2006 - Dutch pedophiles registered a new political party to push for a cut in the legal age for sexual relations to 12 from 16 and the legalization of child pornography and sex with animals, sparking widespread outrage. As you might have figured, the Party for Neighbourly Love, Freedom, and Diversity disbanded in 2010 after continued failure in elections.
2006 - Laws banning smoking in all enclosed public places went into effect in Ontario and Quebec, Canada.
2007 - New Hampshire Governor John Lynch signed a bill allowing civil unions for gay couples.
2007 - The Dutch news agency ANP reported that almost half of Rotterdam’s coffee shops would be forced to stop selling marijuana because the shops were too close to secondary schools.
2007 - Wachovia Corporation announced its acquisition of brokerage firm A.G. Edwards for $6.8 billion.
2007 - 13-year-old Evan O’Dorney won the Scripps National Spelling Bee when he correctly spelled the word ‘serrefine’.
2008 - The Chinese evacuated 200,000 people and warned more than 1 million others to be ready to leave quickly as a lake formed by the devastating May 12 earthquake threatened to breach its dam. The confirmed death toll from the earthquake had reached nearly 69,000, with another 18,000 still missing.
2009 - Dr. George Tiller (67) was shot and killed while serving as an usher during morning services in the foyer of Reformation Lutheran Church in Wichita, Kansas. Tiller was nationally known for being one of the few doctors in the U.S. to perform late-term abortions. Scott Roeder (51) fired one shot at Tiller and threatened two other people who tried to stop him. Roeder was later captured, convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. Roeder had suffered from bouts of mental illness for years, according to his brother.
2009 - Air France Flight 447, carrying 228 people, took of from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, bound for Paris, France. The plane disappeared a few hours later. The last contact from the crew was a routine message to Brazilian air traffic controllers some three and a half hours after takeoff. The Airbus A330 jet apparently ran into lightning and strong thunderstorms over the Atlantic Ocean. On June 6, 2009 a search and rescue operation recovered two bodies and debris from the aircraft floating in the ocean 680 mi (1,090 km) northeast of the Fernando de Noronha islands off Brazil’s northern coast.
2010 - Israeli naval commandos stormed a flotilla of ships carrying aid and hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists to the blockaded Gaza Strip. The predawn raid killed nine passengers and created a diplomatic crisis. At least four of the nine killed were Turkish. The flotilla of three cargo ships and three passenger ships carrying 10,000 tons of aid and 700 activists was carrying items that Israel barred from reaching Gaza, including cement and other building materials. Israeli police said 16 pro-Palestinian activists from the flotilla were sent to jail following the deadly confrontation.
2011 - Medical services were paralyzed across the eastern Indian state of Bihar by a strike by thousands of doctors. They demanded better security after one of their colleagues was killed by a group of prisoners. Bhudeo Singh, a prison doctor in Gopalganj district, was fatally beaten after he refused to issue fake certificates to seven prisoners stating they were too ill to be moved to another jail. Local police Superintendent K.S. Anupam said the prisoners were resisting the transfer.
2012 - A U.S. federal appeals court in Boston declared that the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutionally denied federal benefits to married gay couples. (On December 13, 2022, DOMA was repealed by the passage of the Respect for Marriage Act which was signed into law by President Joe Biden.)
2013 - Movies debuting in U.S. theatres: After Earth, starring Will Smith, Jaden Smith, Isabelle Fuhrman, Zoë Kravitz, Kristofer Hivju, David Denman and Sophie Okonedo; Now You See Me, starring Isla Fisher, Morgan Freeman, Mark Ruffalo, Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco, Michael Caine and Mélanie Laurent; The East, with Brit Marling, Alexander Skarsgård, Ellen Page, Toby Kebbell, Shiloh Fernandez, Aldis Hodge, Danielle Macdonald, Hillary Baack and Patricia Clarkson; The History of Future Folk, starring Nils d’Aulaire, Jay Klaitz, Julie Ann Emery, April L. Hernandez, Dee Snider and Onata Aprile; and The Kings of Summer, with Alison Brie, Nick Offerman, Moises Arias, Megan Mullally, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Nick Robinson, Gabriel Basso and Erin Moriarty.
2013 - A 2.6-mile wide tornado hit Oklahoma City with winds of nearly 300 mph [483 kph]. Storms and flash floods left 22 people dead, including four storm chasers, the first known deaths in the history of storm chasing.
2014 - China’s aggressive moves to claim jurisdiction over land and sky in the Asia-Pacific risk undermining peace and security. So said U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, as he accused China of being a “destabilizing” force in the South China Sea. He warned at an international security conference in Singapore that the “U.S. will not look the other way” when nations such as China try to restrict navigation or ignore international rules and standards.
2015 - U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter pledged $18 million to help Vietnam buy U.S. patrol boats. He made the pledge shortly after touring a Vietnamese coast guard vessel that had been hit by a Chinese ship during a skirmish in the South China Sea.
2016 - The Walk Free Foundation’s Global Slavery Index in London said about 45.8 million people around the world were trapped in slavery. India had the largest number of slaves, 18.35 million, followed by China with 3.39 million and Pakistan with 2.13 million. North Korea ranked as worst in terms of concentration with one in every 20 people - or 4.4 percent of its 25 million population - in slavery and its government doing the least to end this with reports of state-sanctioned forced labor.
2016 - Philippine president-elect Rodrigo Duterte said he would pay bounties to police or military officials who capture suspected drug lords “dead or alive.” He also told reporters there was justification for killing journalists who took bribes or engaged in other corrupt activities.
2017 - William Lacy Swing, the head of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said people smugglers make about $35 billion a year worldwide and they are driving the tragedy of migrants who die trying to cross the Mediterranean to reach Europe.
2017 - U.S. federal agents said 19 people had been arrested and indicted in a New York mob investigation. Defendants with nicknames including ‘Paulie Roast Beef’, ‘Joey Glasses’ and Matthew Madonna, described as the street boss of the Luchese crime family were among the 19. They were charged with crimes ranging from murder to the illegal sale of cigarettes that were connected to a larger racketeering scheme run out of New York and dating back at least 17 years, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York said.
2018 - POTUS Trump bragged that he was imposing tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Europe, Mexico and Canada. This, after failing to win concessions from those areas. Europe and Mexico quickly pledged to retaliate, exacerbating trans-Atlantic and North American trade tensions.
2018 - Shares of General Motors posted their largest one-day gain since the company’s rebirth from bankruptcy eight years earlier. The gains came after Japanese technology conglomerate SoftBank decided to pump $2.25 billion into GM’s autonomous car unit. GM said that it would add $1.1 billion to SoftBank’s investment in an effort to speed large-scale deployment of self-driving robotaxis next year.
2018 - Movies opening in the U.S. this day included: Godzilla: King of the Monsters, starring Millie Bobby Brown, Lexi Rabe and Charles Dance; Ma, with Octavia Spencer, Luke Evans and Juliette Lewis; Rocketman, starring Richard Madden, Taron Egerton and Bryce Dallas Howard; Domino, with Carice van Houten, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Guy Pearce; Mouthpiece, starring Taylor Belle Puterman, Maev Beaty and Paula Boudreau; and Rich Boy, Rich Girl, with Sasha Jackson, Cody Longo and Elaine Hendrix.
2019 - A municipal employee sprayed gunfire indiscriminately in a government building complex in Virginia. The shooter, who killed 12 people and wounded four, was killed after an extended gun battle with responding police. It was the 150th mass shooting in the U.S. in 2019. (Meanwhile, the NRA [National Rifle Association] continued to exercise its lock on the U.S. Senate where no gun control legislation was allowed to pass.)
2020 - George Floyd death reaction:
1)POTUS Trump accused anarchists and the media of fueling violence. Trump said he was designating Antifa as a terrorist organization. Attorney General William Barr pointed a finger at “far left extremist groups”. Police chiefs and politicians accused outsiders of causing the problems. At the White House, the scene of three days of demonstrations, police fired tear gas and stun grenades into a crowd of more than 1,000 chanting protesters across the street in Lafayette Park. The district's entire National Guard, roughly 1,700 soldiers, was called in to help control the protests.
2)Demonstrations across the U.S. descended into violence again. Protesters hurled rocks and Molotov cocktails at police in Philadelphia and were hit with tear gas and pepper spray in Austin, Texas, and other cities. Seven Boston police officers were hospitalized. In Indianapolis, two people were reported dead in bursts of downtown violence over the weekend, adding to deaths recorded in Detroit and Minneapolis.
3)Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota activated thousands of National Guard troops — up to 13,200 — to control protesters in Minneapolis who turned out in droves for the fifth night in a row. He declined the Army’s offer of military police.
4)NYC cleanup was underway following scattered clashes between police and protesters over the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Police said 345 people were arrested, 33 officers were injured and 27 police vehicles were damaged.
5)South Dakota Governor Governor Kristi Noem activated the National Guard after protests in Sioux Falls turned violent over the death of George Floyd.
6)Hundreds of volunteers gathered early today in downtown Madison, Wisconsin to clean up damage from a night of violence that included setting a police squad car on fire, looting and breaking windows at dozens of stores and an art museum. 15 people were arrested after this second night of violence, with police firing tear gas as protesters again threw rocks and damaged store downtown stores following an afternoon peaceful protest over the death of George Floyd.2020 - COVID-19 news:
1)California had 111,893 cases of coronavirus and 4,171 deaths. Total U.S. cases reached over 1,788,762 with the death toll at 104,356.
2)India reported more than 8,000 new cases of the coronavirus. Confirmed infections reached 182,143, with 5,164 fatalities.
3)In Iran 2,516 new cases were confirmed across the country in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 151,466. The virus claimed another 63 lives over the same period, raising the overall. toll to 7,797.2021 - China’s ruling Communist Party eased birth limits to allow all couples to have three children -- instead of two -- in hopes of slowing the rapid aging of its population.
2021 - Eli Lilly’s antibody drug combination received an emergency use approval in India for the treatment of mild-to-moderate COVID-19, bolstering the country’s arsenal of medicines to tackle a devastating second wave of the pandemic.
2021 - Tulsa, Oklahoma marked the 100-year anniversary of the massacre of hundreds of black residents by a white mob in the city’s Greenwood neighborhood.
2022 - A long-lost 3,400 year-old Bronze Age city, including 100 cuneiform tablets, was unearthed on the Tigris river as extreme drought severely depleted water levels. The city was likely a part of the Mittani Empire. “Since the city was located directly on the Tigris, it may have played an important role in connecting the core region of the Mittani Empire, which was located in present-day northeastern Syria, and the empire’s eastern periphery,” said Ivana Puljiz, a research team member.
2023 - A NASA panel investigated unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP). The panel discussed the stigma involved in reporting sightings and the lack of high-quality data to back them up (an example sited was mysterious radio signals that turned out to be a local microwave). “We have 50-100-ish new reports each month," said Sean Kirkpatrick, director of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), part of the U.S. Defence Department. But he said the number of those sightings that were “possibly really anomalous” were 2%-5% of the total database.
2023 - Wimbledon lifted a ban on Russian and Belarusian players from its tournament, after the players agreed to sign neutral declarations -- meaning the players and staff would agree that they were not representing the Russian or Belarusian states, would confirm that they were not receiving funding from their states or companies controlled by the state, and they would not express support for the invasion or their home governments. The previous year, players from Russia and Belarus were banned from the tennis for two weeks in response to Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
2024 - Summer Camp opened in U.S. theatres. The comedy stars Kathy Bates, Victoria Rowell and Betsy Sodaro. It follows three childhood best friends who used to spend every summer at a sleep away camp together. After years, when the opportunity to get back together for a summer camp reunion, they all seized it.
and more...
Birthdays on This Day May 31
1819 - Walt Whitman
poet: Leaves of Grass, When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d, Passage to India, O Captain! My Captain!; died Mar 26, 18921857 - Pope Pius XI (Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti)
259th pope of the Roman Catholic Church [1922-1939]; died Feb 10, 19391894 - Fred Allen (John Florence Sullivan)
comedian: radio star: Allen’s Alley, The Fred Allen Show, The Linit Bath Club Revue; died Mar 17, 19561898 - Dr. Norman Vincent Peale
clergyman: radio ministry; author and syndicated newspaper column: The Power of Positive Thinking; died Dec 24, 19931908 - Don Ameche (Dominic Felix Amici)
Academy Award-winning actor: Cocoon [1985]; Trading Places, Corinna Corinna; inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame [1992]; died Dec 6, 19931912 - Henry ‘Scoop’ Jackson
U.S. Senator from Washington; died Sep 1, 19831916 - Judy Campbell
actress: Liebesreise, Dust to Dust, There’s a Girl in My Soup, Emma, East of Piccadilly, Now You’re Talking, Saloon Bar; died Jun 6, 20041920 - Edward Bennett Williams
attorney; owner: Baltimore Orioles; died Aug 13, 19881922 - Denholm Elliott
actor: A Room with a View, The Bourne Identity, The Boys from Brazil, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Voyage of the Damned, Trading Places, Scorchers; died Oct 6, 19921923 - Ellsworth Kelly
American hard-edge [Abstract Geometric] artist, sculptor: Seine, Green Red Yellow Blue, Blue Yellow Red III, Orange Red Relief; died Dec 27, 20151923 - Prince Rainer III (Rainier Louis Henri Maxence Bertrand de Grimaldi III)
head of state: Monaco; married American film star, Grace Kelly; died Apr 6, 20051929 - Menahem Golan
Israeli film director, producer: films with such stars as Sean Connery, Sylvester Stallone, Chuck Norris, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Charles Bronson; co-owner [with his cousin Yoram Globus] of Golan-Globus film production company: Alien from L.A., Death Wish II, Death Wish III, Death Wish 4: The Crackdown, Revenge of the Ninja, Exterminator 2, Missing in Action, Missing in Action 2: The Beginning, American Ninja, American Ninja 2: The Confrontation, American Ninja 4: The Annihilation, Delta Force 2: The Colombian Connection, Delta Force 3: The Killing Game, Captain America; died Aug 8, 20141930 - Clint Eastwood
Academy Award-winning director and producer: Unforgiven [1992]; actor: Play Misty for Me, High Plains Drifter, The Eiger Sanction, The Outlaw Josey Wales, Bronco Billy, Firefox, Heartbreak Ridge, Rawhide, A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Play Misty for Me, Dirty Harry, The Bridges of Madison County; mayor of Carmel, California
1931 - Shirley Verrett
opera singer: soprano: New York Met; died Nov 5, 20101934 - Jim Hutton
actor: Ellery Queen, Where the Boys Are, The Honeymoon Machine, Bachelor in Paradise, The Horizontal Lieutenant, Walk, Don’t Run, Major Dundee, The Hallelujah Trail, Who’s Minding the Mint?, The Green Berets, Hellfighters; father of actor Timothy Hutton; died Jun 2, 19791938 - Johnny Paycheck (Donald Eugene Lytle)
country singer: Take This Job and Shove It, The Lovin’ Machine, [Don’t Take Her] She’s All I Got, Someone to Give My Love To, Mr. Lovemaker, Song and Dance Man, For a Minute There, Slide Off Your Satin Sheets, Friend, Lover, Wife, Heartbreak Tennessee, Motel Time Again, Jukebox Charlie, The Cave; songwriter: Apartment No. 9, Touch My Heart; died Feb 18, 20031938 - Peter Yarrow
singer: group: Peter, Paul and Mary: Leaving on a Jet Plane, Puff the Magic Dragon, If I Had a Hammer, Blowin’ in the Wind, I Dig Rock ’n’ Roll Music; songwriter: Torn Between Two Lovers1939 - Terry Waite
author, envoy for Church of England; held hostage in Lebanon [1987-1991]1941 - Augie Meyers
musician: keyboards: groups: Sir Douglas Quintet: She’s About a Mover; Texas Tornados: It was Fun While It Lasted; operates his studio north of San Antonio TX1942 - ‘Happy’ (Harold) Hairston
basketball: Sacramento Kings, LA Lakers; died May 1, 20011943 - Sharon Gless
Emmy Award-winning actress: Cagney & Lacey [1985-1986, 1986-1987]; Burn Notice, Revenge of the Stepford Wives, Tales of the Unexpected1943 - Joe Namath
‘Broadway Joe’: Pro Football Hall of Famer: quarterback: New York Jets: AFL’s Rookie of the Year [1965], Player of the Year [1968], Super Bowl III MVP; pantyhose and ointment spokesperson1945 - Rainer Werner Fassbinder
director: Chinese Roulette, Querelle, Veronika Voss, Berlin Alexanderplatz, Beware of a Holy Whore; died June 10, 19821948 - John ‘Bonzo’ Bonham
musician: drums: group: Led Zeppelin: Whole Lotta Love, Stairway to Heaven, Immigrant Song; died Sep 25, 19801949 - Tom Berenger (Thomas Michael Moore)
actor: One Life to Live, If Tomorrow Comes, Platoon, Sliver, The Big Chill, Eddie and the Cruisers, Gettysburg, Looking for Mr. Goodbar, A Murder of Crows, In the Company of Spies, Turbulence II: Fear of Flying; more1950 - Gregory Harrison
actor: Logan’s Run, Trapper John, M.D., Family Man, Cadillac Girls, Caught in the Act1952 - Jean Lemieux
hockey: NHL: Atlanta Flames, Washington Capitals1955 - Laura Baugh
golf: U.S. Women’s Amateur champ [1971]1960 - Chris Elliott
actor: Late Night with David Letterman, FDR: A One Man Show, The Abyss, Tattingers, Get a Life, Groundhog Day, Cabin Boy, The Barefoot Executive, The Naked Truth, There’s Something About Mary, Nutty Professor II: The Klumps, Scary Movie 2, Osmosis Jones1961 - Lea Thompson
actress: Back to the Future, film series, The Right to Remain Silent, Dennis the Menace, The Beverly Hillbillies, Howard the Duck, Back to the Future film series, Jaws 3, All the Right Moves, Caroline in the City, Switched at Birth1962 - Corey Hart
singer: Sunglasses at Night, Never Surrender1963 - Hugh Dillon
singer: groups: The Headstones, Hugh Dillon Redemption Choir; actor: Assault on Precinct 13, Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning, Trailer Park Boys: The Movie, Down to the Bone, The Eleventh Hour, ReGenesis, Degrassi: The Next Generation; more1964 - Darryl McDaniels
singer: group: Run-D.M.C.: King of Rock, It’s Tricky, Beats to the Rhyme, Can You Rock Like This, Walk This Way, Run’s House, Rock Box1965 - Brooke Shields
model: Ivory Snow baby; actress: The Blue Lagoon, Pretty Baby, Brenda Starr, The Seventh Floor, Backstreet Dreams, Stalking Laura, Suddenly Susan1967 - Phil Keoghan
reality TV show host: The Amazing Race [2001- ]1967 - Kenny Lofton
baseball: Houston Astros [AL rookie-season record: most stolen bases [66: 1992], Atlanta Braves, Cleveland Indians [record: most stolen bases]1968 - Duane Causwell
basketball [center]: Temple Univ; NBA: Sacramento Kings, Miami Heat1972 - Archie Panjabi
actress: The Good Wife, The Thin Blue Line, Grease Monkeys, Sea of Souls, A Very Social Secretary, The Happiness Salesman, The Fall1972 - Brian Walker
football [strong safety]: Washington State Univ; NFL: Washington Redskins, Miami Dolphins, Seattle Seahawks, Detroit Lions1973 - Tyrone Williams
football [cornerback]: Univ of Nebraska; NFL: GB Packers, Atlanta Falcons, Dallas Cowboys1974 - Ara Celi
actress: Bruce Almighty, Go Fish, From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman’s Daughter, American Beauty, Looking for Lola, All My Children1974 - Steve Martin
football [defensive tackle]: Univ of Missouri; NFL: Indianapolis Colts, Philadelphia Eagles, KC Chiefs, NY Jets, NE Patriots, Houston Texans, Minnesota Vikings1975 - Kenny Mixon
football [defensive end]: Louisiana State Univ; NFL: Miami Dolphins1976 - Colin Farrell
actor: Sugar, Tigerland, Alexander, S.W.A.T., Daredevil, The Recruit, Phone Booth, Minority Report, Hart’s War, Ordinary Decent Criminal1976 - Matt Harpring
basketball [forward]: Georgia Tech Univ; NBA: Orlando Magic, Cleveland Cavaliers, Philadelphia 76ers, Utah Jazz1977 - Eric Christian Olsen
actor: NCIS: Los Angeles, Get Real, Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd, The Loop, Brothers & Sisters, The Six Wives of Henry Lefay, The Thing, Celeste and Jesse Forever1981 - Jake Peavy
baseball [pitcher]: San Diego Padres [2002–2009]: NL Cy Young Award winner [2007]; Chicago White Sox [2009–2013]; Boston Red Sox [2013–2014]; San Francisco Giants [2014–2016]1982 - Jonathan Tucker
actor: The Black Donnellys, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Hostage, In the Valley of Elah, The Ruins1985 - Jordy Nelson
football [ wide receiver]: NFL: Green Bay Packers [2008–2017]: 2011 Super Bowl XLV champs; Oakland Raiders [2018]1990 - Phillipa Soo
actress: Broadway: Hamilton, Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812; films, TV: Keep The Change, Smash, Dangerous Liaisons1996 - Normani (Kordei Hamilton)
singer: group: Fifth Harmony; solo: Love Lies, Dancing with a Stranger, Motivation, Wild Side
and still more...
Hit Music on This Day May 31
1950My Foolish Heart (facts) - The Gordon Jenkins Orchestra (vocal: Eileen Wilson)
Bewitched (facts) - The Bill Snyder Orchestra
1959
1968
1977
1986
1995
2004
2013
2022
and even more...
Those were the days, my friend. We thought they’d never end...
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