Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/May 31
This is a list of selected May 31 anniversaries that appear in the "On this day" section of the Main Page. To suggest a new item, in most cases, you can be bold and edit this page. Please read the selected anniversaries guidelines before making your edit. However, if your addition might be controversial or on a day that is or will soon be on the Main Page, please post your suggestion on the talk page instead.
Please note that the events listed on the Main Page are chosen based more on relative article quality and to maintain a mix of topics, not based solely on how important or significant their subjects are. Only four to five events are posted at a time and thus not everything that is "most important and significant" can be listed. In addition, an event is generally not posted this year if it is also the subject of the scheduled featured article or picture of the day.
To report an error when this appears on the Main Page, see Main Page errors. Please remember that this list defers to the supporting articles, so it is best to achieve consensus and make any necessary changes there first.
Staging area
Images
Use only ONE image at a time
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Johnstown flood debris -
Faisal II of Iraq (age 5) -
Ulm Minster -
MV Mavi Marmara -
Mark Felt -
Statue of Ramesses II at Abu Simbel -
Samuel Pepys -
'Abd al-Ilah -
Revolutionary Tribunal
Ineligible
| Blurb | Reason |
|---|---|
| ; Mother's Day in Algeria, France, Morocco and Sweden (2015) | refimprove |
| 1279 BC – Ramesses II became Pharaoh of Egypt. | refimprove section |
| 1669 – Citing poor eyesight, Samuel Pepys recorded his last entry in his diary, one of the most important primary sources for the English Restoration period. | refimprove section |
| 1889 – The South Fork Dam near Johnstown, Pennsylvania, failed, unleashing a torrent of 18.1 million cubic meters (4.8 billion gallons) of water that killed over 2,200 people. | refimprove section |
| 1910 – The South Africa Act came into force, uniting four colonies into the Union of South Africa, exactly 51 years before it became the Republic of South Africa. | Act: unreferenced section; Union: refimprove section |
| 1916 – The German High Seas Fleet and British Grand Fleet clashed in the Battle of Jutland, the largest naval battle of the First World War. | refimprove section |
| 1970 – The Ancash earthquake devastated various coastal towns in Peru and resulted in a massive avalanche on the north side of Nevado Huascarán, burying the town of Yungay. | refimprove |
| 2010 – During an attempt to break the ongoing blockade of the Gaza Strip, the Israeli Navy engaged in armed conflict with the crew of the MV Mavi Marmara, resulting in nine civilian deaths. | Raid: neutrality issues, expansion; Mavi Marmara: multiple issues |
| ; Feast of the Visitation (Catholicism and Anglicanism) | Undercited |
| * 1961 – The Union of South Africa was dissolved by the Constitution Act and replaced by the Republic of South Africa. | Undercited |
| * 1795 – French Revolution: The Revolutionary Tribunal, a court instituted by the National Convention for the trial of political offenders, was suppressed. | Too much uncited |
| * 1921 – The Tulsa race massacre, "the single worst incident of racial violence in American history", began in Tulsa, Oklahoma. | Tagged for citations |
Eligible
- 1215 — A Mongol army under Genghis Khan captures Zhongdu (modern Beijing), the capital of the Jin dynasty.
- 1293 – Majapahit forces under Raden Wijaya won a major victory in the Mongol invasion of Java, now considered to be the founding date of the Indonesian city of Surabaya.
- 1775 – American Revolution: The Committee of Safety of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, adopted the Mecklenburg Resolves, which annulled and vacated all laws originating from the authority of the King or Parliament.
- 1862 – American Civil War: Confederate troops under Joseph E. Johnston and G. W. Smith engaged Union forces under George B. McClellan at the Battle of Seven Pines outside Richmond, Virginia.
- 1890 – The Ulm Minster, the world's tallest church building, is completed in Ulm, Germany.
- 1902 – The Second Boer War came to an end with the signing of the Treaty of Vereeniging in Pretoria, South Africa.
- 1941 - German forces dropped four bombs on neutral Ireland, killing 28 people and damaging the residence of the President of Ireland.
- 1941 – The United Kingdom completed its re-occupation of Iraq, returning Abd al-Ilah to power as regent for Faisal II.
- 1981 – An organized mob of police and government-sponsored Sinhalese paramilitary forces began three days of attacks that led to the burning of the Jaffna Library in Sri Lanka.
- 2005 – A Vanity Fair article revealed that the secret informant known as "Deep Throat", who had provided information about the Watergate scandal, was former FBI associate director Mark Felt (pictured).
- 2009 – American physician George Tiller, one of the few doctors in the country who performed late-term abortions, was shot and killed by Scott Roeder, an anti-abortion activist.
- Born/died: | Géza II of Hungary |d|1162| Nur Jahan |b|1577| Pierre Victurnien Vergniaud |b|1753| Walt Whitman |b|1819|| Kusumoto Ine |b|1827| Walter Sickert |b|1860| Rosa May Billinghurst |b|1875| Chien-Shiung Wu |b|1912| Bernard Lewis |b|1916| Jørgen Jensen |d|1922 Clint Eastwood |b|1930| Timothy Leary |d|1996| Derek Hodge |d|2011| Jan Crouch |d|2016| Carla Lane |d|2016
May 31: Dragon Boat Festival in China and Taiwan (2025); World No Tobacco Day
Bessarion
- 455 – Petronius Maximus, ruler of the Western Roman Empire, was stoned to death by a mob as he fled Rome ahead of the arrival of a Vandal force that sacked the city.
- 1223 – Mongol invasion of Kievan Rus': Mongol forces defeated a Kievan Rus' army at the Kalka River in present-day Ukraine.
- 1468 – Cardinal Bessarion (pictured) announced his donation of 746 Greek and Latin codices to the Republic of Venice, forming the Biblioteca Marciana.
- 1935 – An earthquake registering 7.7 Mw struck Balochistan in British India, now part of Pakistan, killing between 30,000 and 60,000 people.
- 2013 – A tornado struck Central Oklahoma, killing 8 people and injuring more than 150.
- Albertino Mussato (d. 1329)
- Joseph Grimaldi (d. 1837)
- Dina Boluarte (b. 1962)
- Mbaye Diagne (d. 1994)