12 History Lessons + 3 Births & 6 Deaths for May 29, 2025
Today’s History:
- 1453 – Constantinople falls to the Ottoman Empire, marking the end of the Byzantine Empire.
- 1660 – Charles II is restored to the English throne on his 30th birthday, beginning the English Restoration.
- 1790 – Rhode Island becomes the 13th and final U.S. state to ratify the Constitution.
- 1848 – Wisconsin is admitted as the 30th U.S. state.
- 1913 – Igor Stravinsky’s ballet The Rite of Spring premieres in Paris, sparking a near riot.
- 1919 – Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity is confirmed during a solar eclipse, making him an international celebrity.
- 1953 – Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay of Nepal become the first confirmed climbers to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
- 1968 – The Manchester United football team wins the European Cup, the first English club to do so.
- 1990 – Boris Yeltsin is elected President of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.
- 1999 – Space Shuttle Discovery completes the first docking with the International Space Station.
- 2004 – The World War II Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C.
- 2020 – Protests over the killing of George Floyd spread to multiple cities across the United States and beyond.
Today’s Birthdays:
- 1958 – Annette Bening, American actress (American Beauty, The Kids Are All Right) (67)
- 1984 – Carmelo Anthony, American professional basketball player (41)
- 1989 – Riley Keough, American actress (Daisy Jones & The Six), granddaughter of Elvis Presley (36)
Today’s Deaths:
- 1829 – Humphry Davy, English chemist and inventor of the Davy lamp (Age 50)
- 1914 – Joseph Swan, British physicist and co-inventor of the incandescent light bulb (Age 85)
- 1958 – Juan Ramón Jiménez, Spanish poet and Nobel Laureate (Age 76)
- 1994 – Erich Honecker, East German leader (Age 81)
- 1998 – Barry Goldwater, U.S. senator and 1964 Republican presidential nominee (Age 89)
- 2014 – Karlheinz Böhm, Austrian actor and humanitarian (Age 86)
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