November 5

May 30

1381 The Peasants' Revolt was the biggest rebellion of the common people in medieval England. The rebels sought a reduction in the high taxes financing the Hundred Years' War. The final trigger was the intervention of a royal official, John Bampton, in Fobbing, Essex on May 30, 1381. His attempts to collect unpaid poll taxes ended with the peasants chasing him out of the village. The violent confrontation rapidly spread across the south-east of England.

1431 The execution of Joan of Arc by burning took place in Rouen, France on May 30, 1431. The peasant teenager asked for a cross to be held in front of her that she could see through the flames.
Joan's last words were "Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! Blessed be God." As she died, the spectators, including the soldiers, wept. By burning Joan, the English alienated the French public opinion and soon treaties were being made with the Burgundians. Within 20 years England had lost all of France, bar Calais.

Joan of Arc's Death at the Stake, by Hermann Stilke (1843)

1537 The day after the hanging of Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII became engaged to the calm, meek and gentle Jane Seymour, who had been one of the ladies-in-waiting to his first two wives. They were married ten days later on May 30, 1536 at the Palace of Whitehall, in the Queen's closet by Bishop Gardiner. She died in October 1537, twelve days after giving birth to a son, Prince Edward, the future Edward VI. Jane Seymour was the only one of Henry's six wives to receive a queen's funeral.

1593 The playwright Christopher Marlowe met a violent death whilst drinking in a Deptford, London tavern on May 30, 1593. Some sources suggest that the dispute was over a bar tab, while others propose it may have involved political or espionage-related matters. What is known is that during the altercation, Marlowe was fatally stabbed.

Anonymous portrait, believed to show Marlowe

1626 The Wanggongchang Explosion was an unexplained catastrophic explosion that occurred on May 30, 1626, during the late reign of Tianqi Emperor, at Beijing. The sky turned dark, and everything within the 2 km or 1.2 miles vicinity and a 4 km2 or 1.5 mi2 area was utterly obliterated, with around 20,000 people killed. One of the largest and most lethal explosions ever it was about equal to the Hiroshima bombing. The exact cause hasn't yet been determined. 

1723 On May 30, 1723, Johann Sebastian Bach assumed the position of Thomaskantor, director of church music in Leipzig. To commemorate this significant event, he performed his remarkable cantata, "Die Elenden sollen essen" (The wretched shall eat), BWV 75, in the splendid St. Nicholas Church. Bach held this prestigious position from 1723 until his death in 1750.

1744 By 1744 English poet and essayist Alexander Pope's health, which had never been good, was failing. When told by his physician, on the morning of his death, that he was better, Pope groaned to a friend: "Here am I, dying of a hundred good symptoms." Alexander Pope died aged 56 in his Twickenham villa surrounded by friends on May 30, 1744, at about eleven o'clock at night. His last words were "Friendship itself is but a part of virtue."

1766 The Theatre Royal, now part of the Bristol Old Vic, is the oldest continually-operating theatre in the English-speaking world. It was built during 1764–66 on King Street in Bristol and opened to audiences for the first time on May 30, 1766. The theatre has hosted a wide variety of productions over the years, including plays, musicals, and operas. 

The theatre complex as it was prior to 2016  Rbrwr at English Wikipedia

1778 Visiting Paris for the opening of his latest tragic play, Irene in February 1778, the 83-year-old Voltaire attended a boisterous party to celebrate and exhausted himself meeting all the people who had turned out to acclaim him. He believed he was about to die but then recovered for a time. However, Voltaire soon became ill again and he died on May 30, 1778. His last words were, "Do let me die in peace."

1778 The first recorded Oath of Allegiance was designed to ensure the loyalty of the troops and officers to the revolutionary cause and to prevent desertion or allegiance to the British Crown. Benedict Arnold, who was then a respected general in the Continental Army, swore this oath along with his fellow soldiers on May 30, 1778. Arnold's later actions, where he defected to the British in 1780, made his participation in this early oath particularly ironic and notable in American history

1797 Abolitionist politician William Wilberforce married Barbara Spooner at St Swithins Church, Walcot, Bath on May 30, 1797. She was the third child of Isaac Spooner of Elmdon Hall, Warwickshire, a banker of Birmingham, and his wife, Barbara Gough-Calthorpe, the sister of the first Lord Calthorpe. Barbara bore six children, all of whom survived to adulthood. William, (July 1798), Barbara (1799), Elizabeth (1801), Robert (1802), Samuel (1805), and Henry (1807).

1806 On May 30, 1806, future US President Andrew Jackson challenged a rival Southern plantation owner, Charles Dickinson to a duel, after Dickinson accused him of cheating on a horse race bet and insulted his wife. Jackson was shot in the chest, but managed to stay standing and shoot and killed his opponent. The bullet could not be safely removed and remained in his chest for the next 40 years. Jackson was not prosecuted for murder.

Andrew Jackson's famous duel over a horse

1868 Three years after the Civil War ended, Major. General John A. Logan called for the creation of Decoration Day as a nationwide decorating of the graves of those who died in the war with flowers.
During the first Decoration Day on May 30. 1868, General.James Garfield spoke at Arlington National Cemetery, and 5,000 observers decorated more than 20,000 Union and Confederate graves.
The name of the holiday was changed to Memorial Day around the time of World War I.

1896 The Khodynka Tragedy was a human stampede that occurred on May 30, 1896, on Khodynka Field in Moscow, Russia during a coronation party following the crowning of the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II. 1,389 people were trampled to death in a stampede caused by rumors of beer and pretzels at the festivities.

Spectators gathered at Khodynka

1899 Pearl Hart was one of the few female outlaws of the American Old West. She performed one of the last recorded stagecoach robberies 30 miles (48 km) southeast of Globe, Arizona on May 30, 1899. She once held up a stagecoach to buy medicine for her dying mother. Armed with a Colt 44, Pearl netted $430.

1911 The first five-mile race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was held in August 1909. Poor attendance led the track's owners to try a longer 500 mile event for a large prize on May 30, 1911. Billed as the "International 500-Mile Sweepstakes Race," the first Indianapolis 500 ended with Ray Harroun becoming the first winner. He finished in 6 hours, 42 minutes, 8 seconds with an average speed of 74.59 miles an hour. Harroun's prize was $25,100.


1912 Aviation pioneer Wilbur Wright fell ill after eating a dish of Boston seafood during a business trip. His brother Orville, who ate the same meal, also fell sick and barely survived. After returning to Dayton in early May 1912 Wilbur fell sick again and was diagnosed with typhoid fever. He died, at age 45, at the Wright family home on May 30, 1912.

1943 Penny Ann Early was born May 30, 1943. She became the first licensed female jockey in the United States in 1968. In protest, male jockeys unanimously refused to ride in the first few races in which Early was slated to appear at the Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky to prevent her from competing.

1960 Russian poet and novelist Boris Pasternak completed his Doctor Zhivago novel in 1956. Due to its independent minded stance on the socialist state, it was refused publication in Russia because it "rejected socialist realism". Pasternak died from lung cancer on May 30, 1960, three months after his 70th birthday. By this time the campaign against Pasternak had damaged the international credibility of the U.S.S.R. Doctor Zhivago was finally published in the Soviet Union in 1988.

1971 Sports Shoe company Blue Ribbon Sports was founded in 1964. They changed their name to Nike, Inc. on May 30, 1971, in honor of Nike, the Greek goddess of victory, either in war or in an athletic contest. She is the frequent subject of sculpture, often shown as a winged figure, as in Nike of Samothrace. The name was suggested by employee Jeff Johnson after it came to him in his sleep.


1996 Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson announced their mutual decision to divorce on May 30, 1996.  Ten years earlier they had married at Westminster Abbey and Sarah Ferguson joined the British Royal Family as the Duchess of York. By 1991, the marriage was in trouble, and the couple had drifted apart. In 2001, the Duchess of York told an American magazine the marriage began to fail within a week due to Andrew’s naval duties.

2009 The largest box of doughnuts was a Krispy Kreme box weighing 135 kg (297 lb 10 oz). It was produced by The Kuwait Food Co. Americana in Kuwait, Kuwait, on May 30, 2009. The box was filled with 2,700 pieces of Krispy Kreme doughnuts.

2014 Jairo Mora Sandoval dedicated his life to protecting leatherback sea turtle nests from poachers on Moin beach in Costa Rica. Him and volunteers, would collects the eggs and guard them in a hatchery. On May 30, 2014 Mora and four female volunteers were abducted by a group of masked men. The women eventually escaped and informed the police. 26-year-old Mora's bound and beaten body was found on the beach the next morning. 




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