May 30: What Happened on This Day in History (High_school Level)?

(Page last edited 10/12/2017)

1. 1431 - Hundred Years' War: in Rouen, France, the 19-year-old Joan of Arc is burned at the stake by an English-dominated tribunal. The Roman Catholic Church remembers this day as the celebration of Saint Joan of Arc.
2. 1536 - King Henry VIII of England marries Jane Seymour, a lady-in-waiting to his first two wives.
3. 1539 - In Florida, Hernando de Soto lands at Tampa Bay with 600 soldiers with the goal of finding gold.
4. 1814 - Napoleonic Wars: War of the Sixth Coalition - the Treaty of Paris (1814)is signed returning French borders to their 1792 extent. Napoleon I is exiled to Elba.
5. 1854 - The Kansas-Nebraska Act becomes law establishing the US territories of Nebraska and Kansas.
6. 1868 - Decoration Day (the predecessor of the modern "Memorial Day") is observed in the United States for the first time (by "Commander-in-chief of theGrand Army of the Republic" John A. Logan's proclamation on May 5).
7. 1922 - The Lincoln Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C..
8. 1966 - Launch of Surveyor 1 the first US spacecraft to land on an extraterrestrial body.
9. 1971 - Mariner program: Mariner 9 is launched to map 70% of the surface, and to study temporal changes in the atmosphere and surface, of Mars.
10. 1989 - Tiananmen Square protests of 1989: the 33-foot high "Goddess of Democracy" statue is unveiled in Tiananmen Square by student demonstrators.
11. Famous Birthdays: Georg von Peuerbach (German mathematician and astronomer), Peter Carl Fabergé (Russian goldsmith and jeweler), Hannes Alfvén (Swedish physicist and engineer, Nobel Prize laureate), Julius Axelrod (American biochemist and Nobel Prize laureate), Helen Sharman (English chemist and astronaut)

For famous birthdays and other daily events in history, visit our Daily Dose Activities.

Click Here for Yesterday in History: May 29

Click Here for Tomorrow in History: May 31

For more history resources on Internet 4 Classrooms, visit our Social Studies and History index. For Pre K-8th Grade Level History and Social Studies Resources, visit our Grade Level Index.