1679 Habeas Corpus Act passes in England, strengthening a person’s right to challenge unlawful arrest and imprisonment
1703 Saint Petersburg (Leningrad) founded by Russian Tsar Peter the Great
1873 Heinrich Schliemann discovers “Priam’s Treasure” a cache of gold and other objects in Hisarlik (Troy) in Anatolia
1905 Japanese fleet destroys the Russian East Sea fleet in the Battle of Tsushima, the only decisive clash between modern steel battleships in history
1940 British and Allied forces begin the evacuation of Dunkirk (Operation Dynamo) during WWII
1963 Jomo Kenyatta elected 1st Prime Minister of Kenya
1999 The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia indicts Slobodan Milošević and four others for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Kosovo
2006 Earthquake strikes Java, Indonesia at 5:53:58 AM local time (22:53:58 UTC May 26) devastating Bantul and the city of Yogyakarta, killing over 6,600 people
Historical Events Today Events in 2023
Today in Film & TV
1933 Walt Disney’s short film “3 Little Pigs” released (Academy Award Best Animated film 1934)
2022 “Top Gun Maverick” the sequel starring Tom Cruise, Miles Teller and Jennifer Connelly is released 36 years after the original film
Today in Music
1977 The Sex Pistols release “God Save the Queen”, sparking major controversy and leading to a ban on the song by the BBC
2018 South Korean boy band BTS are the first K-pop group to top the US Billboard 200 with their album “Love Yourself: Tear”
Today in Sport
1961 Fiorentina of Italy win 1st European Cup Winner’s Cup against Glasgow Rangers 4-2 in Florence (2nd leg)
1930 The 1,046-foot (319-meter) Chrysler Building in New York City, the tallest man-made structure at the time, opens to the public
2021 English playwright William Shakespeare reported to have died after receiving COVID-19 vaccine by Argentine news channel Chanal 26 (case of mistaken identity, the Bard died in 1616)
Famous Weddings
1916 German Naval commander Karl Dönitz (24) weds nurse Ingeborg Weber (22)
1929 Aviator Charles Lindbergh (27) weds author Anne Morrow (22) in Englewood, New Jersey
1949 American “Gilda” actress Rita Hayworth (31) weds Pakistani race horse owner Prince Aly Khan (37); separate in 1951, divorce finalized in 1953
Britain was on its knees after the Second World War, its economy and infrastructure in tatters. For help the Mother Country turned to the Commonwealth – May 27, 1948
