8 Khordad 1378

Events

• 1790 (236 years ago) Rhode Island becomes the last of North America's original Thirteen Colonies to ratify the Constitution and become one of the United States.
• 1913 (113 years ago) Igor Stravinsky's ballet score The Rite of Spring receives its premiere performance in Paris, France, provoking a near-riot.
• 1918 (108 years ago) Armenia defeats the Ottoman Army in the Battle of Sardarabad.
• 1985 (41 years ago) Amputee Steve Fonyo completes cross-Canada marathon at Victoria, British Columbia, after 14 months.
• 1989 (37 years ago) Signing of an agreement between Egypt and the United States that allows for the manufacture of F-16 Falcon parts in Egypt.
• 1999 (27 years ago) Olusegun Obasanjo takes office as President of Nigeria, the first elected and civilian head of state in Nigeria after 16 years of military rule.
• 2005 (21 years ago) France rejects the Constitution of the European Union in a national referendum.
• 2008 (18 years ago) A doublet earthquake, of combined magnitude 6.1, strikes Iceland near the town of Selfoss, injuring 30 people.

Births

• 1630 (396 years ago) Charles II of England,
• 1874 (152 years ago) G. K. Chesterton, English essayist, poet, and playwright (died 1936)
• 1880 (146 years ago) Oswald Spengler, German historian and philosopher (died 1936)
• 1903 (123 years ago) Bob Hope, English-American actor, singer, and producer (died 2003)
• 1914 (112 years ago) Tenzing Norgay, Nepalese-Indian mountaineer (died 1986)
• 1917 (109 years ago) John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States (died 1963)
• 1929 (97 years ago) Peter Higgs, English-Scottish physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2024)
• 1958 (68 years ago) Annette Bening, American actress

Deaths

• 1453 (573 years ago) Constantine XI Palaiologos, Byzantine emperor (born 1404)
• 1500 (526 years ago) Bartolomeu Dias, Portuguese explorer and navigator (born 1451)
• 1829 (197 years ago) Humphry Davy, English-Swiss chemist and academic (born 1778)
• 1892 (134 years ago) Bahá'u'lláh, Persian religious leader, founded the Baháʼí Faith (born 1817)
• 1958 (68 years ago) Juan Ramón Jiménez, Spanish poet and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1881)
• 1979 (47 years ago) Mary Pickford, Canadian-American actress, producer, and screenwriter, co-founder of United Artists (born 1892)
• 1994 (32 years ago) Erich Honecker, German lawyer and politician, leader of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) (born 1912)
• 2010 (16 years ago) Dennis Hopper, American actor, director, and screenwriter (born 1936)

All 405 events, births and deaths of May 29