11 Khordad 1395 | Tuesday 31 May 2016

This day in four calendars

1578 (448 years ago) King Henry III lays the first stone of the Pont Neuf (New Bridge), the oldest bridge of Paris, France.
1935 (91 years ago) A 7.7 Mw earthquake destroys Quetta in modern-day Pakistan killing 40,000.
1941 (85 years ago) Anglo-Iraqi War: The United Kingdom completes the re-occupation of Iraq and returns 'Abd al-Ilah to power as regent for Faisal II.
1942 (84 years ago) World War II: Imperial Japanese Navy midget submarines begin a series of attacks on Sydney, Australia.
1961 (65 years ago) The South African Constitution of 1961 becomes effective, thus creating the Republic of South Africa, which remains outside the Commonwealth of Nations until 1 June 1994, when South Africa is returned to Commonwealth membership.
1970 (56 years ago) The 7.9 Mw Ancash earthquake shakes Peru with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe) and a landslide buries the town of Yungay, Peru. Between 66,794 and 70,000 were killed and 50,000 were injured.
1973 (53 years ago) The United States Senate votes to cut off funding for the bombing of Khmer Rouge targets within Cambodia, hastening the end of the Cambodian Civil War.
1991 (35 years ago) Bicesse Accords in Angola lay out a transition to multi-party democracy under the supervision of the United Nations' UNAVEM II peacekeeping mission.

1819 (207 years ago) Walt Whitman, American poet, essayist, and journalist (died 1892)
1857 (169 years ago) Pope Pius XI,
1887 (139 years ago) Saint-John Perse, French poet and diplomat, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1975)
1930 (96 years ago) Clint Eastwood, American actor, director, musician, and producer
1948 (78 years ago) Svetlana Alexievich, Belarusian journalist and author, Nobel Prize laureate
1963 (63 years ago) Viktor Orbán, Hungarian politician, 38th Prime Minister of Hungary
1976 (50 years ago) Colin Farrell, Irish actor
1989 (37 years ago) Marco Reus, German footballer

1594 (432 years ago) Tintoretto, Italian painter and educator (born 1518)
1809 (217 years ago) Joseph Haydn, Austrian pianist and composer (born 1732)
1832 (194 years ago) Évariste Galois, French mathematician and theorist (born 1811)
1910 (116 years ago) Elizabeth Blackwell, English-American physician and educator (born 1821)
1976 (50 years ago) Jacques Monod, French biologist and geneticist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1910)
1986 (40 years ago) James Rainwater, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1917)
1996 (30 years ago) Timothy Leary, American psychologist and author (born 1920)
2006 (20 years ago) Raymond Davis Jr., American physicist and chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1914)