30 Ordibehesht 1405

Events

• 1902 (124 years ago) Cuba gains independence from the United States. Tomás Estrada Palma becomes the country's first President.
• 1927 (99 years ago) Treaty of Jeddah: The United Kingdom recognizes the sovereignty of King Ibn Saud in the Kingdoms of Hejaz and Nejd, which later merge to become the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
• 1967 (59 years ago) The Popular Movement of the Revolution political party is established in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
• 1969 (57 years ago) The Battle of Hamburger Hill in Vietnam ends.
• 1985 (41 years ago) Radio Martí, part of the Voice of America service, begins broadcasting to Cuba.
• 1990 (36 years ago) The first post-Communist presidential and parliamentary elections are held in Romania.
• 2002 (24 years ago) The independence of East Timor is recognized by Portugal, formally ending 23 years of Indonesian rule and three years of provisional UN administration (Portugal itself is the former colonizer of East Timor until 1976).
• 2016 (10 years ago) The government of Singapore authorises the controversial execution of convicted murderer Kho Jabing for the murder of a Chinese construction worker despite international pleas for clemency, notably from Amnesty International and the United Nations.

Births

• 1799 (227 years ago) Honoré de Balzac, French novelist and playwright (died 1850)
• 1806 (220 years ago) John Stuart Mill, English economist, civil servant, and philosopher (died 1873)
• 1882 (144 years ago) Sigrid Undset, Danish-Norwegian novelist, essayist, and translator, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1949)
• 1908 (118 years ago) James Stewart, American actor (died 1997)
• 1935 (91 years ago) José Mujica, Uruguayan guerrilla leader and politician, 40th President of Uruguay (died 2025)
• 1944 (82 years ago) Joe Cocker, English singer-songwriter (died 2014)
• 1946 (80 years ago) Cher, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actress
• 1981 (45 years ago) Iker Casillas, Spanish footballer

Deaths

• 1277 (749 years ago) Pope John XXI,
• 1506 (520 years ago) Christopher Columbus, Italian explorer, early European explorer of the Americas (born 1451)
• 1622 (404 years ago) Osman II, Ottoman sultan (born 1604)
• 1834 (192 years ago) Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, French general (born 1757)
• 1896 (130 years ago) Clara Schumann, German pianist and composer (born 1819)
• 1940 (86 years ago) Verner von Heidenstam, Swedish author and poet, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1859)
• 1947 (79 years ago) Philipp Lenard, Slovak-German physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1862)
• 2019 (7 years ago) Niki Lauda, Austrian race car driver (born 1949)

All 380 events, births and deaths of May 20