11 Khordad 1459

Events

• 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.

Births

• 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

Deaths

• 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)

All 354 events, births and deaths of May 31