Today in History

Today is Thursday, May 30, the 151st day of 2024. There are 215 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On May 30, 1431, Joan of Arc, condemned as a heretic, was burned at the stake in Rouen (roo-AHN’), France.

On this date:

In 1922, the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., was dedicated in a ceremony attended by President Warren G. Harding, Chief Justice William Howard Taft and Robert Todd Lincoln.

In 1935, Babe Ruth played in his last major league baseball game for the Boston Braves, leaving after the first inning of the first of a double-header against the Philadelphia Phillies, who won both games (Ruth announced his retirement three days later).

In 1937, ten people were killed when police fired on steelworkers demonstrating near the Republic Steel plant in South Chicago.

In 1958, unidentified American service members killed in World War II and the Korean War were interred in the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery.

In 1968, the Beatles began recording their “White Album” at EMI Recording Studios in London, starting with the original version of “Revolution 1.”

In 1971, the American space probe Mariner 9 blasted off from Cape Kennedy on a journey to Mars.

In 1972, three members of the Japanese Red Army opened fire at Lod Airport in Tel Aviv, Israel, killing 26 people. Two attackers died; the third was captured.

In 1989, student protesters in Beijing erected a “Goddess of Democracy” statue in Tiananmen Square (the statue was destroyed in the Chinese government’s crackdown).

In 1994, Mormon Church president Ezra Taft Benson died in Salt Lake City at age 94.

In 2002, a solemn, wordless ceremony marked the end of the agonizing cleanup at ground zero in New York, 8 1/2 months after 9/11.

In 2015, Vice President Joe Biden’s son, former Delaware attorney general Beau Biden, died at age 46 of brain cancer.

In 2018, Gaza’s Hamas rulers said they had agreed to a cease-fire with Israel to end the largest flare-up of violence between the two sides since a 2014 war.

In 2020, tense protests over the death of George Floyd and other police killings of Black people grew across the country; racially diverse crowds held mostly peaceful demonstrations in dozens of cities, though many later descended into violence, with police cars set ablaze.

In 2022, after the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas that killed 19 elementary school students and two teachers, President Joe Biden said the “Second Amendment was never absolute” and that there may be some bipartisan support to tighten restrictions on the kind of high-powered weapons used by the gunman.

In 2023, disgraced Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes was taken into custody at the Texas prison where she was sentenced to spend the next 11 years for overseeing an infamous blood-testing hoax.

Today’s Birthdays: Actor Ruta Lee is 89. Actor Keir Dullea is 88. Rock musician Lenny Davidson (The Dave Clark Five) is 80. Actor Stephen Tobolowsky is 73. Actor Colm Meaney is 71. Actor Ted McGinley is 66. Actor Ralph Carter is 63. Actor Tonya Pinkins is 62. Country singer Wynonna Judd is 60. Rock musician Tom Morello (Audioslave; Rage Against The Machine) is 60. Actor Mark Sheppard is 60. Movie director Antoine Fuqua is 59. Actor John Ross Bowie is 53. Rock musician Patrick Dahlheimer (Live) is 53. Actor Idina Menzel is 53. Rapper Cee Lo Green is 49. Rapper Remy Ma is 44. Actor Blake Bashoff is 43. Actor Javicia Leslie is 37. Actor Jake Short is 27. Actor Sean Giambrone is 25. Actor Jared Gilmore is 24.