On this day - May 31 ...

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Wednesday, May 31st
The 151st day of 2006.
There are 214 days left in the year.
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Today's Highlights in History


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On May 31, 1889, more than 2,000 people perished when a dam break sent water rushing through Johnstown, Pa. (Go to article.)
On May 31, 1857, Pius XI, who led the Roman Catholic Church from 1922 to 1939 , was born. Following his death on Feb. 10, 1939, his obituary appeared in The Times. (Go to obit. | Other Birthdays)


On May 31, 1879, Harper's Weekly featured a cartoon about the Mississippi Valley Labor Convention. (See the cartoon and read an explanation.)On this date in:

1809Composer Franz Joseph Haydn died in Vienna, Austria.

1819Poet Walt Whitman was born in West Hills, N.Y.

1910The Union of South Africa was founded.

1913The 17th Amendment to the Constitution, providing for the popular election of U.S. senators, was declared in effect.

1916British and German fleets fought the Battle of Jutland off Denmark during World War I.

1961South Africa became an independent republic.

1962Gestapo official Adolf Eichmann was hanged in Israel for his role in the Holocaust.

1970An earthquake in Peru killed tens of thousands of people.

1977The trans-Alaska oil pipeline was completed after three years of work.

1989House Speaker Jim Wright, D-Texas, dogged by questions about his ethics, announced he would resign.

1991Leaders of Angola's two warring factions signed a peace treaty, ending a 16-year civil war.

1994The United States announced it was no longer aiming long-range nuclear missiles at targets in the former Soviet Union.

2003Olympic Park bombing suspect Eric Rudolph was arrested outside a grocery store in Murphy, N.C.

2005Breaking a silence of 30 years, former F.B.I. official W. Mark Felt stepped forward as "Deep Throat," the secret Washington Post source that helped bring down President Richard M. Nixon during the Watergate scandal.

Current Birthdays

Clint Eastwood turns 76 years old today.
AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill Actor-director Clint Eastwood turns 76 years old today.


77Elaine Stewart
Actress

75Shirley Verrett
Opera singer

68Peter Yarrow
Folk singer-musician (Peter, Paul and Mary)

66Augie Meyers
Country musician

63Sharon Gless
Actress (''Cagney and Lacey'')

63Joe Namath
Football hall-of-famer

56Tom Berenger
Actor

56Gregory Harrison
Actor

48Roma Maffia
Actress (''Nip/Tuck'')

46Chris Elliott
Comedian

46Kyle Secor
Actor

45Lea Thompson
Actress (''Back to the Future'')

44Corey Hart
Rock singer

42DMC
Rapper (Run-DMC)

42Kid Frost
Rapper

41Brooke Shields
Actress

39Ed Adkins
Country musician (The Derailers)

39Kenny Lofton
Baseball player

30Colin Farrell
Actor

29Scott Klopfenstein
Rock musician (Reel Big Fish)

29Eric Christian Olsen
Actor

19Curtis Williams Jr.
Actor

Historic Birthdays

Pius XI
5/31/1857 - 2/10/1939
Italian Pope 1922-39
(Go to obit.)

66Margaret Beaufort
5/31/1443 - 6/29/1509
English mother of Henry VII, she founded St. John's & Christ's colleges

72Walt Whitman
5/31/1819 - 3/26/1892
American poet, journalist and essayist

81William Rockefeller
5/31/1841 - 6/24/1922
American industrialist and financier; helped to establish Standard Oil with his brother

77William Pirrie
5/31/1847 - 6/7/1924
Irish shipbuilder; built the Titanic

81Walter Sickert
5/31/1860 - 1/22/1942
English Impressionist painter and printmaker

101Charles Abbot
5/31/1872 - 12/17/1973
American astrophysicist

61Fred Allen
5/31/1894 - 3/17/1956
American radio and television humorist

70Denholm Elliott
5/31/1922 - 10/6/1992
English character actor of stage, screen and television

60Patricia Harris
5/31/1924 - 3/23/1985
American public official; first African-American woman to serve in a presidential cabinet