#TodayInHistory – May 31

May 31 – Some important events on this day.

1279 BC 👉🏼 Ramesses II, also known as Ramesses the Great becomes Pharaoh of Ancient Egypt (19th Dynasty). Did you know? Ramesses II is the first (and probably the last) mummy to receive a passport!
✔️ READ THE ARTICLE!

1578 👉🏼 Martin Frobisher sails from Harwich, England, to Frobisher Bay, Canada. Eventually mines fools gold, famously used to pave the streets of London.
1669 👉🏼 Citing poor eyesight, English civil servant Samuel Pepys records the last event in his famous diary 📔
1859 👉🏼 Big Ben rings out over London for the first time 🕰
1902 👉🏼 Boer War Ends; Treaty of Unity signed, Britain annexes Transvaal
1910 👉🏼 Union of South Africa declares its independence from the United Kingdom
1911 👉🏼 RMS Titanic launched in Belfast 🚢

1916 👉🏼 Battle of Jutland: Largest naval battle of World War I between the British Grand Fleet and the German High Seas Fleet which killed 8,645 in an inconclusive battle but strategic British victory. German fleet never puts to sea again in WWI.
The British navy was blockading the German fleet and the trigger for the battle was a German attempted to break out of the embargo.
Over the course of the battle, the British lost 151 ships and over 6,000 men, while the Germans lost 99 ships and over 2,500 sailors, although the balance of power was not greatly shifted. Though the actions of both commanders – John Rushworth Jellicoe for the British and Reinhard Scheer for the Germans – are debated to this day, the Germans realized that their fleet had been contained.
Instead Germany turned to submarine warfare, which became one of the primary reasons the United States entered the war in April 1917.

1935 👉🏼 7.7 magnitude earthquake hits Quetta in Balochistan, British Raj (Pakistan) killing an estimated 50,000 people
1947 👉🏼 Communists seize power in Hungary 🇭🇺
1970 👉🏼 7.75 Ancash earthquake off coast of Peru kills 66-70,000 and sets off world’s deadliest avalanche
1976 👉🏼 The Who set the record for the loudest concert of all time, 120 decibels at 50 metres, at The Valley in Charlton
1985 👉🏼 Tornado outbreak in United States and Canada sees 41 tornadoes hit Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and Ontario, leaving 90 dead 🌪
2014 👉🏼 Psy’s “Gangnam Style” becomes the first video to reach 2 billion views on YouTube