TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY IS FRIDAY, MAY 29, 2020

On this day in history:

1453 - Constantinople fell to Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II, ending the Byzantine Empire. 1660 - Charles II was restored to the English throne after the Puritan Commonwealth. 1861 - George Goyder, responsible for the controversial “Goyder Line”, becomes Surveyor-General of South Australia.

1874 - Australian explorer Giles finishes his last keg of water on his desperate attempt to reach his base camp.

1880 - The Great Hall of Melbourne’s Royal Exhibition Building is opened to the public for the first time.

1917 - Tasmania’s coat of arms is approved by Royal Warrant from King George V.

1922 - Ecuador became independent.

1953 - Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay became first men to reach the top of Mount Everest.

1985 - Thirty-nine people were killed and 400 were injured in a riot at a European Cup soccer match in Brussels, Belgium. 1990 - Boris Yeltsin was elected president of the Russian republic by the Russian parliament.

2000 - Fiji’s military took control of the nation and declared martial law following a coup attempt by indigenous Fijians in mid-May.

2015 - The Obama adminstration removed Cuba from the U.S. terrorism blacklist. The two countries had severed diplomatic relations in January of 1961.