HISTORY AT A GLANCE
TODAY is Wednesday, May 31, the 151st day of 2017. There are 214 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date: 1941 – 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 – World War II: Imperial Japanese Navy midget submarines begin a series of attacks on Sydney, Australia. 1961 – The Union of South Africa becomes the Republic of
South Africa. 1961 – In Moscow City Court, the Rokotov–Faibishenko show trial begins, despite the Khrushchev Thaw to reverse Stalinist elements in Soviet society. 1962 – The West Indies Federation dissolves. 1970 – 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 66,794–70,000 were killed and 50,000 were injured. 1971 – In accordance with the Uniform Monday Holiday Act passed by the U.S. Congress in 1968, observation of Memorial Day occurs on the last Monday in May for the first time, rather than on the traditional Memorial Day of May 30. 1973 – 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. 1977 – The Trans-Alaska Pipeline System is completed. 1981 – The burning of Jaffna library in Sri Lanka. It is one of the violent examples of ethnic biblioclasm of the twentieth century. 1985 – United States–Canada tornado outbreak: Forty-one tornadoes hit Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and Ontario, leaving 76 dead. 1989 – A group of six members of the guerrilla group Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) of Peru, shoot dead eight transsexuals, in the city of Tarapoto. 1991 – Bicesse Accords in Angola lay out a transition to multiparty democracy under the supervision of the United Nations’ UNAVEM II mission. 2005 – Vanity Fair reveals that Mark Felt was Deep Throat. 2010 – In international waters, armed Shayetet 13 commandos, intending to force the flotilla to anchor at the Ashdod port, boarded ships trying to break the ongoing blockade of the Gaza Strip, resulting in nine civilian deaths. 2013 – The asteroid 1998 QE2 and its moon make their
closest approach to Earth for the next two centuries.