Anniversaries 30 May

Birth

Dante Alighieri105

Italian poet 1265–1321

Peter I of Russia3

Tsar and 1st Emperor, founder of the Russian Empire 1672–1725

Alfred Austin56

British writer and poet 1835–1913

Hermann Adler3

Chief Rabbi of the British Empire from 1891 to 1911 1839–1911

Katrina Trask1

American writer 1853–1922

Randolph Bourne20

American writer 1886–1918

Norman Cota1

U.S. Army Major General 1893–1971

Irving Thalberg1

American film producer 1899–1936

Giorgio De Santillana1

American historian and philosopher 1902–1974

Hannes Alfvén9

Swedish electrical engineer and plasma physicist 1908–1995

Joseph Stein1

American playwright 1912–2010

Jamie Uys5

South African film director 1921–1996

Hal Clement4

American author 1922–2003

Christopher Haskins1

British politician 1937

Armando Valladares2

American diplomat and former Cuban prisoner 1937

Billie Letts4

American novelist and educator 1938–2014

Basile Mvé Engone1

Catholic bishop 1941

James Rachels6

American philosopher 1941–2003

Gene Youngblood7

Theorist of media arts and politics, scholar 1942

Michael A. Blume1

American nuncio 1946

Erik Spiekermann1

German typographer 1947

Nancy Knowlton1

American biologist 1949

Stephen Tobolowsky5

actor and writer 1951

Scott L. Montgomery3

American geologist and writer 1951

Colm Meaney1

Irish actor 1953

Alan Brennert5

American writer 1954

Colm Tóibín12

Irish novelist and writer 1955

Claudia Alexander3

American geophysicist and planetary scientist 1959–2015

Phil Brown (footballer)65

English association football player and manager 1959

Timo Soini7

Finnish politician 1962

Helen Sharman2

British chemist who became the first Briton in space 1963

Frances O'Roark Dowell1

American writer 1964

Tom Morello8

American guitarist and singer-songwriter 1964

Karen White10

American writer 1964

Jason Kenney6

Canadian politician and 18th Premier of Alberta 1968

Manny Ramirez3

Dominican-American baseball player 1972

Big L (rapper)30

American rapper 1974–1999

Young Jean Lee3

American theatre director and playwright 1974

Brian Fair1

American singer 1975

Marissa Mayer12

American business executive and engineer, former ceo of Yah… 1975

A. Breeze Harper1

African-American critical race feminist and writer 1976

Steven Gerrard17

English footballer 1980

Devendra Banhart10

American folk singer 1981

Death

Joan of Arc15

French folk heroine and Roman Catholic saint 1412–1431

Guru Arjan7

The fifth Guru of Sikhism 1563–1606

Christopher Marlowe55

English dramatist, poet and translator 1564–1593

Peter Paul Rubens13

Flemish painter 1577–1640

Ome Shushiki1

Japanese waka poet in the middle of the Edo period 1669–1725

Alexander Pope158

eighteenth century English poet 1688–1744

Voltaire167

French writer, historian, and philosopher 1694–1778

James Mackintosh6

British politician 1765–1832

Hiram Price1

American politician 1814–1901

John S. Mosby14

Confederate Army officer 1833–1916

Georgi Plekhanov3

Russian revolutionary 1856–1918

Madison Grant25

American lawyer, eugenicist, and conservationist 1865–1937

Wilbur Wright12

American aviation pioneer 1867–1912

Hermann Broch1

austrian writer 1886–1951

Lala Sukuna3

Chief of Lau and civil servant in Fiji 1888–1958

Claude Rains1

English-born actor 1889–1967

Borís Pasternak40

Russian writer 1890–1960

Leó Szilárd17

Physicist and biologist 1898–1964

Ezra Taft Benson19

President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints 1899–1994

Watchman Nee10

Chinese church leader 1903–1972

Juan Carlos Onetti1

Uruguayan novelist 1909–1994

Sun Ra22

American jazz composer and bandleader 1914–1993

Andrew Huxley1

English physiologist and biophysicist 1917–2012

Rosalyn Sussman Yalow1

American medical physicist 1921–2011

Donald Hill3

British historian and engineer 1922–1994

Paul Desmond12

American jazz musician 1924–1977

Adrian Hastings5

Roman Catholic priest, historian and author 1929–2001

Bob Casey Sr.2

American politician (1932-2000) 1932–2000

Ziaur Rahman7

President of Bangladesh 1936–1981

Rudi Vis1

British politician 1941–2010

Steve Prefontaine1

United States long-distance runner 1951–1975

Joceline Clemencia2

Curaçaoan writer 1952–2011