On May 30, 1431, Joan of Arc, condemned as a heretic, was burned at the stake in Rouen, France.
In 1854 the territories of Nebraska and Kansas were established.
In 1883 12 people were trampled to death when a rumor that the recently opened Brooklyn Bridge was in imminent danger of collapsing triggered a stampede.
In 1909 clarinetist and bandleader Benny Goodman was born Benjamin David Goodman in Chicago.
In 1911 Indianapolis saw its first long-distance auto race; Ray Harroun was the winner.
In 1922 the Lincoln Memorial was dedicated in Washington, D.C., by Chief Justice William Howard Taft.
In 1935 Babe Ruth played his final major league game, finishing his baseball career in a Boston Braves uniform.
In 1937 10 people were killed when police fired on steelworkers demonstrating near the Republic Steel plant in South Chicago.
In 1943 American forces secured the Aleutian island of Attu from the Japanese during World War II.
In 1981 the president of Bangladesh, Ziaur Rahman, was assassinated in a failed military coup.
In 1982 Spain became NATO’s 16th member.
In 1989 student demonstrators at Tiananmen Square in Beijing erected a 33-foot statue they called the “Goddess of Democracy.”
In 1991 the Supreme Court ruled that prosecutors can be sued for the legal advice they give police and can be forced to pay damages when that advice leads to someone’s rights being violated.
In 1998 northern Afghanistan was rocked by a powerful earthquake believed to have killed up to 5,000 people.
In 2001 Moses Malone and college coaches Mike Krzyzewski and John Chaney entered the Basketball Hall of Fame.
In 2002 Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft issued new guidelines allowing FBI agents to visit Internet sites, libraries, churches and political organizations in an effort to pre-empt terrorist strikes.
In 2006 a jury in Rockville, Md., convicted John Allen Muhammad of six of the Washington-area sniper killings.
