Moments in Time: Exiled King Charles II
The History Channel
On May 25, 1660, exiled English King Charles II set out for Dover to assume the throne and bring an end to more than a decade of military rule. He entered London in triumph four days later, on his 30th birthday, and would reign for nearly 25 years before his death from what was likely kidney failure in 1685.
On May 26, 1865, Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith, commander of the Confederate Trans-Mississippi division, surrendered, one of the last Confederate generals to do so, under terms similar to that of Robert E. Lee at Appomattox Court House in Virginia. He was the last surviving full Confederate general until his death in 1893.
On May 27, 1887, the Hells Canyon Massacre took place when two groups of Chinese workers, employed to search for gold in the Snake River in what is now Idaho, were ambushed and murdered by a gang of seven white men known to be horse thieves, who then made off with several thousand dollars worth of gold
On May 28, 1957, National League owners voted unanimously to allow the New York Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers to move to San Francisco and Los Angeles, respectively, at the mid-season owner's meeting in Chicago, Illinois.
On May 29, 2003, actor/comedian Bob Hope celebrated his 100th birthday. In a public Hollywood ceremony, city officials renamed the intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Avenue Bob Hope Square, and several 1940s-era U.S. planes flew overhead. Hope's health was too poor for him to attend, but three of his children and some show-business colleagues, including Mickey Rooney, were there to honor him.
On May 30, 1967, following years of suppression under Nigeria's military government, the breakaway state of Biafra proclaimed its independence from the West African country.
On May 31, 2009, Millvina Dean, the last survivor of the Titanic sinking, died at age 97. Nine weeks old at the time of the disaster, she was rescued with her mother and brother but her father was not. The family had intended to relocate to Kansas City, but returned to London.
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