31 May

Andrea Appiani
31 May 1754 – 8 November 1817
Italian Neoclassical artist. Work can be seen in Galleries in Milan and Vienna plus the Versailles National Museum of the castles of Versailles. » more

Walt Whitman
31 May 1819 – 26 March 1892
American journalist and poet. » more

Francisco Moreno
31 May 1852 – 22 November 1919
Argentinian academic who explored the Patagonia region of southern Argentina. » more

Walter Sickert
31 May 1860 – 22 January 1942
English Impressionist artist. Paintings can be seen in the National Portrait Gallery, London; TATE Britain, London; Manchester City Art Gallery; Musée d’Orsay, Paris; National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; Metropolitan Museum of Art and Museum of Modern Art, New York. » more

Heath Robinson
31 May 1872 – 13 September 1944
English illustrator famous for his drawings of complicated machines. A museum is being established by The William Heath Robinson Trust (heathrobinson.org). » more

Michel Kikoine
31 May 1892 – 4 November 1968
Belarus born French artist. » more

Akira Ifukube
31 May 1914 – 8 February 2006
Japanese classical music composer. Remembered for his score for the film Godzilla. » more

Clint Eastwood
31 May 1930
American film director and actor, renowned for for one of the movie-world’s immortal lines “Go ahead, make my day”. » more

Jay Miner
31 May 1932 – 20 June 1994
American computer chip designer, remembered for his pioneering work on Amiga computers. » more

Today’s Quote
Money can’t buy happiness, but neither can poverty.
 … Leo Rosten

Today’s No. 1 Hit
1960 – Cathy’s Clown by The Everly Brothers.

Today’s events
31 May 1669 – Historical diarist Samuel Pepys records the final entry in his diary.
31 May 1678 – Lady Godiva rides through Coventry.
31 May 1879 – Electric railways debut at the Berlin Trades Exposition of 1879.
31 May 1911 – The Titanic is launched in Belfast.
31 May 1927 – Ford’s Model T (the ‘Tin Lizzie’) production totals 15,007,003 cars, as the last one rolls off the production line.