May 25th - 31st
On 25th May…
Return of a king
1660 - Charles II landed back in Dover to take the throne and begin the restoration of the monarchy. This ended military rule and the Commonwealth of England led by Oliver Cromwell following the execution of Charles II’s father King Charles I in 1649.
On 26th May…
1940 - The evacuation of Dunkirk began. Codenamed Operation Dynamo it was set up to save the lives of thousands of British, Canadian, French and Belgian soldiers trapped on the beaches of Dunkirk by advancing German troops. Hundreds of boats and vessels of all shapes and sizes both civilian and military answered the call to help and by 4th June over 330,000 Allied troops had been brought across the English Channel back to the safety of British shores.
On 27th May…
1914 - Joseph Wilson Swan died. He was a British scientist who invented an early electric lightbulb. His home was the first in the world to be lit by electric lights. Did you know that his design was used by Thomas Edison years later? In fact, Thomas Edison’s design was so similar to Swan’s that he was sued for patent infringement; the British courts ruled in favour of Joseph Swan and as a punishment, Edison had to make Joseph Swan a partner in his electric company.
On 28th May…
Birth of King George I
1660 - King George I of Great Britain was born in Hanover, Germany. He was a distant cousin of Queen Anne who had died childless and without an heir to take over the throne. George was chosen because he was a Protestant. There were many other relatives who were closer, in relation on the family tree, to Queen Anne but none were Protestants and the law in Britain had changed in 1701 with The Act of Settlement which allowed only Protestant monarchs to reign.
On 29th May…
The British monarchy was restored
1660 - The English monarchy was restored when Charles Stuart was crowned King Charles II of Great Britain. It was his 30th birthday.
1953 - Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first explorers to reach the summit of Mount Everest. Mount Everest is the tallest mountain on Earth standing at 8,848 metres above sea level.
On 30th May…
Henry VIII married for a third time
1536 - Just eleven days after beheading his second wife, Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII married his third wife, Jane Seymour. Jane Seymour died just over a year later, shortly after giving birth to Henry’s only son, Edward.
1593 - Christopher Marlowe, a playwright and friend of William Shakespeare was stabbed to death in a bar fight. Some of Christopher Marlowe’s famous plays include Dr Faustus and Tamburlaine the Great.
On 31st May…
Samuel Pepys stopped writing in his diary
1669 - Samuel Pepys wrote the last entry into his diary because of his failing eyesight. His diary recorded events from his time such as the Great Fire of London. He died four years later.
1859 - The Great Clock in the Queen Elizabeth Tower next to the Houses of Parliament started ticking for the first time. Big Ben is the name for the bell in the tower that chimes every 15 minutes and bongs every hour.