Todays History

Bill Haley & The Comets release their song, “Rock Around the Clock”.

The Australian Parliament sits for the first in Canberra.

A new rollercoaster, The New Revolution, the first steel coaster that has a vertical loop, opens at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, California.

Vladimir Putin becomes the president of Russia.

Roger Bannister becomes the first runner to go under four minutes for the mile.

Memorial Day first celebrated in the USA at Waterloo, New York.

Margaret Thatcher becomes the first female Prime Minister of the UK.

The novel, Gone with the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell, wins the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

Hungary start dismantling its border ‘wall’ with Austria.

Queen Victoria opens London’s Great Exhibition.