May 31

A Rus’ and Cuman army chased the Mongols for days across the steppe, was drawn into a strung-out attack and broken. The Novgorod chronicle says the captured princes were laid under boards on which the victors sat to feast.

Before sailing Zheng He burned incense at the tombs of two early Muslim teachers on Lingshan hill, and a local official carved a stone to record it. It still stands at the tombs.

Grant’s last attempt to break Lee’s line north of Richmond. 15,500 casualties (NPS), 13,000 of them Union.

At the Berlin Trade Exhibition, Werner von Siemens ran a small electric locomotive round a 300-metre loop, taking current from a third rail. Its three little cars, with the passengers sitting astride them, carried tens of thousands of visitors that summer.

Mary F. Scranton, an American Methodist missionary, began teaching in her house with one pupil: the first school for girls in Korea. In 1887 King Gojong named it Ewha, “pear blossom”. It became Ewha Womans University.

Work resumed after three centuries. On 31 May 1890, under August Beyer, the finial went onto the west tower at 161.53 metres, the tallest church tower in the world, by the minster’s own measurement, and taller than Cologne by a few metres.

Harker wakes to find every scrap of paper gone, with his notes, his letter of credit, his travelling suit and his overcoat. The loss leaves him only the diary, which he had kept on him.

A Cornell student at the intercollegiate championships. His 4:14⅖ became the first mile record the IAAF ratified, though it was still slower than George’s professional time.

Two years, one month and sixteen days.

About 250 ships: the only clash of the two battle fleets. The British lost 14 ships and more than 6,000 men, the Germans 11 ships and about 2,500 men, but the German fleet never again risked a full battle and the blockade held.

Charles Kingsford Smith and Charles Ulm, with two Americans as navigator and radio operator, flew a Fokker trimotor from Oakland to Brisbane by Hawaii and Fiji. The leg from Kauai to Suva, more than 5,000 kilometres of open ocean, took about 34 hours.

A year on, the Court said how its ruling was to be carried out: by local school boards under federal district courts, “with all deliberate speed”. Southern officials read the phrase as licence to delay: ten years after Brown, barely one Black child in a hundred in the former Confederate states…

White voters had approved a republic in a referendum in October 1960, by 52 per cent. Facing criticism of apartheid from other members at the Commonwealth conference in London, Verwoerd withdrew South Africa’s application to remain, and the republic was proclaimed outside it.

The first World Cup broadcast in colour, and the first with substitutes and yellow and red cards. Matches kicked off at noon in the heat and altitude to suit European television. Jairzinho scored in every one of Brazil’s six games.

Colombia gave the tournament up, and Mexico became the first country to host twice. The earthquake that struck Mexico City in September 1985 left the stadiums standing, and the tournament went ahead.

The first World Cup in Asia, and the first with two hosts. Senegal beat the holders France in the opening match, and South Korea became the first Asian semi-finalist, helped by refereeing decisions that are still disputed.

Air France flew its last scheduled Concorde service, from New York to Paris, after 27 years. Its aircraft went to museums, one to the Smithsonian near Washington.

Woods Hole’s hybrid robot, linked to its ship by a fibre-optic line as thin as a hair, dived to 10,902 m and brought back samples and video.

A Chinese-built, Chinese-financed standard-gauge line of 472 kilometres opened on the eve of Madaraka Day, running close to the colonial Uganda Railway and cutting the trip to about five hours. Its cost and loans have been a political fight in Kenya since.