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Updated May 30, 2012, 2:28 pm
On May 31, 1889, more than 2,000 people perished when a dam break sent water rushing through Johnstown, Pa.
Go to article »On May 31, 1857, Pius XI, who led the Roman Catholic Church from 1922 to 1939 , was born. Following his death on Feb. 10, 1939, his obituary appeared in The Times.
Go to obituary » | Other birthdays »
On This Date
By The Associated Press
1819 Poet Walt Whitman was born in West Hill, N.Y. 1859 The Big Ben clock tower in London went into operation. 1913 The 17th Amendment to the Constitution, providing for the popular election of U.S. senators, was declared in effect. 1916 British and German fleets fought the Battle of Jutland off Denmark during World War I. 1961 South Africa became an independent republic as it withdrew from the British Commonwealth. 1962 Gestapo official Adolf Eichmann was hanged in Israel for his role in the Holocaust. 1977 The trans-Alaska oil pipeline was completed after three years of work. 1990 The sitcom “Seinfeld” premiered on NBC. 1991 Leaders of Angola’s two warring factions signed a peace treaty, ending a 16-year civil war. 1994 The United States announced it was no longer aiming long-range nuclear missiles at targets in the former Soviet Union. 2003 Eric Rudolph, suspected in bombings at a Birmingham. Ala., abortion clinic and at the Atlanta Olympics, was arrested outside a grocery store in Murphy, N.C. (He later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to four life terms.) 2005 Former FBI official W. Mark Felt stepped forward as “Deep Throat,” the secret Washington Post source that helped bring down President Richard M. Nixon during the Watergate scandal. 2009 Dr. George Tiller, a provider of late-term abortions, was shot and killed in a Wichita, Kan., church. (Gunman Scott Roeder was later convicted and sentenced to life in prison.) Current Birthdays
By The Associated Press
Actor-director Clint Eastwood turns 82 years old today.
AP Photo/Dan Steinberg
Actress Brooke Shields turns 47 years old today.
AP Photo/Peter Kramer
1938 Peter Yarrow, Folk singer, musician (Peter, Paul and Mary), turns 74 1943 Sharon Gless, Actress (“Cagney and Lacey”), turns 69 1943 Joe Namath, Football Hall of Famer, turns 69 1950 Tom Berenger, Actor (“The Big Chill,” “Platoon”), turns 62 1950 Gregory Harrison, Actor, turns 62 1958 Roma Maffia, Actress (“Nip/Tuck”), turns 54 1960 Chris Elliott, Comedian, turns 52 1961 Lea Thompson, Actress (“Back to the Future” movies), turns 51 1962 Corey Hart, Rock singer, turns 50 1964 DMC, Rapper (Run-DMC), turns 48 1967 Kenny Lofton, Baseball player, turns 45 1972 Christian McBride, Jazz bassist, turns 40 1972 Archie Panjabi, Actress (“The Good Wife,” “Bend It Like Beckham”), turns 40 1976 Colin Farrell, Actor, turns 36 1981 Jake Peavy, Baseball player, turns 31
Historic Birthdays
Pius XI 5/31/1857 – 2/10/1939 Italian Pope 1922-39Go to obituary »
66 Margaret Beaufort 5/31/1443 – 6/29/1509
English mother of Henry VII, she founded St. John’s & Christ’s colleges72 Walt Whitman 5/31/1819 – 3/26/1892
American poet, journalist and essayist81 William Rockefeller 5/31/1841 – 6/24/1922
American industrialist and financier; helped to establish Standard Oil with his brother77 William Pirrie 5/31/1847 – 6/7/1924
Irish shipbuilder; built the Titanic81 Walter Sickert 5/31/1860 – 1/22/1942
English Impressionist painter and printmaker101 Charles Abbot 5/31/1872 – 12/17/1973
American astrophysicist61 Fred Allen 5/31/1894 – 3/17/1956
American radio and television humorist70 Denholm Elliott 5/31/1922 – 10/6/1992
English character actor of stage, screen and television60 Patricia Harris 5/31/1924 – 3/23/1985
American public official; first African-American woman to serve in a presidential cabinet
MORNING
“The evening and the morning were the first day.”
Genesis 1:5Was it so even in the beginning? Did light and darkness divide the realm of time in the first day? Then little wonder is it if I have also changes in my circumstances from the sunshine of prosperity to the midnight of adversity. It will not always be the blaze of noon even in my soul concerns, I must expect at seasons to mourn the absence of my former joys, and seek my Beloved in the night. Nor am I alone in this, for all the Lord’s beloved ones have had to sing the mingled song of judgment and of mercy, of trial and deliverance, of mourning and of delight. It is one of the arrangements of Divine providence that day and night shall not cease either in the spiritual or natural creation till we reach the land of which it is written, “there is no night there.” What our heavenly Father ordains is wise and good.
What, then, my soul, is it best for thee to do? Learn first to be content with this divine order, and be willing, with Job, to receive evil from the hand of the Lord as well as good. Study next, to make the outgoings of the morning and the evening to rejoice. Praise the Lord for the sun of joy when it rises, and for the gloom of evening as it falls. There is beauty both in sunrise and sunset; sing of it, and glorify the Lord. Like the nightingale, pour forth thy notes at all hours. Believe that the night is as useful as the day. The dews of grace fall heavily in the night of sorrow. The stars of promise shine forth gloriously amid the darkness of grief. Continue thy service under all changes. If in the day thy watchword be labour, at night exchange it for watch. Every hour has its duty, do thou continue in thy calling as the Lord’s servant until he shall suddenly appear in his glory. My soul, thine evening of old age and death is drawing near; dread it not, for it is part of the day; and the Lord has said, “I will cover him all the day long.”
EVENING
“He will make her wilderness like Eden.”
Isaiah 51:3Methinks, I see in vision a howling wilderness, a great and terrible desert, like to the Sahara. I perceive nothing in it to relieve the eye, all around I am wearied with a vision of hot and arid sand, strewn with ten thousand bleaching skeletons of wretched men who have expired in anguish, having lost their way in the pitiless waste. What an appalling sight! How horrible! a sea of sand without a bound, and without an oasis, a cheerless graveyard for a race forlorn! But behold and wonder! Upon a sudden, upspringing from the scorching sand I see a plant of renown; and as it grows it buds, the bud expands–it is a rose, and at its side a lily bows its modest head; and, miracle of miracles! as the fragrance of those flowers is diffused the wilderness is transformed into a fruitful field, and all around it blossoms exceedingly, the glory of Lebanon is given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon. Call it not Sahara, call it Paradise. Speak not of it any longer as the valley of deathshade, for where the skeletons lay bleaching in the sun, behold a resurrection is proclaimed, and up spring the dead, a mighty army, full of life immortal. Jesus is that plant of renown, and his presence makes all things new. Nor is the wonder less in each individual’s salvation. Yonder I behold you, dear reader, cast out, an infant, unswathed, unwashed, defiled with your own blood, left to be food for beasts of prey. But lo, a jewel has been thrown into your bosom by a divine hand, and for its sake you have been pitied and tended by divine providence, you are washed and cleansed from your defilement, you are adopted into heaven’s family, the fair seal of love is upon your forehead, and the ring of faithfulness is on your hand–you are now a prince unto God, though once an orphan, cast away. O prize exceedingly the matchless power and grace which changes deserts into gardens, and makes the barren heart to sing for joy.
