Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/May 31
May 31: Vesak in Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam (2007); World No Tobacco Day.
- 1669 - Citing poor eyesight, Samuel Pepys recorded the last entry in his diary, one of the most important primary sources for the English Restoration period.
- 1678 - The Godiva Procession, a commemoration held in honour of Lady Godiva's naked ride on horseback (pictured) through the streets of Coventry, England in protest against her husband's treatment of the citizens, began.
- 1889 - The South Fork Dam on Lake Conemaugh in Pennsylvania, USA failed, killing over 2,200 people in the Johnstown Flood.
- 1916 - The German Kaiserliche Marine and British Royal Navy clashed in the Battle of Jutland, the largest naval battle during World War I.
- 1974 - Syria and Israel signed a disengagement agreement to resolve the 20 day Yom Kippur War, after Israel retained the Sinai Peninsula and Golan Heights.