Portal:Belgium/Anniversaries/May

These are the selected anniversaries for May that appear on the Belgium portal. The "edit" links edit the portal subpages that are displayed as sections here.

May 1

Labour Day

• 1218: birth of John I of Avesnes, Count of Hainaut
• 1527: birth of Johannes Stadius (pictured), astronomer and mathematician
• 1904: the Belgium national football team plays its first official match against France, ending in a 3-3 draw

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May 2

• 1901: birth of Edouard Zeckendorf, mathematician
• 1942: birth of Jacques Rogge, since 2001 and as of 2006 president of the International Olympic Committee
• 1947: birth of Philippe Herreweghe, conductor
• 1976: birth of Jan De Cock, artist

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May 3

• 1294: death of John I, Duke of Brabant, father-in-law of Henry VII, Holy Roman Emperor
• 1742: birth of Archduchess Maria Christina, Duchess of Teschen, Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands
• 1809: birth of Laurent-Guillaume de Koninck, palentologist and chemist
• 1915: In Flanders Fields, the famous poem about World War I (Remembrance Poppies pictured), is written by Canadian John McCrae
• 1929: birth of Berck, comics author
• 1938: birth of Louis Tobback, former minister in the Belgian federal government and as of 2006 mayor of Leuven
• 1986: Sandra Kim wins the Eurovision Song Contest held in Bergen, Norway

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May 4

• 1929: birth of Academy Award-winning actress, fashion model, and humanitarian Audrey Hepburn (pictured) in Brussels, Belgium
• 1937: birth of Joseph Loeckx, comics artist of Taka Takata and Clifton, working as Jo-El Azara

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May 5

• 1835: In Belgium, the first railway in continental Europe (depiction shown) opens between Brussels and Mechelen.
• 1880: birth of Adrian Carton de Wiart, British war hero of World War I, recipient of the Victoria Cross, of Belgian descent and born in Brussels
• 1931: birth of Michel Regnier, better known as Greg, comics author of Bernard Prince, editor-in-chief of Tintin magazine
• 1977: birth of Virginie Efira, television actress
• 1980: birth of Nick Nuyens, professional bicycle road racer, biggest wins to date include the semi-classics Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne, Omloop Het Volk and Paris-Brussels

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May 6

• 1596: death of Giaches de Wert, Reniassance composer
• 1638: death of Cornelius Jansen, bishop of Ypres and father of the Jansenism
• 1846: construction starts on the Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert in Brussels
• 1946: Camille Gutt becomes the first managing director of the International Monetary Fund
• 1949: death of Maurice Maeterlinck (pictured), writer, winner of the 1911 Nobel Prize in Literature
• 1951: death of Henri Carton de Wiart, Prime Minister of Belgium between 1920 and 1921
• 1992: death of Gaston Reiff, athlete, gold medalist at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London at the 5,000 m

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May 7

• 1879: death of Charles De Coster (pictured), author, best known for The Legend of Thyl Ulenspiegel and Lamme Goedzak
• 1882: birth of Willem Elsschot, writer, best known for Villa des Roses, Lijmen/Het been, and Kaas
• 1954: birth of Philippe Geluck, comedian and comics artist, best known for Le Chat
• 1955: birth of Frieda Brepoels, politician and Member of the European Parliament
• 1999: opening of the SMAK museum in Ghent

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May 8

• 652: death of Itta, saint, founder of the Abbey of Nivelles, wife of Pippin of Landen, and one of the ancestors of the Carolingian dynasty
• 1710: birth of Peter Anton von Verschaffelt (pictured), sculptor and architect

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May 9

• 1810: birth of Louis Gallait, painter
• 1865: birth of August de Boeck, impressionist composer

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May 10

• 1910: birth of Bernard Voorhoof, soccer player, record goal scorer for the Belgium national football team with 30 goals in 61 appearances
• 1940 - World War II: Nazi Germany invades Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg.
• 1941 - World War II: A massive strike breaks out against German occupation in Belgium
• 1979: death of Louis Paul Boon (pictured), writer

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May 11

• 1828: birth of Alfred Stevens (pictured), painter
• 1847: birth of Godefroid Kurth, historian
• 2006: Hans Van Themsche shoots three people in Antwerp for racist reasons, leaving two dead

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May 12

• 1330: birth of William I, Duke of Bavaria (pictured), Count of Hainaut
• 1626: birth of Father Louis Hennepin, missionary, the first European to describe the Niagara Falls
• 1964: birth of Bart Somers, politician, former Minister-President of Flanders between 2003 and 2004, and as of 2006 chairman of the VLD, one of the main Flemish political parties
• 1978: in Zaïre, rebels occupy the city of Kolwezi, the mining center of the province of Shaba. The government of Zaïre asks the U.S., France and Belgium to restore order.
• 1983: birth of Axel Hervelle, basketball player with Real Madrid and drafted in the NBA by the Denver Nuggets

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May 13

• 1536: birth of Pamelius, theologian and bishop
• 1926: death of Libert H. Boeynaems (episcopal arms pictured), Catholic prelate

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May 14

• 1943: death of Henri La Fontaine, lawyer, president of the International Peace Bureau, winner of the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1913, between 1907 and 1943
• 1953: birth of Wim Mertens, composer
• 1993: death of Patrick Haemers, kidnapper of Prime Minister Paul Vanden Boeynants in 1989

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May 15

• 1272: death of Thomas of Cantimpré, theologian and writer
• 1568: death of Anna of Lorraine, wife of Philip II, Duke of Arschot, mother of Charles Philippe, Prince de Croÿ, in Diest
• 1844: birth of Isidore Jacques Eggermont, photographer and writer
• 1954: birth of Eric Gerets, soccer player and coach, with 86 appearances the second most capped player of the Belgium national football team, as coach winner of the first division in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Turkey
• 2003: death of Rik Van Steenbergen (pictured), cyclist, thrice World Champion and winner of many classics

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May 16

• 1925: birth of Bobbejaan Schoepen (pictured), singer, founder of the Bobbejaanland amusement park
• 1937: birth of Paul Geerts, comics drawer who succeeded Willy Vandersteen as the main drawer of the Spike and Suzy series
• 1953: death of Django Reinhardt, very influential Roma jazz guitarist
• 1957: Paul-Henri Spaak becomes the second Secretary General of NATO
• 1983: death of Edouard Zeckendorf, mathematician

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May 17

• 1551: birth of Martin Delrio, theologian, author of a book on magic and the occult
• 1836: birth of Virginie Loveling, writer
• 1846: the saxophone (pictured) is patented by Adolphe Sax.
• 1911: birth of Albéric O'Kelly de Galway, World Champion in correspondence chess between 1959 and 1962
• 1936: birth of Philippe Boesmans, composer
• 1940 - World War II: Germany occupies Brussels

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May 18

• 1897: birth of Edgard Colle, chess player, known for the Colle System opening
• 1949: birth of Georges Leekens, soccer player and coach, coach of the Belgium national football team between 1997 and 1999

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May 19

• 1593: birth of Jacob Jordaens (self portrait, with his family, pictured), painter
• 1946: birth of Claude Lelièvre, Belgian Commissioner for Children's Rights
• 1971: birth of Ilse De Meulemeester, Miss Belgium 1994, TV presenter
• 1983: death of Jean Rey, politician, President of the European Commission between 1967 and 1970

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May 20

• 1912: birth of Chaïm Perelman, philosopher
• 1920: birth of Marcel Loncin, chemical engineer, food engineer
• 1954: birth of Robert Van de Walle, judoka, winner of the gold medal at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow and of a bronze medal at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul

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May 21

• 1527: birth of Philip II of Spain (pictured), ruler over most of the territory of current Belgium
• 1855: birth of Emile Verhaeren, early Symbolist poet
• 1901: birth of Suzanne Lilar, essayist, novelist, and playwright
• 1949: birth of Arno, musician

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May 22

• 1604: death of Peter Ernst I von Mansfeld-Vorderort (pictured), Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands
• 1907: birth of Hergé, comics author of The Adventures of Tintin
• 1919: birth of Paul Vanden Boeynants, Prime Minister of Belgium between 1966 and 1968, and again between 1978 and 1979
• 1967: The Innovation department store in the centre of Brussels burns down. It is the most devastating fire in Belgian history, which results in 323 dead and missing and 150 injured
• 1983: death of Albert Claude, biologist, laureate of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1974
• 1997: death of Herman De Coninck, poet and literary critic

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May 23

• 1706: the Battle of Ramillies, where the British, Dutch and German troops defeated the French army in the War of the Spanish Succession
• 1873: death of Pierre-Jean De Smet (pictured), missionary among the Native Americans in the United States
• 1923: launch of Belgium's Sabena airline
• 1983: birth of Silvio Proto, football goalkeeper currently playing for R.S.C. Anderlecht
• 2006: death of Roger Camille, comics artist with pen name Kiko, best known for Foufi

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May 24

• 1889: birth of Henri Michaux, poet and writer
• 1936: birth of Roger Camille, comics artist with pen name Kiko, best known for Foufi
• 1948: death of Jacques Feyder, screenwriter and film director
• 2005: death of Baron Arthur Haulot, journalist and survivor of the Dachau concentration camp

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May 25

• 1813: birth of Edmond de Sélys Longchamps (pictured), politician and scientist
• 1821: birth of Henri Alexis Brialmont, fortification engineer
• 1904: Land speed record set in Ostend to 156.50 km/h
• 1939: birth of Ferdinand Bracke, cyclist, winner of the 1971 Vuelta a España and former holder of the World Hour Record
• 1962: birth of Murat Kaplan, criminal
• 1967: birth of Luc Nilis, soccer player with 56 appearances for the Belgium national football team
• 1982: birth of Ellen Petri, Miss Belgium 2004

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May 26

• 1871: birth of Camille Huysmans, politician, Prime Minister of Belgium between 1946 and 1947
• 1922: death of Ernest Solvay, chemist and businessman, creator of the Solvay Conferences and the Solvay Business School

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May 27

• 1521: death of William de Croÿ, marquess of Aerschot, first Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands
• 1833: birth of Jean-Baptiste Moens, the so-called "Father of Philately"
• 1854: birth of Georges Eekhoud, novelist
• 1885: death of Charles Rogier, one of the leaders of the Belgian Revolution and Prime Minister of Belgium for three times between 1832 and 1868
• 1908: creation of R.S.C. Anderlecht, the most successful Belgian football team with 28 championship wins
• 1940: the worst day of the Vinkt massacre (25 - 28 May), where German troiops killed at least 86 civilians (memorial pictured)

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May 28

• 1371: birth of John the Fearless (pictured), Count of Flanders
• 1804: birth of Charles Frédéric Dubois, naturalist
• 1940 - World War II: Belgium surrenders to Germany
• 2003: death of Ilya Prigogine, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1977

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May 29

• 1927: death of Georges Eekhoud, novelist
• 1945: birth of Jean-Pierre Van Rossem, Stock market guru, economist, econometrician, author, philosopher, Public figure, politician and former member of the Belgian parliament
• 1979: birth of Salou Ibrahim, Belgian football player of Ghanaian descent, currently playing as a striker for Club Brugge K.V.
• 1985: at the Heysel Stadium disaster, before the start of the European Champions' Cup soccer final between Liverpool F.C. and Juventus FC, 39 people die.

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May 30

• 727 or 728: death of Hubertus, first bishop of Liège, the patron saint of hunters
• 1036: death of Baldwin IV, Count of Flanders
• 1213: start of the Battle of Damme, where England beat France
• 1814: birth of Eugène Charles Catalan (pictured), mathematician, stated Catalan's conjecture
• 1872: birth of Paul-Emile Janson, politician, Prime Minister of Belgium between 1937 and 1938
• 1901: death of Victor D'Hondt, mathematician and lawyer
• 1959: birth of Frank Vanhecke, chairman of the Vlaams Belang

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May 31

• 1417: death of William II, Duke of Bavaria-Straubing, Count of Hainaut
• 1472: birth of Érard de La Marck (pictured), prince-bishop of the Prince-Bishopric of Liège
• 1960: death of Willem Elsschot, writer, best known for Villa des Roses, Lijmen/Het been, and Kaas
• 1973: birth of Dominique Monami, tennis player, winner of the bronze medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney

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