About the day » Sunday May 24, 1981Calender converter

• Astrid Kochx, Uitgeest, Noord-Holland, Nederland
• Danny Barendrecht, Dinteloord en Prinsenland, Nederland († 2004)
• Brian Michael Hoff

• Albert Soer (91), Meppel
• Adriana van Beele
• Albert Otto Schultz (76), Wanganui, Wanganui, NZ
• Cornelis Hubertus Wijnands (72), Roermond, Limburg, Nederland
• Arnaud (Louis) Bernard (78), Saint Medard-en-Jalles
• Cornelia Dykhuis (84), Holland-Ottawa County-Michigan-USA
• Catharina Rooijackers (78), Weert
• Arie van Dijk (68), Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Nederland
• Adriana Maria van LOON (74), Dordrecht
• Anna Ter Maaten (68), Artesia, Los Angeles County, Californië, Verenigde Staten

• 1979 » Kareem McKenzie, American football player
• 1979 » Tracy McGrady, American basketball player
• 1980 » Anthony Minichiello, Australian rugby league player
• 1980 » Jason Babin, American football player
• 1981 » Andy Lee, Australian comedian, actor, and screenwriter
• 1982 » Issah Gabriel Ahmed, Ghanaian footballer
• 1982 » Rian Wallace, American football player
• 1983 » Custódio Castro, Portuguese footballer
• 1983 » Pedram Javaheri, Iranian-American meteorologist and journalist
• 1983 » Woo Seung-yeon, South Korean model and actress († 2009)

• 1974 » Duke Ellington, American pianist and composer (b. 1899)
• 1976 » Denise Pelletier, Canadian actress (b. 1923)
• 1979 » Ernest Bullock, English organist, composer, and educator (b. 1890)
• 1981 » Herbert Müller, Swiss race car driver (b. 1940)
• 1984 » Vince McMahon Sr., American wrestling promoter and businessman, founded WWE (b. 1914)
• 1988 » Freddie Frith, English motorcycle road racer (b. 1909)
• 1990 » Arthur Villeneuve, Canadian painter (b. 1910)
• 1991 » Gene Clark, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1944)
• 1992 » Hitoshi Ogawa, Japanese race car driver (b. 1956)
• 1995 » Harold Wilson, English academic and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1916)

• Koningin Beatrix (Huis van Oranje-Nassau) was from April 30, 1980 till April 30, 2013 sovereign of the Netherlands (also known as Koninkrijk der Nederlanden)
• In The Netherlands , there was from Monday, December 19, 1977 to Friday, September 11, 1981 the cabinet Van Agt I, with Mr. A.A.M. van Agt (CDA/KVP) as prime minister.
• In The Netherlands , there was from Friday, September 11, 1981 to Saturday, May 29, 1982 the cabinet Van Agt II, with Mr. A.A.M. van Agt (CDA) as prime minister.
• The Netherlands had about 14.2 million citizens.
• January 21 » Production of the iconic DeLorean sports car begins in Dunmurry, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom.
• March 30 » U.S. President Ronald Reagan is shot in the chest outside a Washington, D.C., hotel by John Hinckley, Jr.; three others are wounded in the same incident.
• May 21 » The Italian government releases the membership list of Propaganda Due, an illegal pseudo-Masonic lodge that was implicated in numerous Italian crimes and mysteries.
• June 28 » A powerful bomb explodes in Tehran, killing 73 officials of the Islamic Republican Party.
• September 15 » The John Bull becomes the oldest operable steam locomotive in the world when the Smithsonian Institution operates it under its own power outside Washington, D.C.
• October 21 » Andreas Papandreou becomes Prime Minister of Greece, ending an almost 50-year-long system of power dominated by conservative forces.

The temperature on May 24, 1981 was between 8.3 °C and 14.1 °C and averaged 11.1 °C. There was 7.7 mm of rain during 3.0 hours. There was 5.8 hours of sunshine (36%). The partly or heavily clouded was. The average windspeed was 2 Bft (weak wind) and was prevailing from the southwest.