Today in History - May 30: The little addition that allowed driver to win first of iconic sports event
Ray Harroun won the first Indianapolis 500 driving a Marmon Wasp on May 30, 1911.
Harroun had an unusual advantage in the 500-mile race because he was driving a single-seat car.
The other competitors had a mechanic in the passenger seat tasked with looking behind them to see if anyone was closing in.
But the Marmon Wasp had an innovation not previously included in cars - a rear-view mirror.
"I didn't win the 1911 500," Harroun later said.
"Marmon won the 1911 500. I just happen to be the driver."
A celebrity stalker pleaded guilty in a US court to breaking into the home of comedian and chat show host David Letterman on May 30, 1989.
Margaret Ray, who lived with schizophrenia, left cookies and an empty whiskey bottle in the foyer of Letterman's home in Connecticut after she entered the property without permission.
Publicly, Letterman treated it as a joke.
French President Charles De Gaulle ordered the dissolution of the National Assembly and a fresh election on May 30, 1968.
The order came after a general strike and chaos on the streets of Paris for the previous two weeks.
One of the biggest social uprisings in modern European history, millions took to the streets demanding radical change.
The general strike was motivated by popular malaise over stagnant wages and poor working conditions even as the country experienced extraordinary economic growth.
But the May 1968 protests were a short-term dud. In the election called by De Gaulle, the ruling right-wing party won in a landslide.
Despite getting just 46 per cent of the vote, the party got 60 per cent of the seats.
The left-wing vote was completely splintered in the election.
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