On This Day | 31 May

On this day:

1879: Werner von Siemens presents the world’s first electric locomotive, soon used in trams

1961: South Africa becomes an independent republic

2013: The widest tornado ever recorded hits El Reno, Oklahoma

Born on this day:

1819: Walt Whitman, American poet, author

1863: Francis Younghusband, British journalist and explorer (1904 British expedition to Tibet), born in Murree, British India