Events
June
2
455
– Sack of Rome: Vandals enter Rome, and
plunder the city for two weeks
1098 – First Crusade: The first Siege of
Antioch ends as Crusader forces take the
city. The second siege would later start
on June 7.
1615 – First Récollet missionaries arrive
at Quebec City, from Rouen, France.
1676 – Franco-Dutch War: France ensured
the supremacy of its naval fleet for the
remainder of the war with its victory in
the Battle of Palermo.
1692 – Bridget Bishop is the first person
to go to trial in the Salem witch trials
in Salem, Massachusetts. Found guilty, she
is hanged on June 10.
1763 – Pontiac's Rebellion: At what is now
Mackinaw City, Michigan, Chippewas capture
Fort Michilimackinac by diverting the garrison's
attention with a game of lacrosse, then
chasing a ball into the fort.
1774 – Intolerable Acts: The Quartering
Act is enacted, allowing a governor in colonial
America to house British soldiers in uninhabited
houses, outhouses, barns, or other buildings
if suitable quarters are not provided.
1793 – French Revolution: François Hanriot,
leader of the Parisian National Guard, arrests
22 Girondists selected by Jean-Paul Marat,
setting the stage for the Reign of Terror.
1805 – Napoleonic Wars: A Franco-Spanish
fleet recaptures Diamond Rock, an uninhabited
island at the entrance to the bay leading
to Fort-de-France, from the British.
1835 – P. T. Barnum and his circus start
their first tour of the United States.
1848 – The Slavic congress in Prague begins.
1855 – The Portland Rum Riot occurs in Portland,
Maine.
1866 – Fenian raids: Fenians are victorious
in both the Battle of Ridgeway and the Battle
of Fort Erie.
1876 – Hristo Botev, a national revolutionary
of Bulgaria, is killed in Stara Planina
1886 – U.S. President Grover Cleveland marries
Frances Folsom in the White House, becoming
the only president to wed in the executive
mansion.
1896 – Guglielmo Marconi applies for a patent
for his newest invention: the radio.
1909 – Alfred Deakin becomes Prime Minister
of Australia for the third time.
1910 – Charles Rolls, co-founder of Rolls-Royce
Limited, becomes the first man to make a
non-stop double crossing of the English
Channel by plane.
1919 – Anarchists simultaneously set off
bombs in eight separate U.S. cities.
1924 – U.S. President Calvin Coolidge signs
the Indian Citizenship Act into law, granting
citizenship to all Native Americans born
within the territorial limits of the United
States.
1941 – World War II: German paratoopers
murder Greek civilians in the village of
Kondomari.
1946 – Birth of the Italian Republic: In
a referendum, Italians vote to turn Italy
from a monarchy into a Republic. After the
referendum the king of Italy Umberto II
di Savoia is exiled.
1953 – The coronation of Queen Elizabeth
II, who is crowned Queen of the United Kingdom,
Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Her Other
Realms and Territories & Head of the
Commonwealth, the first major international
event to be televised.
1955 – The USSR and Yugoslavia sign the
Belgrade declaration and thus normalize
relations between both countries, discontinued
since 1948.
1962 – During the 1962 FIFA World Cup, police
had to intervene multiple times in fights
between Chilean and Italian players in one
of the most violent games in football history.
1966 – Surveyor program: Surveyor 1 lands
in Oceanus Procellarum on the Moon, becoming
the first U.S. spacecraft to soft land on
another world.
1967 – Luis Monge is executed in Colorado's
gas chamber, in the last pre-Furman execution
in the United States.
1967 – Protests in West Berlin against the
arrival of the Shah of Iran turn into riots,
during which Benno Ohnesorg is killed by
a police officer. His death results in the
founding of the terrorist group Movement
2 June.
1979 – Pope John Paul II first official
visit to his native Poland, becoming the
first Pope to visit a Communist country.
1983 – After an emergency landing because
of an in-flight fire, twenty-three passengers
aboard Air Canada Flight 797 are killed
when a flashover occurs as the plane's doors
open. Because of this incident, numerous
new safety regulations are put in place.
1990 – The Lower Ohio Valley tornado outbreak
spawns 66 confirmed tornadoes in Illinois,
Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio, killing 12.
Petersburg, Indiana, is the hardest-hit
town in the outbreak, with 6 deaths.
1995 – United States Air Force Captain Scott
O'Grady's F-16 is shot down over Bosnia
while patrolling the NATO no-fly zone.
1997 – In Denver, Colorado, Timothy McVeigh
is convicted on 15 counts of murder and
conspiracy for his role in the 1995 bombing
of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building
in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
1999 – The Bhutan Broadcasting Service brings
television transmissions to the Kingdom
for the first time.
2003 – Europe launches its first voyage
to another planet, Mars. The European Space
Agency's Mars Express probe launches from
the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan.
2004 – Ken Jennings begins his 74-game winning
streak on the syndicated game show Jeopardy!
2010 – Derrick Bird goes on a killing spree
in Cumbria, killing 13 and injuring 11,
see Cumbria shootings.
Holidays
and observances
Children's
Day (North Korea)
Christian Feast Day:
Alexander (martyr)
Blandina
Elmo
Felix of Nicosia
Marcellinus and Peter
Pope Eugene I
Pothinus
June 2 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Coronation Day of Fourth Druk Gyalpo (Bhutan)
Day of Hristo Botev and the people died
for the freedom and the independence of
Bulgaria (Bulgaria)
Festa della Repubblica, commemorates the
birth of the Repubblica Italiana and the
end of the monarchy. (Italy)
Isabel Province Day (Isabel Province, Solomon
Islands)
For details, contact Datacentre
|