Events
of the day
350 – Roman usurper
Nepotianus, of the Constantinian
dynasty, proclaims himself Roman
Emperor, entering Rome at the head
of a group of gladiators.
1140 – French scholar Peter Abelard
is found guilty of heresy.
1326 – Treaty of Novgorod delineates
borders between Russia and Norway
in Finnmark.
1539 – Hernando de Soto claims Florida
for Spain.
1608 – Samuel de Champlain completes
his third voyage to New France at
Tadoussac, Quebec.
1620 – Construction of the oldest
stone church in French North America,
Notre-Dame-des-Anges, begins in
Quebec City, Quebec, Canada.
1621 – The Dutch West India Company
receives a charter for New Netherlands.
1658 – Pope Alexander VII appoints
François de Laval vicar apostolic
in New France.
1665 – James Stuart, Duke of York
(later to become King James II of
England) defeats the Dutch fleet
off the coast of Lowestoft.
1839 – In Humen, China, Lin Tse-hsü
destroys 1.2 million kg of opium
confiscated from British merchants,
providing Britain with a casus belli
to open hostilities, resulting in
the First Opium War.
1861 – American Civil War: Battle
of Philippi (also called the Philippi
Races) – Union forces rout Confederate
troops in Barbour County, Virginia,
now West Virginia, in first land
battle of the War.
1864 – American Civil War: Battle
of Cold Harbor – Union forces attack
Confederate troops in Hanover County,
Virginia.
1866 – The Fenians are driven out
of Fort Erie, Ontario, into the
United States.
1885 – In the last military engagement
fought on Canadian soil, Cree leader
Big Bear escapes the North-West
Mounted Police.
1888 – The poem "Casey at the
Bat", by Ernest Lawrence Thayer,
is published in the San Francisco
Examiner.
1889 – The transcontinental Canadian
Pacific Railway is completed.
1889 – The first long-distance electric
power transmission line in the United
States is completed, running 14
miles (23 km) between a generator
at Willamette Falls and downtown
Portland, Oregon.
1916 – The National Defense Act
is signed into law, increasing the
size of the United States National
Guard by 450,000 men.
1932 – Lou Gehrig and teammate Tony
Lazzeri hit four home runs in one
game, and hit for the natural cycle,
respectively. These two feats are
both less common than a perfect
game, which has occurred twenty
one times in one hundred and twenty
years.
1935 – One thousand unemployed Canadian
workers board freight cars in Vancouver,
British Columbia, beginning a protest
trek to Ottawa, Ontario.
1937 – The Duke of Windsor marries
Wallis Simpson.
1940 – World War II: The Luftwaffe
bombs Paris.
1940 – World War II: The Battle
of Dunkirk ends with a German victory
and with Allied forces in full retreat.
1941 – World War II: The Wehrmacht
razes the Greek village of Kandanos
to the ground, killing 180 of its
inhabitants.
1942 – World War II: Japan begins
the Aleutian Islands Campaign by
bombing Unalaska Island.
1943 – In Los Angeles, California,
white U.S. Navy sailors and Marines
clash with Latino youths in the
Zoot Suit Riots.
1950 – First successful ascent of
an Eight-thousander; Annapurna is
summited by Maurice Herzog and Louis
Lachenal
1962 – An Air France Boeing 707
charter, Chateau de Sully crashes
after an aborted takeoff from Paris-Orly
Airport, killing 130.
1963 – The Buddhist crisis: Soldiers
of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam
attack protesting Buddhists in Huế,
South Vietnam, with liquid chemicals
from tear gas grenades, causing
67 people to be hospitalised for
blistering of the skin and respiratory
ailments.
1963 – A Northwest Airlines DC-7
crashes in the Pacific Ocean off
the coast of British Columbia, killing
101.
1965 – Launch of Gemini 4, the first
multi-day space mission by a NASA
crew. Crew-member Ed White performs
the first American spacewalk.
1968 – Valerie Solanas, author of
SCUM Manifesto, attempts to assassinate
Andy Warhol by shooting him three
times.
1969 – Melbourne-Evans collision:
Off the coast of South Vietnam,
the Australian aircraft carrier
HMAS Melbourne cuts the U.S. Navy
destroyer USS Frank E. Evans in
half.
1973 – A Soviet supersonic Tupolev
Tu-144 crashes near Goussainville,
France, killing 14, the first crash
of a supersonic passenger aircraft.
1979 – A blowout at the Ixtoc I
oil well in the southern Gulf of
Mexico causes at least 3,000,000
barrels (480,000 m3) of oil to be
spilled into the waters, the second-worst
accidental oil spill ever recorded.
1980 – The 1980 Grand Island tornado
outbreak. Seven tornadoes hit Grand
Island, Nebraska takes five lives,
357 single-family homes, 33 mobile
homes, 85 apartments, 49 businesses
and $300 million in damages all
told, according to National Weather
Service and American Red Cross statistics
on the deadly storm.
1982 – The Israeli ambassador to
the United Kingdom, Shlomo Argov,
is shot on a London street. He survives
but is permanently paralysed.
1984 – Operation Blue Star, a military
offensive, is launched by the Indian
government at Harmandir Sahib, also
known as the Golden Temple, the
holiest shrine for the Sikhs, in
Amritsar. The operation continues
until June 6 with casualties, most
of them civilians, in excess of
5,000.
1989 – The government of China sends
troops to force protesters out of
Tiananmen Square after seven weeks
of occupation.
1991 – Mount Unzen erupts in Kyūshū,
Japan, killing 43 people, all of
them either researchers or journalists.
1992 – Aboriginal Land Rights are
granted in Australia in Mabo v Queensland
(1988), a case brought by Eddie
Mabo.
1998 – Eschede train disaster: an
ICE high speed train derails in
Lower Saxony, Germany, causing 101
deaths.
2006 – The union of Serbia and Montenegro
comes to an end with Montenegro's
formal declaration of independence.
Holidays
and observances
Christian
Feast Day:
Charles Lwanga and Companions
Clotilde
Kevin of Glendalough
Ovidius
Vladimirskaya (Russian Orthodox)
June 3 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Confederate Memorial Day (Kentucky,
Louisiana, and Tennessee)
Economist day (Buenos Aires)
Festival to Bellona (Roman Empire)
Mabo Day (Australia)
Opium Suppression Movement Day
(Taiwan)
For details, contact Datacentre
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