Events
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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