Independence
day
Tonga
UN
Day
International
Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression
Events
of the day
1039
β Henry III becomes Holy Roman Emperor.
1411 β King Charles VI granted a monopoly
for the ripening of Roquefort cheese to
the people of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon as they
had been doing for centuries.
1615 β Siege of Osaka: Forces under the
shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu take Osaka Castle
in Japan.
1760 β Great Upheaval: New England planters
arrive to claim land in Nova Scotia, Canada
taken from the Acadians.
1783 β The Montgolfier brothers publicly
demonstrate their montgolfière (hot air
balloon).
1792 β Captain George Vancouver claims Puget
Sound for the Kingdom of Great Britain.
1794 β British troops capture Port-au-Prince
in Haiti.
1802 β Grieving over the death of his wife,
Marie Clotilde of France, King Charles Emmanuel
IV of Sardinia abdicates his throne in favor
of his brother, Victor Emmanuel.
1812 β Following Louisiana's admittance
as a U.S. state, the Louisiana Territory
is renamed the Missouri Territory.
1825 β French American Revolutionary War
General Lafayette speaks at what would become
Lafayette Square, Buffalo, during his visit
to the United States.
1859 β Italian Independence wars: In the
Battle of Magenta, the French army, under
Louis-Napoleon, defeat the Austrian army.
1862 β American Civil War: Confederate troops
evacuate Fort Pillow on the Mississippi
River, leaving the way clear for Union troops
to take Memphis, Tennessee.
1876 β An express train called the Transcontinental
Express arrives in San Francisco, California,
via the First Transcontinental Railroad
only 83 hours and 39 minutes after leaving
New York City.
1878 β Cyprus Convention: The Ottoman Empire
cedes Cyprus to the United Kingdom but retains
nominal title.
1896 β Henry Ford completes the Ford Quadricycle,
his first gasoline-powered automobile, and
gives it a successful test run.
1912 β Massachusetts becomes the first state
of the United States to set a minimum wage.
1913 β Emily Davison, a suffragette, runs
out in front of King George V's horse, Anmer,
at the Epsom Derby. She is trampled, never
regains consciousness and dies a few days
later.
1916 β World War I: Russia opens the Brusilov
Offensive with an artillery barrage of Austro-Hungarian
lines in Galicia.
1917 β The first Pulitzer Prizes are awarded:
Laura E. Richards, Maude H. Elliott, and
Florence Hall receive the first Pulitzer
for biography (for Julia Ward Howe). Jean
Jules Jusserand receives the first Pulitzer
for history for his work With Americans
of Past and Present Days. Herbert B. Swope
receives the first Pulitzer for journalism
for his work for the New York World.
1919 β Women's rights: The U.S. Congress
approves the 19th Amendment to the United
States Constitution, which guarantees suffrage
to women, and sends it to the U.S. states
for ratification.
1920 β Hungary loses 71% of its territory
and 63% of its population when the Treaty
of Trianon is signed in Paris.
1928 β President of the Republic of China
Zhang Zuolin is assassinated by Japanese
agents.
1939 β Holocaust: The MS St. Louis, a ship
carrying 963 Jewish refugees, is denied
permission to land in Florida, United States,
after already being turned away from Cuba.
Forced to return to Europe, more than 200
of its passengers later die in Nazi concentration
camps.
1940 β World War II: The Dunkirk evacuation
ends β British forces complete evacuation
of 300,000 troops from Dunkirk in France.
To rally the morale of the country, Winston
Churchill delivers his famous "We shall
fight on the beaches" speech.
1942 β World War II: The Battle of Midway
begins. Japanese Admiral Chuichi Nagumo
orders a strike on Midway Island by much
of the Imperial Japanese navy.
1943 β A military coup in Argentina ousts
RamΓ³n Castillo.
1944 β World War II: A hunter-killer group
of the United States Navy captures the German
submarine U-505 β the first time a U.S.
Navy vessel had captured an enemy vessel
at sea since the 19th century.
1944 β World War II: Rome falls to the Allies,
the first Axis capital to fall.
1957 β Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered
his famous Power of Nonviolence speech at
the University of California, Berkeley.
1961 β In the Vienna summit, Soviet premier
Nikita Khrushchev sparks the Berlin Crisis
by threatening to sign a separate peace
treaty with East Germany and ending American,
British and French access to East Berlin.
1965 β Duane Earl Pope robbed the Farmers'
State Bank of Big Springs, Nebraska, killing
three people execution style and severely
wounding a fourth. The crime landed Pope
on the FBI Ten Most Wanted list.
1967 β Stockport Air Disaster: British Midland
flight G-ALHG crashes in Hopes Carr, Stockport,
killing 72 passengers and crew.
1970 β Tonga gains independence from the
United Kingdom.
1974 β During Ten Cent Beer Night, inebriated
Cleveland Indians fans start a riot, causing
the game to be forfeited to the Texas Rangers.
1975 β Governor of California Jerry Brown
signs the California Agricultural Labor
Relations Act into law, the first law in
the U.S. giving farmworkers collective bargaining
rights.
1979 β Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings
takes power in Ghana after a military coup
in which General Fred Akuffo is overthrown.
1986 β Jonathan Pollard pleads guilty to
espionage for selling top secret United
States military intelligence to Israel.
1988 β Three cars on a train carrying hexogen
to Kazakhstan explode in Arzamas, Gorky
Oblast, USSR, killing 91 and injuring about
1,500.
1989 β Ali Khamenei is elected the new Supreme
Leader of Islamic republic of Iran by the
Assembly of Experts after the death of Ayatollah
Ruhollah Khomeini.
1989 β The Tiananmen Square protests are
violently ended in Beijing by the People's
Liberation Army.
1989 β Solidarity's victory in the first
(somewhat) free parliamentary elections
in post-war Poland sparks off a succession
of peaceful anti-communist revolutions in
Eastern Europe, leads to the creation of
the so-called Contract Sejm and begins the
Autumn of Nations.
1989 β Ufa train disaster: A natural gas
explosion near Ufa, Russia, kills 575 as
two trains passing each other throw sparks
near a leaky pipeline.
1996 β The first flight of Ariane 5 explodes
after roughly 20 seconds. It was a Cluster
mission.
1998 β Terry Nichols is sentenced to life
in prison for his role in the Oklahoma City
bombing.
2001 β Gyanendra, the last King of Nepal,
ascends to the throne after the massacre
in the Royal Palace.
2004 β Marvin Heemeyer's (eventually suicidal)
protest rampage with an improvised bulletproofed
bulldozer destroys 13 Granby, Colorado buildings
including the town hall.
2010 β Falcon 9 Flight 1 was the maiden
flight of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, which
launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station
Space Launch Complex 40.
Holidays
and observances
Bhagat
Puran Singh's Birthday. (Sikhism)
Birthday of Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim
(Finland)
Christian Feast Day:
Francis Caracciolo
Optatus
Petroc of Cornwall
Quirinus of Sescia
Saturnina
June 4 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Emancipation Day or Independence Day, commemorates
the abolition of serfdom in Tonga by King
George Tupou in 1862, and the independence
of Tonga from the British protectorate in
1970. (Tonga)
Flag Day (Estonia)
International Day of Innocent Children Victims
of Aggression (International)
National Unity Day (Hungary)
For details, contact Datacentre
