Once again, it should be reiterated, that this does not pretend to be a very extensive history of what happened on this day (nor is it the most original - the links can be found down below). If you know something that I am missing, by all means, shoot me an email or leave a comment, and let me know!
Busy date during World War II. The British completed the evacuation of Dunkirk on this date. This was the day when the Germans entered Paris. Churchill gave one of his most famous speeches "we shall fight on the beaches" speech (which Iron Maiden later used to open a recorded concert). It was also the day that Germany passed a law forbidding Jews access to beaches and swimming pools. Later on, Jews in Croatia were forced to wear identifying badges on this day. Also on this day, Japan suffered it's first major defeat in the war, at Midway Island (see below). Rome was liberated. Finally, Britain, the United States, France, and the Soviet Union agreed to partition Germany for the post-war.
Besides World War II, some other significant events happened on this day. The first ever solar eclipse was recorded in China. Roquefort cheese (yum!) was created in a cave. Here's a biggie: the US constitution took effect on this date! The United States and Mexico went to war on this date. Congress finally passed women's suffrage. Massachusetts passed it's first minimum wage. The first free elections in Poland since World War II took place. Also for the first time since World War II, there was a non-Communist government in Albania. Pope John Paul II compared abortion with Nazi murders during the Holocaust.
Jun 4, 1989: Tiananmen Square massacre takes place
Chinese troops storm through Tiananmen Square in the center of Beijing, killing and arresting thousands of pro-democracy protesters. The brutal Chinese government assault on the protesters shocked the West and brought denunciations and sanctions from the United States.
In May 1989, nearly a million Chinese, mostly young students, crowded into central Beijing to protest for greater democracy and call for the resignations of Chinese Communist Party leaders deemed too repressive. For nearly three weeks, the protesters kept up daily vigils, and marched and chanted. Western reporters captured much of the drama for television and newspaper audiences in the United States and Europe. On June 4, 1989, however, Chinese troops and security police stormed through Tiananmen Square, firing indiscriminately into the crowds of protesters. Turmoil ensued, as tens of thousands of the young students tried to escape the rampaging Chinese forces. Other protesters fought back, stoning the attacking troops and overturning and setting fire to military vehicles. Reporters and Western diplomats on the scene estimated that at least 300, and perhaps thousands, of the protesters had been killed and as many as 10,000 were arrested.
The savagery of the Chinese government's attack shocked both its allies and Cold War enemies. Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev declared that he was saddened by the events in China. He said he hoped that the government would adopt his own domestic reform program and begin to democratize the Chinese political system. In the United States, editorialists and members of Congress denounced the Tiananmen Square massacre and pressed for President George Bush to punish the Chinese government. A little more than three weeks later, the U.S. Congress voted to impose economic sanctions against the People's Republic of China in response to the brutal violation of human rights.
In May 1989, nearly a million Chinese, mostly young students, crowded into central Beijing to protest for greater democracy and call for the resignations of Chinese Communist Party leaders deemed too repressive. For nearly three weeks, the protesters kept up daily vigils, and marched and chanted. Western reporters captured much of the drama for television and newspaper audiences in the United States and Europe. On June 4, 1989, however, Chinese troops and security police stormed through Tiananmen Square, firing indiscriminately into the crowds of protesters. Turmoil ensued, as tens of thousands of the young students tried to escape the rampaging Chinese forces. Other protesters fought back, stoning the attacking troops and overturning and setting fire to military vehicles. Reporters and Western diplomats on the scene estimated that at least 300, and perhaps thousands, of the protesters had been killed and as many as 10,000 were arrested.
The savagery of the Chinese government's attack shocked both its allies and Cold War enemies. Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev declared that he was saddened by the events in China. He said he hoped that the government would adopt his own domestic reform program and begin to democratize the Chinese political system. In the United States, editorialists and members of Congress denounced the Tiananmen Square massacre and pressed for President George Bush to punish the Chinese government. A little more than three weeks later, the U.S. Congress voted to impose economic sanctions against the People's Republic of China in response to the brutal violation of human rights.
June 4, 1942: Battle of Midway begins
On this day in 1942, the Battle of Midway--one of the most decisive U.S. victories against Japan during World War II--begins. During the four-day sea-and-air battle, the outnumbered U.S. Pacific Fleet succeeded in destroying four Japanese aircraft carriers while losing only one of its own, the Yorktown, to the previously invincible Japanese navy.
In six months of offensives prior to Midway, the Japanese had triumphed in lands throughout the Pacific, including Malaysia, Singapore, the Dutch East Indies, the Philippines and numerous island groups. The United States, however, was a growing threat, and Japanese Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto sought to destroy the U.S. Pacific Fleet before it was large enough to outmatch his own.
A thousand miles northwest of Honolulu, the strategic island of Midway became the focus of his scheme to smash U.S. resistance to Japan's imperial designs. Yamamoto's plan consisted of a feint toward Alaska followed by an invasion of Midway by a Japanese strike force. When the U.S. Pacific Fleet arrived at Midway to respond to the invasion, it would be destroyed by the superior Japanese fleet waiting unseen to the west. If successful, the plan would eliminate the U.S. Pacific Fleet and provide a forward outpost from which the Japanese could eliminate any future American threat in the Central Pacific. U.S. intelligence broke the Japanese naval code, however, and the Americans anticipated the surprise attack.
In the meantime, 200 miles to the northeast, two U.S. attack fleets caught the Japanese force entirely by surprise and destroyed three heavy Japanese carriers and one heavy cruiser. The only Japanese carrier that initially escaped destruction, the Hiryu, loosed all its aircraft against the American task force and managed to seriously damage the U.S. carrier Yorktown, forcing its abandonment. At about 5:00 p.m., dive-bombers from the U.S. carrier Enterprise returned the favor, mortally damaging the Hiryu. It was scuttled the next morning.
When the Battle of Midway ended, Japan had lost four carriers, a cruiser and 292 aircraft, and suffered an estimated 2,500 casualties. The U.S. lost the Yorktown, the destroyer USS Hammann, 145 aircraft and suffered approximately 300 casualties.
Japan's losses hobbled its naval might--bringing Japanese and American sea power to approximate parity--and marked the turning point in the Pacific theater of World War II. In August 1942, the great U.S. counteroffensive began at Guadalcanal and did not cease until Japan's surrender three years later.
On May 10, 1940, the Germans launched their attack against the West, storming into Belgium, Holland, and Luxembourg. Faced with far superior airpower, more unified command, and highly mobile armored forces, the Allied defenders were a poor match for the German Wehrmacht. In a lightning attack, the Germans raced across Western Europe. On May 12, they entered France, out-flanking the northwest corners of the Maginot Line, previously alleged by French military command to be an impregnable defense of their eastern border. On May 15, the Dutch surrendered.
The Germans advanced in an arc westward from the Ardennes in Belgium, along France's Somme River, and to the English Channel, cutting off communication between the Allies' northern and southern forces. The Allied armies in the north, which comprised the main body of Allied forces, were quickly being encircled. By May 19, Lord John Gort, the British commander, was already considering the withdrawal of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) by sea.
Reluctant to retreat so soon, the Allies fought on and launched an ineffective counterattack on May 21. By May 24, Walther von Brauchitsch, the German army commander in chief, was poised to take Dunkirk, the last port available for the withdrawal of the mass of the BEF from Europe. Fortunately for the Allies, Nazi leader Adolf Hitler suddenly intervened, halting the German advance. Hitler had been assured by Hermann Goering, head of the Luftwaffe, that his aircraft could destroy the Allied forces trapped on the beaches at Dunkirk, so Hitler ordered the forces besieging Dunkirk to pull back.
On May 26, the British finally initiated Operation Dynamo--the evacuation of Allied forces from Dunkirk. The next day, the Allies learned that King Leopold III of Belgium was surrendering, and the Germans resumed the land attack on Dunkirk. By then, the British had fortified their defenses, but the Germans would not be held for long, and the evacuation was escalated. As there were not enough ships to transport the huge masses of men stranded at Dunkirk, the British Admiralty called on all British citizens in possession of sea-worthy vessels to lend their ships to the effort. Fishing boats, pleasure yachts, lifeboats, and other civilian ships raced to Dunkirk, braving mines, bombs, and torpedoes.
During the evacuation, the Royal Air Force (RAF) successfully resisted the Luftwaffe, saving the operation from failure. Still, the German fighters bombarded the beach, destroyed numerous vessels, and pursued other ships within a few miles of the English coast. The harbor at Dunkirk was bombed out of use, and small civilian vessels had to ferry the soldiers from the beaches to the warships waiting at sea. But for nine days, the evacuation continued, a miracle to the Allied commanders who had expected disaster. By June 4, when the Germans closed in and the operation came to an end, 198,000 British and 140,000 French troops were saved. These experienced soldiers would play a crucial role in future resistance against Nazi Germany.
With Western Europe abandoned by its main defenders, the German army swept through the rest of France, and Paris fell on June 14. Eight days later, Henri Petain signed an armistice with the Nazis at Compiegne. Germany annexed half the country, leaving the other half in the hands of their puppet French rulers. On June 6, 1944, liberation of Western Europe finally began with the successful Allied landing at Normandy.
A series of great droughts that began in the 1920s and a history of poor land-management practices had created a Dust Bowl in the Great Plains by the 1930s, exacerbating the already difficult economic conditions of the Great Depression for hundreds of thousands of Americans. For days at a time, as an Oklahoma observer wrote, thick clouds of dust blotted out the sun. As water ran out and crops dried up, farmers migrated to other parts of the nation to find jobs. Farm-related businesses, including banks, were forced to close, creating even more unemployment. An influx of Dust Bowl refugees into industrial urban areas and the more productive agricultural areas of the West drove down wages, and created competition among workers, which in turn added to social unrest. By 1934, the economic situation had deteriorated to the point where violent labor-management clashes resulted in the deaths of many workers across the country.
In 1933, with the nation in the grip of the most disastrous economic depression in its history, Roosevelt took over the presidency. He immediately implemented drastic measures to aid the nation's more than 13 million unemployed workers, hoping to stave off starvation and massive social unrest. His New Deal policies, which included drought relief, were unprecedented in scope and size; the sheer amount of federal financial aid involved dwarfed anything the nation had seen before. Until the Great Depression, U.S. presidents had maintained a relatively passive role in organizing disaster relief, preferring to encourage private charitable-aid efforts. Roosevelt's predecessor, Herbert Hoover, had been harshly criticized for failing to avoid the Depression through proactive economic policies. To the contrary, Roosevelt's drought-aid plan provided cash, livestock feed and equipment to farmers and businesses directly affected by the drought. It also established free emergency medical care for the indigent in hard-hit areas. The plan funded research into better land-management practices and set up government-based markets for farm products. In a controversial move, the government authorized the massive slaughter of livestock in order to stabilize meat and dairy prices. Tons of meat went to waste despite widespread hunger.
By 1938, when the drought had abated and normal rainfall levels returned, over $1 billion in federal aid had been appropriated for the Great Plans region. Out of Roosevelt's drought-relief program grew soil conservation districts that remain in place today and have helped to prevent the emergence of drought conditions as devastating as the ones of the 1930s.
The women's suffrage movement was founded in the mid-19th century by women who had become politically active through their work in the abolitionist and temperance movements. In July 1848, 240 woman suffragists, including Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, met in Seneca Falls, New York, to assert the right of women to vote. Female enfranchisement was still largely opposed by most Americans, and the distraction of the North-South conflict and subsequent Civil War precluded further discussion. During the Reconstruction Era, the 15th Amendment was adopted, granting African American men the right to vote, but the Republican-dominated Congress failed to expand its progressive radicalism into the sphere of gender.
In 1869, the National Woman Suffrage Association, led by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, was formed to push for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Another organization, the American Woman Suffrage Association, led by Lucy Stone, was organized in the same year to work through the state legislatures. In 1890, these two societies were united as the National American Woman Suffrage Association. That year, Wyoming became the first state to grant women the right to vote.
By the beginning of the 20th century, the role of women in American society was changing drastically; women were working more, receiving a better education, bearing fewer children, and several states had authorized female suffrage. In 1913, the National Woman's party organized the voting power of these enfranchised women to elect congressional representatives who supported woman suffrage, and by 1916 both the Democratic and Republican parties openly endorsed female enfranchisement. In 1919, the 19th Amendment, which stated that "the rights of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex," passed both houses of Congress and was sent to the states for ratification. On August 18, 1920, Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the amendment, giving it the two-thirds majority of state ratification necessary to make it the law of the land. Eight days later, the 19th Amendment took effect.
781 BC - The first historic solar eclipse is recorded in China.
1039 - Henry III becomes Holy Roman Emperor.
1070 - Roquefort cheese created in a cave near Roquefort, France
1133 - Rome-Innocentius II crowns Lotharius III Roman-German emperor
1391 - Mob led by Ferrand Martinez surrounds & sets fire to Jewish quarter of Seville Spain, surviving Jews sold into slavery
1487 - Lord Lovell and John de la Poles army land at Furness Lancashire
1615 - Siege of Osaka Forces under the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu take Osaka Castle in Japan after a six-month siege..
1632 - Prince Frederik Henry conquerors Venlo
1647 - The British army seized King Charles I and held him as a hostage.
1664 - Viceroy Willem Frederik conquerors Dijlerschans
1666 - Battle at Duinkerk: English vs Dutch fleet
1674 - Horse racing was prohibited in Massachusetts.
1717 - The Freemasons were founded in London.
1741 - Prussia goes to the Covenant of Nymphenburg
1745 - Battle at Hohenfriedberg Silezie: Frederick the Great (Prussia) defeats Austrians & Saxons
1756 - Quakers leave assembly of Pennsylvania
1760 - Great Upheaval: New England planters arrive to claim land in Nova Scotia, Canada taken from the Acadians.
1769 - A transit of Venus is followed five hours later by a total solar eclipse, the shortest such interval in history.
1783 - Montgolfier brothers launch first hot-air balloon (unmanned)
1784 - Marie Thible became the first woman to fly in a hot-air balloon. The flight was 45 minutes long and reached a height of 8,500 feet.
1789 - US constitution went into effect
1792 - Capt George Vancouver claimed Puget Sound for Britain
1794 - Congress passes Neutrality Act, bans Americans from serving in armed forces of foreign powers
1794 - British troops captured Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
1802 - 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.
1805 - Tripoli forced to conclude peace with US after war over tribute
1812 - Louisiana Territory officially renamed "Missouri Territory"
1816 - The Washington was launched at Wheeling, WV. It was the first stately, double-decker steamboat.
1825 - Unseasonable hurricane hits NYC
1831 - National Congress selects Leopold von Saksen-Coburg as King of Belgium
1832 - 3rd national black convention meets (Phila)
1845 - Mexican-US war starts
1850 - Empire Engine Company No 1 organized
1850 - Self deodorizing fertilizer patented in England
1862 - Confederates evacuate Ft Pillow, Tenn
1868 - Van Bosse/Fock government begins
1870 - 4th Belmont: W Dick aboard Kingfisher wins in 2:59.5
1873 - First contract workers of British-Indies Co arrives in Suriname
1875 - Pacific Stock Exchange opens
1876 - An express train called the Transcontinental Express arrives in San Francisco, California, via the First Transcontinental Railroad only 83 hours and 39 minutes after having left New York City.
1878 - Cyprus ceded by Turkey to Britain for administrative purposes
1884 - 18th Belmont: Jim McLaughlin aboard Panique wins in 2:42
1892 - Oil City & Titusville Penn, destroyed by oil tank explosion; 130 die
1892 - The Sierra Club, led by John Muir, was incorporated in San Francisco.
1896 - Henry Ford took his first car out for a a successful test drive of his new car in Detroit, MI. The vehicle was called a quadricycle.
1907 - Automatic washer & dryer introduced
1911 - Gold was discovered in Alaska's Indian Creek.
1912 - Cone of Mount Katmai (Alaska) collapses
1912 - Massachusetts passes first US minimum wage law
1913 - Suffragette Emily Davison steps in front of King George V's horse Anmer at the Epsom Derby
1916 - Russian General Brusilov fails on his Eastern Front attack
1917 - First Pulitzer prize awarded to Richards & Elliott (Julia Ward Howe)
1917 - American men begin registering for the draft
1917 - Order of British Empire inaugurated
1918 - French and American troops halted Germany's offensive at Chateau-Thierry, France.
1919 - Senate passed Women's Suffrage bill
1919 - US marines invade Costa Rica
1920 - Peace of Trianon between Allies and Hungary
1924 - An eternal light was dedicated at Madison Square in New York City in memory of all New York soldiers who died in World War I.
1927 - 1st Ryder Cup: US beats England, 9½-2½ at Worcester Country Club (Worcester, Massachusetts, US)
1927 - Johnny Weissmuller set swim records in 100-yard & 200-yard free-style
1928 - President of the Republic of China Zhang Zuolin is assassinated by Japanese agents.
1929 - George Eastman demonstrates 1st technicolor movie (Rochester NY)
1931 - The first rocket-glider flight was made by William Swan in Atlantic City, NJ.
1932 - 64th Belmont: Tom Malley aboard Faireno wins in 2:32.8
1932 - Edouard Herriot becomes premier of France
1935 - "Invisible" glass was patented by Gerald Brown and Edward Pollard.
1937 - Leon Blum becomes premier of People's front government of France
1938 - 10th Walker Cup: Britain-Ireland wins 7½-4½ at the Old Course at St Andrews
1938 - 70th Belmont: James Stout aboard Pasteurized wins in 2:29.6
1939 - The first shopping cart was introduced by Sylvan Goldman in Oklahoma City, OK. It was actually a folding chair that had been mounted on wheels.
1940 - The British completed the evacuation of 300,000 troops at Dunkirk, France.
1940 - German forces enter Paris
1940 - The synthetic rubber tire unveiled
1940 - Winston Churchill says "We shall fight on the seas & oceans"
1941 - Nazi's forbid Jews access to beach & swimming pools
1941 - Rep of Croatia orders all Jews to wear a star with the letter Z
1942 - The Battle of Midway, a decisive Allied victory in World War II, began. The battle ended on June 6 and ended Japanese expansion in the Pacific.
1942 - Capitol Record Co opens for business
1942 - USS Yorktown sinks near Midway Island
1943 - Argentina taken over by Gen Rawson and Col Juan Peron Juan Peron, who would later become ruler of the country, took part in the military coup that overthrew General Ramon S. Castillo.
1943 - Race riots in LA
1943 - St Louis Card Mort Cooper pitches his 2nd consecutive 1 hitter
1944 - First British gliders touches down on French soil for D-Day
1944 - The U.S. Fifth Army entered Rome, leading to the liberation of the city during World War II from Mussolini's Fascist armies
1944 - French general De Gaulle arrives in London
1944 - The U-505 became the first enemy submarine captured by the U.S. Navy, boarded on high seas.
1944 - "Leonidas Witherall" was first broadcast on the Mutual Broadcasting System.
1945 - 6th Marine division occupies Orokoe Peninsula Okinawa
1945 - US, Russia, England and France agree to split occupied Germany
1946 - Largest solar prominence (300,000 mi/500,000 km) observed
1946 - Juan Peron was installed as Argentina's president.
1947 - The House of Representatives approved the Taft-Hartley Act. The legislation allowed the President of the United States to intervene in labor disputes.
1947 - "Louisiana Lady" closes at Century Theater NYC after 4 performances
1949 - "Cavalcade of Stars" debuts (DuMont); Jackie Gleason made host in 1950
1950 - CVP wins Belgian parliamentary election
1950 - Dutch cyclist Wim van Est wins Bordeaux-Paris (586 km in 17:25)
1951 - Mississippi Valley State University founded
1953 - Pitts trades outfielder Ralph Kiner & Joe Garagiola to Chic
1954 - Arthur Murray flies X-1A rocket plane to record 27,000 m
1954 - France grants Vietnam independence inside French Union. French Premier Joseph Laniel and Vietnamese Premier Buu Loc initialed treaties in Paris giving "complete independence" to Vietnam.
1955 - Mickey Rooney Show," TV comedy last airs on NBC
1956 - Speech by Khrushchev blasting Stalin made public
1957 - First commercial coal pipeline placed in operation
1957 - May & Cowdrey make 411 stand v WI Ramadhin bowls 98 overs
1958 - French premier De Gaulle arrives in Algiers
1958 - SF Giants Hank Sauer & B Schmidt are 2nd to hit consecutive pinch HRs
1960 - The Taiwan island of Quemoy was hit by 500 artillery shells fired from the coast of Communist China.
1962 - Lee Harvey Oswald departs Rotterdam on SS Maasdam to US
1963 - First transmission of "Pop Go the Beatles" on BBC radio
1963 - British Minister of War John Profumo resigns due to Christine Keeler
1964 - Beatles "World Tour" begins in Copenhagen Denmark
1964 - LA Dodger Sandy Koufax 3rd no-hitter beats Phil Phillies, 3-0
1964 - Maldives adopts constitution
1964 - Test Cricket debut of Geoff Boycott v Australia at Trent Bridge, 48
1965 - Rolling Stones release "Satisfaction"
1966 - "Batman & His Grandmother" by Dickie Goodman hits #70
1966 - -10] Hurricane Alma, kills 51 in Honduras
1966 - 98th Belmont: William Boland aboard Amberoid wins in 2:29.6
1967 - 19th Emmy Awards: Mission Impossible, Monkees, Don Knotts & Lucy Ball
1967 - KTVN TV channel 2 in Reno, NV (CBS) begins broadcasting
1967 - Monkees take home an Emmy for their Outstanding comedy Series
1967 - Curt Flood's record 568 straight chances without an error ends (227 straight games)
1967 - Stockport Air Disaster: British Midland flight G-ALHG crashes in Hopes Carr, Stockport, killing 72 passengers and crew.
1968 - Don Drysdale pitches his 6th straight shutout, en route to 58 innings
1968 - Dorothy Gish, American actress who starred in many silent-film classics, died.
1969 - Beatles release Ballad Of John and; Yoko/Old Brown Shoe, in US
1969 - Nicky Hopkins quits rock & rolls, Jeff Beck Group
1969 - 22-year-old man sneaks into wheel pod of a jet parked in Havana & survives 9-hr flight to Spain despite thin oxygen levels at 29,000 ft
1970 - 43rd National Spelling Bee: Libby Childress wins spelling croissant
1970 - SD Padres draft Mike Ivie #1
1970 - Tonga (formerly Friendly Islands) declares independence from UK
1970 - WSMW TV channel 27 in Worcester, MA (IND) begins broadcasting
1970 - Yanks Horace Clarke breaks up a no-hitter in the 9th for the 1st of 3 times in 28 days
1971 - J Luns appointed secretary-general of NATO
1971 - Oakland A's beat Wash Senators, 5-3, in 21 innings
1971 - Zaheer Abbas scores Cricket 274 at Edgbaston, 544 minutes 38 fours
1972 - Angela Davis, black activist, acquitted of killing a white guard
1972 - Record 8 shutouts pitched in 16 major league games (AL=5, NL=3)
1973 - 43rd French Womens Tennis: Margaret Court beats C Evert (67 76 64)
1973 - A patent for the ATM is granted to Don Wetzel, Tom Barnes and George Chastain.
1974 - NFL grants franchise to Seattle Seahawks
1974 - Never repeated 10 cent Beer Night at Cleveland, unruly fans stumble onto field and cause Indians to forfeit the game to Rangers with score tied 5-5 in 9th
1974 - Sally Murphy became the first woman to qualify as an aviator with the U.S. Army.
1975 - Oldest animal fossils in US discovered in NC
1977 - Apple II, the 1st personal computer, goes on sale
1977 - Violence during Puerto Rican Day in Chicago kills 2
1978 - "Working" closes at 46th St Theater NYC after 25 performances
1978 - 32nd Tony Awards: Da & Ain't Misbehavin' win
1978 - Liberal Julio Turbay Ayola wins Colombia elections
1979 - South-African pres Vorster resigns due to scandal
1979 - Sri Lanka forfeit ICC Trophy game vs Israel for political reasons
1981 - 54th National Spelling Bee: Paige Pipkin wins spelling sarcophagus
1982 - "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan," released in USA
1982 - Israel attacks targets in south Lebanon
1983 - 53rd French Womens Tennis: Chris Evert beats Mima Jausovec (61 62)
1984 - 18th Music City News Country Awards: Statler Brothers
1984 - Bruce Springsteen releases "Born in the USA"
1984 - DNA is successfully cloned from an extinct animal
1984 - NY Mets draft Shawn Abner, 17, #1
1984 - For the first time in 32 years, Arnold Palmer failed to make the cut for the U.S. Open golf tournament.
1985 - The U.S. Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling striking down an Alabama law that provided for a daily "moment of silence" in public schools.
1985 - STS 51-G vehicle moves to launch pad
1986 - Jonathan Jay Pollard, a former Navy intelligence analyst, pled guilty in Washington to spying for Israel. He was sentenced to life in prison.
1986 - The California Supreme Court approved a law that limited the liability of manufacturers and other wealthy defendants. It was known as the "deep pockets law."
1987 - Danny Harris beats Edwin Moses, ends streak of 122 cons hurdle wins
1988 - "Cabaret" closes at Imperial Theater NYC after 262 performances
1988 - 42nd Tony Awards: M Butterfly & Phantom of the Opera win
1988 - 58th French Womens Tennis: Steffi Graf beats N Zvereva (60 60)
1988 - Longest game in Balt Memorial Stadium (5:46) 14 inn (beat NY 7-6)
1988 - Rickey Henderson steals 2 bases for record 249 as a NY Yankee
1989 - 2nd Children's Miracle Network Telethon raises $770,000
1989 - 43rd Tony Awards: Heidi Chronicles & Jerome Robbin's Broadway win
1989 - Beijing cop shoots & wounds Chinese priemer Li Ping
1989 - People's Army of China opened fire on crowds of pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square. It is believed that hundreds, possibly thousands, of demonstrators were killed.
1989 - Eastern Europe's first somewhat free election in 40 years held in Poland
1989 - Gas explodes near 2 passenger trains in USSR, kills 100s
1989 - Largest parade in Bronx history honors 350th anniversary
1989 - Red Sox lead Blue Jays 10-0 in 7th, but lose 12-11 in 12 for Blue Jays 12th consecutive victory at Fenway
1990 - 24th Music City News Country Awards: R Van Shelton & Patty Loveless
1990 - Greyhound Bus files bankruptcy
1990 - LA Dodger Ramon Martinez strikes out 18 Atlanta Braves
1990 - NY Telephone company announces that it wants Bronx area code 917
1990 - Dr Jack Kevorkian assisted an Oregon woman to commit suicide, beginning a national debate over the right to die
1991 - First post WW II non-communist government in Albania
1991 - Lesbian priest Elizabeth Carl is ordained in Episcopal Church
1991 - Pope John Paul II compares abortion with Nazi murders
1991 - Robert Strauss becomes US ambassador to Soviet Union
1992 - San Jose voters reject Giants plan to build a new stadium
1992 - The U.S. Post Office announced that in a poll people preferred the "young Elvis" stamp to the "old Elvis" stamp.
1994 - Haile Gebre Selassie runs world record 5 km (12:56.96)
1995 - "Jackie Mason: Politically Incorrect" closes at Golden NYC at 347 perf
1995 - 49th Tony Awards: Love! Valour! Compassion! & Sunset Boulevard win
1995 - 8th Children's Miracle Network Telethon raises $1,331,000
1998 - Terry Nichols is sentenced to life in prison for his role in the Oklahoma City bombing.
1998 - George and Ira Gershwin received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
2001 - Gyanendra, the last King of Nepal, ascends to the throne after the massacre in the Royal Palace. King Dipendra had died, three days after shooting most of his family and himself.
2003 - Martha Stewart was indicted on charges of insider trading.
2003 - The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that would ban "partial birth" abortions with a 282-139 vote.
2003 - Amazon.com announced that it had received more than 1 million orders for the book "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix." The released date was planned for June 21.
2008 - The United Kingdom and Canada became the first countries to be able to buy and rent films at the iTunes Store.
2012 - US drone attack kills 15 militants in Pakistan, including high ranking al-Qaeda official, Abu Yahya al-Libi
2012 - Car bomb kills 26 and injures 190 people in central Baghdad, Iraq
2012 - Japan's stock market plummets to record lows with the S&P/TOPIX 150 reaching its lowest level since 1983
2012 - Wedding party bus crashes killing 23 and injuring 60 people in Islamabad, Pakistan
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