EVENTS
- 1783 – The Montgolfier brothers demonstrate the first hot air balloon. The flight of the Montgolfière lasted only about 10 minutes, but it secured the French inventors a place in the history books.
- 1917 – The first Pulitzer Prizes are awarded.
- 1919 – The U.S. Congress approves the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution.
- 1942 – The Battle of Midway begins.
Battle of Midway - 1944 – In WWII, Allied troops liberate Rome from the Axis powers.
- 1972 – An express train packed with more than 600 people rammed into a stalled train at full speed in the main station of Jessore, Bangladesh, killing 76 and injuring over 500 persons.
- 1984 – Bruce Springsteen releases “Born in the U.S.A.”. The album was Springsteen’s most successful. It featured hits like “Born in the U.S.A.”, “Dancing in the Dark”, and “I’m on Fire”.
- 1989 – Poland holds the first free elections after World War II. The landslide victory of the Polish trade union, “Solidarity”, marked the beginning of the Autumn of Nations, a wave of revolutions resulting in the fall of communism.
- 1989 – The Chinese government ordered its troops to open fire on unarmed protesters in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The protest had started on April 16 as about 1,000 students marched to mourn the death of Hu Yaobang, a pro-reform leader within the Chinese government. Despite government warnings, pro-reform and pro-democracy demonstrations continued for a month drawing ever-larger crowds of young people, eventually totaling over a million persons. On May 13, three thousand students began an eight-day hunger strike. The government imposed martial law on May 20 and brought in troops. On June 2, in their first clash with the People’s Army, demonstrators turned back an advance of unarmed troops. However, in the pre-dawn hours of June 4, the People’s Army, using tanks, machine-guns, clubs and tear gas, opened fire on the unarmed protesters. Armored personnel carriers then rolled into the square crushing students still sleeping in their tents. The Chinese government later claimed only 300 died in the attack. U.S. estimates put the toll at over 3,000. Following the massacre, over 1,600 demonstrators were rounded up and jailed, with 27 being executed.
BIRTHDAYS
- 1738 – George III (King of Great Brittain)
- 1915 – Modibo Keïta (Malian politician, 1st President of Mali)
- 1971 – Noah Wylie (Actor)
- 1975 – Angelina Jolie (Actress)
Angelina Jolie - 1975 – Russell Brand (Actor)
- 1985 – Evan Lysacek (American figure skater)
DEATHS
- 1798 – Giacomo Casanova (Italian explorer, author)
Giacomo Casanova - 1922 – W. H. R. Rivers (English anthropologist, neurologist, ethnologist, psychiatrist)
- 1941 – Wilhelm II, German Emperor
- 1971 – György Lukács (Hungarian historian, philosopher)
- 2010 – John Wooden (American basketball player, coach)
