TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY IS MONDAY, JUNE 5, 2017

On this day in history: 1595 - Henry IV’s army defeated the Spanish at the Battle of Fontaine-Francaise.

1752 - Benjamin Franklin flew a kite for the first time to demonstrate that lightning was a form of electricity.

1788 - First Fleet cattle from the government herds go bush, disappearing for seven years.

1823 - Explorer Allan Cunningham breaks through the Warrumbungle Range on his quest to find an overland route to the Liverpool Plains.

1827 - Athens fell to the Ottomans.

1866 - Explorer John McDouall Stuart, first to successfully cross Australia from north to south, dies. 1940 - During World War II, the Battle of France began when Germany began an offensive in Southern France.

1942 - In France, Pierre Laval congratulated French volunteers that were fighting in the USSR with Germans.

1944 - The first B-29 bombing raid hit the Japanese rail line in Bangkok, Thailand.

1956 - Premier Nikita Khrushchev denounced Josef Stalin to the Soviet Communist Party Congress. 1967 - The Six Day War between Israel and Egypt, Syria and Jordan began. 1973 - The first hole-in-one in the British Amateur golf championship was made by Jim Crowford.

1975 - Egypt reopened the Suez Canal to international shipping, eight years after it was closed because of the 1967 war with Israel. 1988 - Kay Cottee returns to Sydney, the first woman to sail solo around the world. 1998 - Volkswagen AG won approval to buy Rolls-Royce Motor Cars for $700 million, outbidding BMW’s $554 million offer.

1998 - C-Span reported that Bob Hope had died. The report was false and had begun with an inaccurate obituary on the Associated Press website.

2001 - Amazon.com announced that it would begin selling personal computers later in the year.