ON THIS DAY
NATIONAL DAY OF DENMARK
755: English missionary Boniface and 53 companions were murdered in Germany by unbelievers.
1916: Lord Kitchener, British general and conqueror of the Sudan, was lost at sea when his ship HMS Hampshire struck a mine off Orkney, en route to Russia. There were no survivors.
1944: The Cafe Gondree was the first place to be liberated from the Germans on the eve of the D-Day landings when paratroopers from the 6th Brigade dropped on the town on Benouville to seize the vital canal bridge.
1947: US Secretary of State George Marshall announced the Marshall Plan to help Europe recover from near-bankruptcy following the war.
1963: War minister John Profumo resigned, admitting he misled the House of Commons about his relationship with Christine Keeler.
1967: The Six-Day War between Israel and Egypt began.
1968: Robert Kennedy, American senator and younger brother of the late President John F Kennedy, was shot in the Hotel Ambassador in Los Angeles by a Jordanian Arab, Sirhan Bishara Sirhan, and died the following day.
1975: Egyptian president Sadat reopened the Suez Canal to all but Israeli shipping, after eight years of closure.
1975: In Britain’s first referendum, a large majority voted to stay in the Common Market – more than 17 million voted Yes and almost 8.5 million voted No.
1989: In Poland, Solidarity defeated the Communists in the first free elections since the end of the Second World War.
ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: A quarter of Venice was submerged by a near-record high tide for June, a time of year when such flooding is rare.
BIRTHDAYS: Margaret Drabble, author, 82; Nigel Rees, broadcaster/writer, 77; Laurie Anderson, musician, 74; Sir David Hare, playwright, 74; Ken Follett, writer, 72; Kenny G, saxophonist, 65; Ron Livingston, actor, 54; Mark Wahlberg, actor, 50; David Weir, Paralympic athlete, 42.