TODAY IN WORLD HISTORY
Today is Saturday, June 3, the 154th day of 2017. There are 211 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History
On June 3, 2016, Muhammad Ali, the heavyweight boxing champion whose fast fists and irrepressible personality transcended sports and captivated the world, died at a hospital in Scottsdale, Ariz., at age 74.
On this date
• In 1888, the poem “Casey at the Bat” by Ernest Lawrence Thayer was first published in the San Francisco Daily Examiner.
• In 1937, Edward, The Duke of Windsor, who had abdicated the British throne, married Wallis Simpson in a private ceremony in Monts, France.
• In 1948, the 200-inch reflecting Hale Telescope at the Palomar Mountain Observatory in California was dedicated.
• In 1963, Pope John XXIII died at age 81; he was succeeded by Pope Paul VI.
• In 1965, astronaut Edward H. White became the first American to “walk” in space during the flight of Gemini 4.
• In 1977, the United States and Cuba agreed to set up diplomatic interests sections in each other’s countries; Cuba also announced the immediate release of 10 Americans jailed on drug charges.
• In 1989, Iran’s spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, died. Chinese army troops began their sweep of Beijing to crush studentled pro-democracy demonstrations.
On June 4
• In 1783, the Montgolfier brothers first publicly demonstrated their hot-air balloon, which did not carry any passengers, over Annonay, France.
• In 1812, the Louisiana Territory was renamed the Missouri Territory, to avoid confusion with the recently admitted state of Louisiana. The U.S. House of Representatives approved, 79-49, a declaration of war against Britain.
• In 1939, the German ocean liner MS St. Louis, carrying more than 900 Jewish refugees from Germany, was turned away from the Florida coast by U.S. officials.
• In 1940, during World War II, the Allied military evacuation of some 338,000 troops from Dunkirk, France, ended. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill declared: “We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.”
• In 1947, the Christmastime tale “Miracle on 34th Street,” a 20th Century Fox production, opened in New York.
• In 1977, the VHS home videocassette recorder was introduced to North America by JVC during a press conference in Chicago.
On June 5
• In 1794, Congress passed the Neutrality Act, which prohibited Americans from taking part in any military action against a country that was at peace with the United States.
• In 1884, Civil War hero Gen. William T. Sherman refused the Republican presidential nomination, saying, “I will not accept if nominated and will not serve if elected.”
• In 1917, about 10 million American men between the ages of 21 and 31 began registering for the draft in World War I.
• In 1933, the United States went off the gold standard.
• In 1947, Secretary of State George C. Marshall gave a speech at Harvard University in which he outlined an aid program for Europe that came to be known as The Marshall Plan.
• In 1950, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Henderson v. United States, struck down racially segregated railroad dining cars.
• In 1968, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated after claiming victory in California’s Democratic presidential primary; gunman Sirhan Bishara Sirhan was arrested.
• In 2002, 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart was abducted from her Salt Lake City home. (Smart was found alive by police in a Salt Lake suburb in March 2003; her kidnappers, Brian David Mitchell and Wanda Barzee, are serving prison sentences.)
• In 2004, Ronald Wilson Reagan, the 40th president of the United States, died in Los Angeles at age 93 after a long struggle with Alzheimer’s disease.