On this date

In 1618, in the Defenestration of Prague, Bohemian Protestants, angry over what they saw as a threat to their religious freedom, threw two Catholic imperial regents and their secretary out an upperstory palace window. The men survived the incident, which helped trigger the Thirty Years’ War.

In 1915, Italy declared war on Austria-Hungary during World War I.

In 1945, Nazi official Heinrich Himmler committed suicide by biting into a cyanide capsule while in British custody in Luneburg, Germany.

In 1967, Egypt closed the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping, an action that helped precipitate war between Israel and its Arab neighbors the following month.

In 1977, Moluccan extremists seized a train and a primary school in the Netherlands; the hostage drama ended June 11 as Dutch marines stormed the train, resulting in the deaths of six out of nine hijackers and two hostages, while the school siege ended peacefully.

In 1984, Surgeon General C. Everett Koop issued a report saying there was “very solid” evidence linking cigarette smoke to lung disease in non-smokers.

In 1993, a jury in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, acquitted Rodney Peairs of manslaughter in the shooting death of Yoshi Hattori, a Japanese exchange student he’d mistaken for an intruder. (Peairs was found liable in a civil suit filed by Hattori’s parents.)

Hillary Clinton apologized after citing the 1968 assassination of Robert F. Kennedy as a reason to remain in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination despite increasingly long odds.

Five years ago: The Boy Scouts of America threw open its ranks to gay Scouts, not to gay Scout leaders.

One year ago: Roger Moore, the suave star of seven James Bond films, died in Switzerland at age 89.