TODAY IN HISTORY
On May 30, 1989, student protesters in Beijing erected a “Goddess of Democracy” statue in Tiananmen Square. (The statue was destroyed in the Chinese government’s crackdown.)
Also on this date
In 1922, the Lincoln Memorial was dedicated in a ceremony in Washington, D.C., attended by President Warren G. Harding, Chief Justice William Howard Taft and Robert Todd Lincoln, the president’s eldest son.
In 1935, Babe Ruth played in his last major league baseball game for the Boston Braves, leaving after the first inning of the first game of a double-header against the Philadelphia Phillies, who won both games (Ruth announced his retirement three days later).
In 1937, 10 people were killed when police fired on steelworkers demonstrating near the Republic Steel plant in South Chicago.
In 1958, unidentified American service members killed in World War II and the Korean War were interred in the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery.
In 2002, a solemn, wordless ceremony marked the end of the agonizing cleanup at ground zero in New York, 81⁄2 months after Sept. 11.
In 2020, tense protests over the death of George Floyd and other police killings of Black people grew across the country; racially diverse crowds held mostly peaceful demonstrations in dozens of cities, though many later descended into violence, with police cars set ablaze.
In 2020, a rocket ship built by Elon Musk’s SpaceX took off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral to carry two Americans to the International Space Station; it ushered in a new era of commercial space travel.
Ten years ago: A gunman in Seattle fatally shot four people inside a cafe and a fifth victim in a carjacking before killing himself.
Five years ago: The Pentagon scored an important success in a test of its oft-criticized missile defense program, destroying a mock warhead over the Pacific Ocean with an interceptor.
One year ago: A restrictive voting bill in Texas that was on the verge of reaching Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk failed to pass after Democrats walked out of the House chamber before a midnight deadline. (After months of Democratic protests, the Republican-controlled legislature enacted sweeping changes in the state’s election code in August.)