TODAY IN HISTORY
1621: The Dutch West India Co. received its charter for a trade monopoly in parts of the Americas and Africa.
1888: The poem “Casey at the Bat” by Ernest Lawrence Thayer was first published in the San Francisco Daily Examiner.
1935: The French liner Normandie set a record on its maiden voyage, arriving in New York after crossing the Atlantic in just four days.
1937: Edward, the Duke of Windsor, who had abdicated the British throne, married Wallis Simpson in a private ceremony in Monts, France.
1962: Air France Flight 007, a U.S.-bound Boeing 707, crashed while attempting to take off from Orly Airport near Paris; all but two of the 132 people aboard were killed.
1965: Astronaut Edward H. White became the first American to “walk” in space during the flight of Gemini 4.
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. 1989: Chinese army troops began their sweep of Beijing to crush student-led pro-democracy demonstrations. Iran’s spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, died.
2008: Barack Obama claimed the Democratic presidential nomination, speaking in the same St. Paul, Minn., arena where the GOP would be holding its national convention in September 2008. 2011: Physician-assisted suicide advocate Dr. Jack Kevorkian died at a Michigan hospital at 83. Actor James Arness (TV: “Gunsmoke”), 88, died in Brentwood.
2016: Heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad
Ali died at a hospital in Scottsdale, Ariz., at age 74. 2020: Prosecutors charged three more police officers in the death of George Floyd and filed a new, tougher charge of second-degree murder against Derek Chauvin, the officer who was caught on video pressing his knee to Floyd’s neck. (Chauvin would be convicted on all charges.) Defense Secretary Mark Esper took issue with President Donald Trump’s threats to use the full force of the military to quell street protests. Enforcing a curfew, police in New York City moved in on crowds of demonstrators, at times blasting people with pepper spray.