Today in History: Wednesday, June 03, 2015
On this date in:
1621 The Dutch West India Company received a charter for New Netherlands, present-day New York City.
1888 The poem “Casey at the Bat” by Ernest Lawrence Thayer was first published, in the San Francisco Daily Examiner.
1937, the Duke of Windsor married American divorcee Wallis Warfield Simpson, for whom he had abdicated the British throne.
1963 Pope John XXIII died at age 81.
1965 Astronaut Edward White became the first American to walk in space, during the flight of Gemini 4.
1989 Chinese army troops began a sweep of Beijing to crush student-led pro-democracy demonstrations.
1989 Iran’s spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, died.
1999 Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic accepted a peace plan for Kosovo designed to end mass expulsions of ethnic Albanians and 11 weeks of NATO airstrikes.
2001 Mel Brooks’ musical comedy “The Producers” won a record 12 Tony Awards.
2008 Barack Obama clinched the Democratic presidential nomination.
2009 New Hampshire became the sixth state to legalize same-sex marriage.
2011 Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh was wounded when rebel rockets barraged his palace; he later went to Saudi Arabia for treatment.
2011 Physician-assisted suicide advocate Dr. Jack Kevorkian died at a Michigan hospital at age 83.
Today’s Birthdays:
Broadcast journalist, Anderson Cooper turns 48 years old today.
Chuck Barris, Game show host, (“The Gong Show”), 86
Larry McMurtry, Author, 79
Ian Hunter, Rock musician, (Mott the Hoople), 76
Billy Cunningham, Basketball Hall of Famer, 72
Penelope Wilton Actress (“Downton Abbey”), 69
Suzi Quatro, Singer, 65
Mike Gordon, Rock musician, (Phish), 50
Tennis player, Rafael Nadal turns 29 years old today.