This Day in History — June 3
Today is the 154th day of 2022. There are 211 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT
1864: Considered one of the worst Northern defeats of the American Civil War, the second Battle of Cold Harbor (Virginia), which would result in the loss of about 7,000 Union soldiers under General Ulysses S Grant, begins.
OTHER EVENTS
350: Roman usurper Nepotianus, of the Constantinian dynasty, proclaims himself Roman emperor, entering Rome at the head of a group of gladiators.
1621: The Dutch West India Company receives its charter for a trade monopoly in parts of the Americas and Africa.
1781: Captain Jack Jouett begins riding his horse some 40 miles from Louisa County, Virginia, to Charlottesville, where Governor Thomas Jefferson and other politicians are located, to warn of approaching British troops who intend to take them prisoner.
1844: Great auks become extinct as the last two known specimens are killed by fishermen on Eldey island, Iceland (some sources give July 3, 1844, as the date of extinction).
1851: The first baseball uniforms are worn when the NY Knickerbockers wear a uniform of straw hats, white shirts and blue long trousers.
1899: W G Grace plays his last day of Test cricket at age 50 years and 320 days.
1918: His Family by Ernest Poole becomes the first novel to win the Pulitzer Prize.
1925: Baseball player Eddie Collins becomes the sixth to get 3,000 hits.
1929: Chile and Peru sign the Treaty of Lima, finally resolving their border dispute from the War of the Pacific (1879–83). Chile keeps Arica and Peru regains Tacna.
1933: William Muldoon, American wrestler and owner of New York health institute, The Olympia, dies at 88.
1937: Edward, The Duke of Windsor, who had abdicated the British throne, marries Wallis Simpson in a private ceremony in Monts, France.
1943: The “Zoot Suit Riots” begin in Los Angeles as white servicemen clash with young Latinos wearing distinctive-looking zoot suits; the violence ends when military officials declare the city off-limits to enlisted personnel.
1948: The 200-inch reflecting Hale Telescope at the Palomar Mountain Observatory in California is dedicated.
1955: Convicted murderer Barbara Graham, 31, is executed in the gas chamber at San Quentin State Prison in California, as are Jack Santo and Emmett Perkins, for the 1953 slaying of Mabel Monahan.
1964: Ringo Starr, drummer for the Beatles, collapses from tonsillitis and pharyngitis.
1965: Astronaut Edward H White becomes the first American to “walk” in space after emerging from the orbital spacecraft Gemini 4.
1967: Aretha Franklin’s cover of the Otis Redding song Respect reaches number one.
1968: Pop artist Andy Warhol is shot and critically wounded at his New York film studio, known as The Factory, by Valerie Solanas, an actress and self-styled militant feminist who ended up serving three years in prison for assault.
1969: Last episode of Star Trek airs on NBC (Turnabout Intruder).
1977: The United States and Cuba agree to set up diplomatic interests sections in each other’s countries; Cuba also announces the immediate release of 10 Americans jailed on drug charges.
1979: Ixtoc I rig in the Gulf of Mexico blows, spilling 3 million barrels of oil in one of the worst oil spills in history.
1985: Larry King Live debuts on CNN — airing each weeknight through December, 2010 — and becomes hugely popular, in part because of King’s easygoing interviewing style.
1989: Iran’s spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, dies. Beginning of the Tiananmen Square Massacre as Chinese troops open fire on pro-democracy supporters in Beijing. SkyDome (now called Rogers Centre) opens in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
1994: Two pre-dawn earthquakes in eastern Java, Indonesia, cause a series of tidal waves to lash the island; hardest hit is Banyuwangi where more than 200 sleeping residents are killed.
1997: John Holt, West Indian cricket batsman (17 Tests, 1066 runs at 36.75; two centuries), dies at 73.
2001: Mel Brooks’s musical The Producers, starring Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane, wins a record-setting 12 Tony Awards.
2006: Montenegro’s Parliament declares the republic’s independence, severing some 88 years of union with Serbia.
2008: Barack Obama claims the Democratic presidential nomination in a long-time-coming victory speech, speaking in the same St Paul, Minnesota, arena where Republicans would hold their national convention in September 2008. Astronauts install a 37-foot-long Japanese lab named Kibo at the international space station.
2013: The prosecution and defence present opening statements in the court-martial of US Army Pfc Bradley (now Chelsea) Manning over the biggest leak of classified material in American history. (Manning is found guilty at Fort Meade, Maryland, of espionage and theft and sentenced to up to 35 years in prison; her sentence was commuted after seven years by President Barack Obama.) A sharply divided Supreme Court clears the way for police to take a DNA swab from anyone they arrest for a serious crime. A suicide bomber targeting US troops outside an Afghanistan government office kills nine children and two of the Americans. Senator Frank Lautenberg, D-NJ, dies at a New York hospital at age 89. Football Hall of Fame defensive end Deacon Jones dies in Anaheim Hills, California, at age 74.
2016: Heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali dies at a hospital in Scottsdale, Arizona, at age 74. His cause of death is listed as septic shock caused by respiratory illness.
2017: A white van slams into pedestrians on London Bridge, killing eight people; the three attackers were later shot and killed by police. SpaceX launches its first recycled cargo ship to the International Space Station. Former major leaguer Jimmy Piersall, who bared his soul about his struggles with mental illness in his book Fear Strikes Out, dies in Wheaton, Illinois, at age 87. Albert Pujols of the Angels hits a grand slam for his 600th home run during the fourth inning of Los Angeles’ 7-2 victory over the Minnesota Twins. Edinson Volquez throws the sixth no-hitter in Marlins history, facing the minimum 27 batters and beating the Arizona Diamondbacks 3-0.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS
Raul Castro, former president of Cuba (1931- ); Anderson Cooper, TV host (1697- ); Josh Segarra, actor (1986- ); Lalaine, actress-singer (1987-); Sean Berdy (1993- ); Jefferson Davis, who became the president of the Confederate States of America (1808-1889 ); Dr Charles Richard, American physician and surgeon, and pioneer in the preservation of blood plasma and a lifelong critic of official decisions to separate the blood of whites and blacks in blood banks (1904- ); Josephine Baker (Freda Josephine McDonald), dancer, singer, spy and civil rights activist (1906-1975); Tony Curtis (1925-2010); American poet Allen Ginsberg, a central figure in the Beat movement (1926-1997); Maurice Evans, British actor (Planet of the Apes, Bewitched) (1901-1989); Rafael Nadal, tennis champion (1986- ).
— AP and Jamaica Observer