Historical Events On June 3

Today is Tuesday, June 3, the 154th day of 2014. There are 211 days left in the year. Samantha Marie Sprackling Nigerian singer commonly known as Saffron was born 3 June 1968, in Lagos Nigeria.


June 3, 1989, Iran's spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, died. Chinese army troops began their sweep of Beijing to crush student-led pro-democracy demonstrations.
In 1621, the Dutch West India Co. received its charter for a trade monopoly in parts of the Americas and Africa.

In 1808, Confederate President Jefferson Davis was born in Christian County, Kentucky.
In 1888, the poem "Casey at the Bat," by Ernest Lawrence Thayer, was first published in the San Francisco Daily Examiner.

In 1924, author Franz Kafka, 40, died near Vienna.
In 1937, Edward, The Duke of Windsor, who had abdicated the British throne, married Wallis Warfield Simpson in a private ceremony in Monts, France.

In 1948, the 200-inch reflecting Hale Telescope at the Palomar Mountain Observatory in California was dedicated.
In 1963, Pope John XXIII died at age 81; he was succeeded by Pope Paul VI.

In 1964, South Korean President Park Chung-hee declared martial law in the face of student protests.
In 1965, astronaut Edward White became the first American to "walk" in space during the flight of Gemini 4.

In 1972, Sally J. Priesand was ordained as America's first female rabbi at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, Ohio.

In 1983, Gordon Kahl, a militant tax protester wanted in the slayings of two U.S. marshals in North Dakota, was killed in a gun battle with law-enforcement officials near Smithville, Arkansas.
In 1989, SkyDome (now called Rogers Centre) opened in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

In 2004, President George W. Bush announced the resignation of CIA Director George Tenet amid a controversy over intelligence lapses about suspected weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and the September 11 terrorist attacks. Frances Shand Kydd, the mother of the late Princess Diana, died at her home near Oban, Scotland, at age 68. Julio Franco became, at age 45, the oldest player in major league history to hit a grand slam, connecting in Atlanta's 8-4 victory over Philadelphia (he repeated the feat a year later, at age 46).

In 2009, New Hampshire became the sixth state to legalize same-sex marriage. The Organization of American States cleared the way for Cuba's possible return to the group by lifting a 47-year ban on the country. Death claimed Koko Taylor, 80, the "Queen of the Blues," in Chicago and Las Vegas saxophonist Sam Butera, 81.

In 2013, A suicide bomber targeting U.S. troops outside an Afghanistan government office killed 9 children and two of the Americans. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., died at a New York hospital at age 89. Football Hall of Fame defensive end Deacon Jones died in Anaheim Hills, California, at age 74.