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- 0350 Roman usurper Nepotianus, of the Constantinian dynasty, proclaims himself Roman Emperor, entering Rome at the head of a group of gladiators.
- 1098 Christian Crusaders seize Antioch, Turkey
- 1098 First Crusade: Antioch falls to the crusaders after an eight-month siege.
- 1140 French scholar Peter Abelard is found guilty of heresy.
- 1326 Treaty of Novgorod delineates borders between Russia and Norway in Finnmark.
- 1539 DeSoto claims Florida for Spain
- 1539 Hernando De Soto claims Florida for Spain
- 1608 Samuel de Champlain completes his third voyage to New France at Tadoussac, Quebec.
- 1620 Construction of the oldest stone church in French North America, Notre-Dame-des-Anges, begins at Quebec City, Quebec, Canada.
- 1621 The Dutch West India Company receives a charter for New Netherlands, better known as New York
- 1658 The Pope appoints Franois de Laval vicar apostolic in New France.
- 1665 James Stuart, Duke of York (later to become King James II of England) defeats the Dutch Fleet off the coast of Lowestoft.
- 1761 Birth - Henry Scrapnel English inventor (shrapnel shell)
- 1770 Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo founded in Calif
- 1780 Birth - William Hone England, author/bookseller (The Every-Day Book)
- 1781 Jack Jouett rides to warn Jefferson of British attack
- 1789 Alex Mackenzie explores Mackenzie River (Canada)
- 1800 U.S. President John Adams takes up residence in Washington, DC (in a tavern the White House was not yet completed).
- 1804 Birth - Richard Cobden founder Anti-Corn-Law League
- 1808 Birth - Jefferson Davis Ky, Pres of Confederate States of America (1861-5)
- 1833 4th national black convention meets (Phila)
- 1844 Birth - Garret Augustus Hobart (R) 24th US VP (1897-99)
- 1850 The traditional founding date of Kansas City, Missouri. This was the date on which it was first incorporated by Jackson County, Missouri as the "City of Kansas".
- 1851 The first baseball uniforms worn. Knickerbockers wear straw hat, white shirt & blue long trousers
- 1856 Opening of Windsor Branch Railway from Windsor to Windsor Jc., N.S. by Nova Scotia government. This was the oldest constituent of the Dominion Atlantic Railway.
- 1860 Comanche, Iowa completely destroyed by 1 of a series of tornadoes
- 1861 First Civil War land battle-Union defeats Confederacy at Philippi, WV
- 1864 Birth - Ransom Eli Olds auto (Oldsmobile) & truck (REO) manufacturer
- 1865 Birth - George V king of England (1910-36)
- 1866 Fenians are driven out of Fort Erie, Ontario, into the United States to a heroes' welcome.
- 1877 Birth - Raoul Dufy France, Fauvist painter (The Palm)
- 1881 Death - Japanese giant salamander dies in Dutch zoo at 55; oldest amphibian
- 1885 Last military engagement fought on Canadian soil: Cree leader Big Bear escapes the North West Mounted Police.
- 1888 "Casey at the Bat" published (SF Examiner)
- 1888 The poem "Casey at the Bat", by Ernest Lawrence Thayer, is published in the San Francisco Examiner.
- 1889 The Canadian Pacific Railway is completed from coast to coast.
- 1889 The first long-distance electric power transmission line in the United States is completed, running 14 miles between a generator at Willamette Falls and downtown Portland, Oregon, United States.
- 1895 Birth - Kavalam Madhava Panikkar India, statesman/diplomat/writer
- 1900 The International Ladies' Garment Workers Union is founded
- 1901 Birth - Maurice Evans Dorchester England, actor (Maurice-Bewitched)
- 1904 Birth - Dr Charles Drew Washington DC, pioneer of blood plasma preservation/first director of the Red Cross blood bank
- 1904 Birth - Jan Peerce [Jacob Pincus Perelmuth], NYC, tenor (NY Met Opera)
- 1906 Birth - Josephine Baker dancer/singer/Parisian night club owner
- 1907 Centro Escolar University was established by Librada Avelino and Carmen de Luna in Manila, Philippines.
- 1911 Birth - Dr Mason Gross TV professor (Think Fast, Two for the Money)
- 1911 Birth - Olaf Okern Norway, Nordic skier (Olympic-medal-1948)
- 1911 Birth - Paulette Goddard [Marion Levy], Switz, actress (The Great Dictator)
- 1913 Birth - Ellen Corby Racine Wisc, actress (Grandma Walton-The Waltons)
- 1916 The National Defense Act is signed into law, increasing the size of the United States National Guard by 450,000 men.
- 1916 The ROTC is established by the U.S. Congress.
- 1918 Supreme Court rules child labor laws unconstitutional
- 1919 Liberty Life Insurance Co (Chicago) organized by blacks
- 1921 A sudden cloudburst kills 120 near Pikes Peak, Colorado
- 1922 Birth - Alain Resnais France, director (Providence, Hiroshima, Mon Amour)
- 1924 Gila Wilderness Area established by Forest Service
- 1925 Birth - Tony Curtis [Bernard Schwartz], actor (Some Like It Hot, Trapeze)
- 1925 Goodyear airship "Pilgrim" makes first flight (It is the first airship with enclosed cabin)
- 1926 Birth - Allen Ginsberg beat poet (Howl)
- 1926 Birth - Colleen Dewhurst Montreal Canada, actress (Maggie-Blue & Grey)
- 1929 Birth - Chuck Barris Phila, TV game show producer/host (Gong Show)
- 1929 Border dispute between Peru & Chile resolved
- 1929 First trade show at Atlantic City Convention Center (electric light)
- 1932 New York Yankee great Lou Gehrig hits four home runs in one game against the Philadelphia Athletics. Final score 20-13 in favour of the Yankees.
- 1933 Death - William Muldoon Belfast NY, boxing commissioner, dies at 88
- 1934 Dr Frederick Banting co-discoverer of insulin, is knighted
- 1935 One thousand unemployed Canadian workers board freight cars in Vancouver, British Columbia, beginning a protest trek to Ottawa, Ontario.
- 1935 The French steamship Normandie sets Atlantic crossing record of 1,077 hours
- 1937 The Duke of Windsor, who had abdicated the British throne, marries Wallis Warfield Simpson.
- 1940 World War II: The Luftwaffe bombs Paris.
- 1941 Author Irving Wallace marries writer Sylvia Kahn
- 1942 Birth - Curtis Mayfield singer (Freddie's Dead, Superfly)
- 1943 A mob of 60 from the Los Angeles Naval Reserve Armory beats up everyone perceived to be Hispanic, starting the week-long Zoot Suit Riots.
- 1943 Birth - Billy Cunningham NBA/ABA (Phila 76ers, Carolina Cougers)
- 1944 Birth - Michael Clarke drummer (Byrds)
- 1945 Birth - Hale Irwin PGA golfer (US Open 1974, 79)
- 1946 Birth - Ian Hunter England, rocker (Mott the Hoople-All the Young Dudes)
- 1946 Birth - Tristan Rogers Australia, actor (Robert Scorpio-General Hospital)
- 1948 Korczak Ziolkowski begins sculpture of Crazy Horse near Mt Rushmore
- 1948 The 200" (5.08 m) Hale telescope dedicated at Palomar Observatory
- 1949 Death - Amedos Peter Giannine founder of Bank of America dies at 79
- 1949 The first negro to graduate from US Naval Academy (Wesley Anthony Brown)
- 1950 Birth - Suzi Quatro Detroit, singer (Stumblin' In)/actress (Happy Days)
- 1951 Birth - Christopher Cross Texas, singer (Sailing)
- 1951 Birth - Deniece Williams singer (Love Wouldn't Let Me Wait)
- 1952 Birth - Billy Powell keyboards (Lynyrd Skynyrd-That Smell, Freebird)
- 1953 Billy Joe McAllister jumps off the Tallahatchie Bridge, according to the 1967 hit song Ode to Billy Joe by Bobbie Gentry, and the movie which followed.
- 1956 Birth - Suren Nalbandyan USSR, lightweight (Olympic-gold-1976)
- 1956 British Rail renames 'Third Class' passenger facilities as 'Second Class' (Second Class facilities had been abolished in 1875, leaving just First Class and Third Class).
- 1957 Howard Cosell's first TV show
- 1958 Birth - Scott Valentine actor (Nick-Family Ties, My Demon Lover)
- 1960 Seven helicopters of HS-4 from Yorktown rescued 53 merchant seamen from the British freighter Shun Lee which was breaking up on Pratas Reef, 500 miles northwest of Manila
- 1960 Test launchings of Bullpup air-to-surface missiles from a Marine Corps HUS-1 helicopter were successfully completed at the Naval Air Test Center, Patuxent River.
- 1960 Visitor posting - Frank Wolinski Jr. Was born - USA [email protected]
- 1962 Air France Boeing 707 crashes on takeoff from Paris, kills 130
- 1963 A Northwest Airlines DC-7 crashes in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of British Columbia, killing 101.
- 1963 Visitor posting - Karen's birthday June 3, 1963
- 1963 Death - Paul Maxey actor (Matt-Lassie, Mayor-People's Choice), dies at 57
- 1963 Death - Pope John XXIII dies at 81
- 1964 Ringo Starr collapses from tonsilitis & pharyngitis
- 1964 Rolling Stones begin first US tour (with Bobby Goldsboro & Bobby Vee)
- 1965 For 21 minutes, Edward H. White floats free outside the space vehicle Gemini IV for the first time.
- 1965 Launch of Gemini 4, the first multi-day space mission by a NASA crew.
- 1965 Visitor posting - Brian Callan Is Born 1965 on This Day
- 1966 Gemini 9 launched; 7th US 2-man flight (Stafford & Cernan)
- 1968 Valerie Solanas, author of The SCUM Manifesto, attempts to assassinate Andy Warhol by shooting him three times.
- 1969 Melbourne-Evans collision - Off the coast of South Vietnam, the Australian aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne cuts the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Frank E. Evans in half.
- 1971 Visitor posting - jeff heeley of suffolk england born on this day - United Kingdom
- 1973 A Soviet supersonic Tupolev Tu-144 crashes near Goussainville, France, killing 14, the first crash of a supersonic passenger aircraft.
- 1975 Death - Ozzie Nelson actor (Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet), dies at 69
- 1976 Queen's Bhoemian Rhapsody goes gold
- 1976 US presented with oldest known copy of Magna Carta
- 1977 Reggae stars Bob Marley and the Wailers release the classic album Exodus, which would be named Time magazine's "Album of the Century" in 1999.
- 1979 A blowout at the Ixtoc I oil well in the southern Gulf of Mexico causes at least 600,000 tons (176,400,000 gallons) of oil to be spilled into the waters, the worst oil spill to date.
- 1979 The oil rig Ixtoc I in Gulf of Mexico blows; 3 million bbl of oil spilled
- 1980 Crew of Soyuz 36 returns to Earth aboard Soyuz 35
- 1980 ESPN begins televising college world series games
- 1980 Jimmy Carter wins enough delegates for renomination
- 1981 Death - Dr Carleton Coon anthropology prof (What in the World), dies at 76
- 1981 Pope John Paul II released from hospital after attempt on life
- 1982 The Israeli ambassador to the United Kingdom, Shlomo Argov, is shot on a London street. He survives but is permanently paralysed.
- 1984 The Indian Army storms the Golden Temple (Harmandir Sahib), the most sacred shrine of Sikhism, near Amritsar.
- 1984 Visitor posting - Adriane was born this day. - USA
- 1986 Death - Patricia Wheel actress (Christine-Woman to Remember), dies at 42
- 1986 E F Helin discovers asteroid #3767
- 1987 Death - Will Sampson actor (From Here to Eternity, Yellow Rose), dies at 54
- 1989 Chinese troops kill hundred of pro-democracy students in Beijing
- 1989 Country singer Rebe McEntire weds her manager Narvel Blackstone
- 1989 The government of China sends troops to force protesters out of Tiananmen Square after seven weeks of occupation.
- 1989 Troops in China shoot & kill 100s of students demonstrating for democracy in Tiananmen Square, Beijing
- 1991 Death - Harry Glicken volcanologist, killed by Mt Unzen Volcano in Japan
- 1991 Death - Thomas C Lasorda artist/son Dodger manager, dies of pneumonia at 33
- 1991 Mount Unzen erupts in Japan in Kysh killing 43 people, all of them either researchers or journalists.
- 1992 Visitor posting - Madelynn O. Miller was born in Ohio - USA [email protected]
- 1993 Visitor posting - Cameron M Sampson Born. Pets - One cat and one dog - USA
- 1994 Visitor posting - Krissy Smith is born. I love you Krissy, the most awesome roommate EVER. ~Jane - USA
- 1994 Visitor posting - Ashlynn M. was born on this date!!! - USA
- 1998 Eschede train disaster: an ICE high speed train derails in Lower Saxony, Germany, causing 101 deaths.
- 2002 UK hist Two Bank Holidays declared in UK (Jun 3 & 4) to celebrate the Queen's Golden Jubilee
- 2002 Visitor posting - Jack is born! - USA
- 2006 The union of Serbia and Montenegro comes to an end with Montenegro's formal declaration of independence.
More historical events added daily - keep checking back