June 3
One-hundred-twenty miles above the earth, Major Edward H. White II opens the hatch of the Gemini 4 and steps out of the capsule, to become the first American astronaut to walk in space. – 1965.
June 4
The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to guarantee women the right to vote, is passed by Congress and sent to the states for ratification. – 1919.
Japanese Admiral Chuichi Nagumo, commander of the fleet that attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, launches a raid on Midway Island with almost the entirety of the Japanese navy. The attack on Midway was an unmitigated disaster for the Japanese, which resulted in the loss of 322 aircraft and the death of 3,500 men. They were forced to withdraw from the area before attempting a landing on the island they sought to conquer. – 1942.
Chinese troops storm through Tiananmen Square in the center of Beijing and kill and arrest thousands of pro-democracy protesters. The brutal Chinese government assault on the protesters shocked the West and brought denunciations and sanctions from the United States. – 1989.
June 5
Senator Robert Kennedy is shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles after winning the California presidential primary. Kennedy was shot several times by a 22-year-old Palestinian assassin. Kennedy died a day later. – 1968.
On this day, 3,400 members of the United Auto Workers (UAW) union walk out on their jobs at a General Motors (GM) metal-stamping factory in Flint, Mich. to begin a strike that will last seven weeks and stall production at GM facilities nationwide. – 1998.
June 6
The Ashmolean, the world’s first university museum, opens in Oxford, England. -1683.
A general strike by some 12,000 auto workers and others in Lansing, Mich. shuts down the city for a month in what was to become known as the city’s “Labor Holiday.” The strike was precipitated by the arrest of nine workers, including the wife of the auto workers local union president: The arrest left three children in the couple’s home unattended. – 1937.
Supreme Allied Commander General Dwight D. Eisenhower gives the go-ahead for the largest amphibious military operation in history: Operation Overlord, code named D-Day, the Allied invasion of German-occupied northern France in Normandy. – 1944.
More than 500 passengers are killed when their train plunges into the Baghmati River in India. The rail accident, the worst in India, was caused by an engineer, who was reverential of cows, when he tried to avoid a cow on the track. – 1981.
In a bloody climax of two years of fighting between the Indian government and Sikh separatists, Indian army troops fight their way into the besieged Golden Temple compound in Amritsar, the holiest shrine of Sikhism, and kill at least 500 Sikh rebels. – 1984.
June 7
Hudson Stuck, an Alaskan missionary, leads the first successful ascent of Mt. McKinley, Alaska, the highest point on the American continent at 20,320 feet. – 1913.
June 8
In Medina, in present-day Saudi Arabia, Muhammad, founder of Islam and one of the most influential religious and political leaders in history, dies in the arms of Aisah, his third and favorite wife. – 632.
Some 35,000 members of the Machinists union begin what is to become a 43-day strike, the largest in airline history, against five carriers. The mechanics and other ground service workers wanted to share in the airlines’ substantial profits. – 1966.
During the Six-Day War, Israeli aircraft and torpedo boats attack the USS Liberty in international waters off of Egypt’s Gaza Strip. – 1967.
Tropical Storm Allison hits Houston, Texas, for the second time in three days. Although Allison never even approached hurricane status, by the time it dissipated in New England a week later, it killed about 50 individuals and caused $5 Billion in damages. – 2001.
June 9
A flash flood in Rapid City, S.D., kills more than 200 individuals. This flood demonstrated the danger of building in a floodplain region. – 1972.
With a spectacular victory at the Belmont Stakes, Secretariat becomes the first horse since Citation in 1948 to win America’s coveted Triple Crown (the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes, and the Belmont Stakes). In one of the finest performances in racing history, Secretariat, ridden by Ron Turcotte, completed the 1.5-mile race in two minutes and 24 seconds, a dirt-track record for that distance. – 1973.