Today in History

On This Day in:

1595 – Henry IV's army defeated the Spanish at the Battle of Fontaine-Francaise.

1752 – Benjamin Franklin flew a kite for the first time to demonstrate that lightning was a form of electricity.

1794 – The U.S. Congress prohibited citizens from serving in any foreign armed forces.

1827 – Athens fell to the Ottomans.

1851 – Harriet Beecher Stow published the first installment of 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' in 'The National Era.'

1865 – The first safe deposit vault was opened in New York. The charge was $1.50 a year for every $1,000 that was stored.

1884 – U.S. Civil War General William T. Sherman refused the Republican presidential nomination, saying, 'I will not accept if nominated and will not serve if elected.'

1917 – American men began registering for the World War I draft.

1924 – Ernst F. W. Alexanderson transmitted the first facsimile message across the Atlantic Ocean.

1927 – Johnny Weissmuller set two world records in swimming events. Weissmuller set marks in the 100-yard, and 200-yard, free-style swimming competition.

1933 – President Roosevelt signed the bill that took the U.S. off of the gold standard.

1940 – During World War II, the Battle of France began when Germany began an offensive in Southern France.

1942 – In France, Pierre Laval congratulated French volunteers that were fighting in the U.S.S.R. with Germans.

1944 – The first B-29 bombing raid hit the Japanese rail line in Bangkok, Thailand.

1946 – The first medical sponges were first offered for sale in Detroit, MI.

1947 – U.S. Secretary of State George C. Marshall gave a speech at Harvard University in which he outlined the Marshall Plan.

1956 – Premier Nikita Khrushchev denounced Josef Stalin to the Soviet Communist Party Congress.

1967 – The National Hockey League (NHL) awarded three new franchises. The Minnesota North Stars (later the Dallas Stars), the California Golden Seals (no longer in existence) and the Los Angeles Kings.

1967 – The Six Day War between Israel and Egypt, Syria and Jordan began.

1973 – The first hole-in-one in the British Amateur golf championship was made by Jim Crowford.

1975 – Egypt reopened the Suez Canal to international shipping, eight years after it was closed because of the 1967 war with Israel.

1981 – In the U.S., the Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported that five men in Los Angeles were suffering from a rare pneumonia found in patients with weakened immune systems.

They were the first recognized cases of what later became known as AIDS.

1986 – A federal jury in Baltimore convicted Ronald W. Pelton of selling secrets to the Soviet Union. Pelton was sentenced to three life prison terms plus 10 years.

1987 – Ted Koppel and guests discussed the topic of AIDS for four hours on ABC-TV’s 'Nightline'.

1998 – A strike began at a General Motors Corp. parts factory near Detroit, MI, that closed five assembly plants and idled workers across the U.S. for seven weeks.

1998 – Volkswagen AG won approval to buy Rolls-Royce Motor Cars for $700 million, outbidding BMW's $554 million offer.

1998 – C-Span reported that Bob Hope had died. The report was false and had begun with an inaccurate obituary on the Associated Press website.

1998 – A strike at a General Motors parts factory began. It lasted for seven weeks.

2001 – Amazon.com announced that it would begin selling personal computers later in the year.

2004 – The U.S.S. Jimmy Carter was christened in the U.S. Navy in Groton, CT.

Born on June 5:

Adam Smith 1723 – Author 'Pancho' Villa (Francisco Villa, José Doroteo Arango Arámbula) -Mexican Revolutionary general John Maynard Keynes 1883 – Economist William Boyd (William Lawrence Boyd) 1895 – Actor Dennis Gabor 1900 – Electrical engineer, inventor of holography Eddie Joost 1916 – Baseball player 'Specs' Powell (Gordon 'Specs' Powell) 1922 – Drummer Bill Hayes (William 'Bill' Foster Hayes III) 1925 – Actor Tony Richardson (Cecil Antonio 'Tony' Richardson) 1928 -Director, producer Robert Lansing (Robert Howell Brown) 1929 – Actor Jacques Demy 1931 – Filmmaker Pete Jolly 1932 – Musician Bill Moyers 1934 – Broadcast journalist Spalding Gray 1941 – Actor, playwright, screenwriter Floyd Butler 1941 – Musician (The Friends of Distinction) Don Reid 1945 – Musician (The Statler Brothers) Fred Stone 1946 – Musician (Sly & The Family Stone) Laurie Anderson 1947 – Singer Gail Davies 1948 – Country singer Ken Follet 1949 – Author Wayne Wood 1951 – Hockey player Suze Orman (Susan Orman) 1951 – TV personality Marva Jean Brooks 1954 – Wife of Muddy Waters Nicko McBrain 1954 – Musician (Iron Maiden) Kenny G. 1956 – Musician

BIBLE VERSE

“Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

Philippians 3:13-14 (ESV)