June 4

Birthdays:

1975 ~ Angelina Jolie, American actress.

1936 ~ Bruce Dern, American actor.

1928 ~ Dr. Ruth Westheimer, German-American sex therapist and author.

1916 ~ Robert F. Furchgott (d. 2009), American chemist and recipient of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.  He died at age 92.

1907 ~ Rosalind Russell (d. 1976), American actress.  She died at age 69.

1885 ~ Arturo Rawson (d. 1952), 26^th President of Argentina.  He died at age 67.

1877 ~ Heinrich Wieland (d. 1957), German biochemist and recipient of the 1927 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.  He died at age 80.

1738 ~ King George III of the United Kingdom (d. 1820).  He died at age 81.

1394 ~ Philippa of England, Queen of Denmark, Norway and Sweden (d. 1430).  She died at age 35.  Her mother, Mary de Bohun died giving birth to Philippa.

Events that Changed the World:

2012 ~ The Diamond Jubilee Concert was held outside Buckingham Palace in honor of Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee celebration of serving 60 years on the throne.

1989 ~ Ali Khamenei was elected as the new Supreme Leader of Iran following the death of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

1989 ~ The Tiananmen Square protest ended violently in Beijing by the People’s Liberation Army.  Over 240 individuals were killed in the protest.

1964 ~ The Beatles began their World Tour in Copenhagen, Denmark.

1943 ~ Argentine President Ramón Castillo (1873 ~ 1944) was ousted in a military coup .

1942 ~ The Battle of Midway in World War II began.

1939 ~ The MS St. Louis, a ship carrying 963 Jewish refugees, was denied permission to land in Florida.  The ship was forced to return to Europe and more than 200 of its passengers were murdered in the Nazi concentration camps.

1919 ~ The United States Congress approved the 19^th Amendment to the US Constitution, which guarantees suffrage to women.  It was then sent to the States for ratification.

1917 ~ The first Pulitzer Prizes were awarded. The Prize is an award for achievement in journalism, literature, and musical composition.  Joseph Pulitzer established the award in his will.

1912 ~ Massachusetts became the first state to set a minimum wage for workers.

1855 ~ The United States Department of the Army sent Major Henry Wayne to the Middle East to procure camels for the US Camel Corps.  The camel experiment was not successful and the project was abandoned within 10 years.

1812 ~ Because Louisiana had been admitted into the Union, the area of land that had been called the Louisiana territory was renamed the Missouri territory.

1792 ~ Captain George Vancouver (1757 ~ 1798) claimed the Puget Sound for the Great Britain.

1411 ~ French King Charles VI granted a monopoly to the people of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon for the ripening process of Roquefort Cheese.

1039 ~ Henry III of Germany became the Holy Roman Emperor.

Good-Byes:

2015 ~ Leonid Plyushch (b. 1938), Ukrainian mathematician.  He died at age 77.

2014 ~ Don Zimmer (b. 1931), American infielder, manager, and longtime coach of the Boston Red Sox.  He was the journeyman who became the face of baseball.  He died at age 83.

2014 ~ Chester Nez (b. 1921), the Navajo warrior who baffled the Japanese.  He was the last of the World War II Navajo code-talkers.  He died of kidney failure at age 93.

2011 ~ Lawrence Eagleburger (b. 1930), 62^nd Secretary of State.  He served under President George H.W. Bush.  He was a career diplomat beloved for his bluntness.

2010 ~ John Wooden (b. 1910), American basketball player and college coach.  He died at age 99.

2002 ~ Fernando Belaúnde Terry (b. 1912), 42^nd President of Peru.  He died at age 89.

1989 ~ Dik Browne (né Richard Arthur Allan Browne, b. 1917), American cartoonist.  He created such cartoons as Hägar the Horrible and Hi and Lois.  He died at age 71.

1973 ~ Maurice René Fréchet (b. 1878), French mathematician.  He died at age 94.

1968 ~ Dorothy Gish (b. 1898), American silent film star.  She died at age 70.

1941 ~ Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany (b. 1859).  He was the grandson of British Queen Victoria.  He had abdicated the throne in 1918 and fled to the Netherlands where he lived until his death at age 82.

1929 ~ Harry Frazee (b. 1880), owner of the Boston Red Sox from 1916-1923.  He died at age 48 of kidney failure.

1918 ~ Charles Warren Fairbanks (b. 1852), 26^th Vice President of the United States.  He served under President Theodore Roosevelt.

1887 ~ William A. Wheeler (b. 1819), 19^th Vice President of the United States.  He served under President Rutherford B. Hayes.

1801 ~ Frederick Mulhenberg (b. 1750), American minister and politician.  He served as the 1^st and 3^rd Speaker of the United States House of Representatives.  He died at age 51.

1798 ~ Giacomo Casanova (b. 1725), Italian adventurer and womanizer.  He died at age 73.

1394 ~ Mary de Bohun (d, 1369), English wife of King Henry IV of England.  She died before Henry ascended to the throne.  She died in childbirth at age 25 or 26.

1134 ~ Magnus I of Sweden (d. 1106).  The exact date of his birth is unknown.  He is believed to have been 27 or 28 at the time of his death.

1039 ~ Conrad II, Holy Roman Emperor.  He served as the Holy Roman Emperor from March 1027 until his death at age 49 on this date 12 years later.

June 1

Birthdays:

1974 ~ Alanis Morissette, Canadian musician.

1973 ~ Heidi Klum, German model.

1968 ~ Mathias Rust, German pilot who, on May 28, 1987, illegally landed his small plane in Red Square in Moscow.  He was 18 years old at the time of this flight.

1966 ~ Mark Filip, Acting US Attorney General for a few weeks after Barack Obama was sworn in as President.  His tenure ended when Erick Holder was sworn in as Attorney General on February 3, 2009.

1955 ~ Tony Snow (né Robert Anthony Snow, d. 2008), 26^th White House Press Secretary.  He was the sharp-tongued broadcaster who spoke for President George W. Bush.  He died at age 53 from colon cancer.

1953 ~ David Berkowitz, American serial killer who went by the name of Son of Sam.

1947 ~ Jonathan Pryce, Welsh actor.

1947 ~ Ronnie Wood (né Ronald David Wood), English guitarist and member of The Rolling Stones.

1937 ~ Colleen McCullough (d. 2015), Australian novelist.  She was a prolific author best known for her novel The Thorn Birds.  She was 77 years old.

1937 ~ Morgan Freeman, American actor.

1935 ~ The Reverend Ike (b. né Frederick J. Eikerenkoetter, II, d. 2009), American minister who preached the gospel of wealth.  He died at age 74.

1933 ~ Charlie Wilson (d. 2010), American Representative from Texas and “party animal” behind the movie Charlie Wilson’s War.  He died at age 76.

1930 ~ Edward Woodward (d. 2009), the suave English actor who was televisions The Equalizer.  He died at age 79.

1926 ~ Marilyn Monroe (née Norma Jean Mortenson, d. 1962), American model and actress.  She committed suicide at age 36.

1926 ~ Andy Griffith (d. 2012), American actor best known as the TV sheriff who solved problems with common sense.  He died at age 86.

1926 ~ Richard Schweiker (d. 2015), 14^th United States Secretary of Health and Human Services.  He served in this office under the Ronald Reagan administration from January 1981 until February 1983.  He was 89 at the time of his death.

1917 ~ William Standish Knowles (d. 2012), American chemist and recipient of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.  He died 12 days after his 95^th birthday.

1907 ~ Sir Frank Whittle (d. 1996), British inventor and pioneer in the development of the turbojet engine.  He died at age 89.

1899 ~ Edward Charles Titchmarsh (d. 1963), English mathematician.  He died at age 63.

1843 ~ Henry Faulds (d. 1930), Scottish physician best known for the development of fingerprinting.

1833 ~ John Marshall Harlan (d. 1911), Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States of America.  He was appointed to the High Court by President Rutherford Hayes.  He served on the Court from November 1877 until his death in October 1911.

1831 ~ John Bell Hood (d. 1879), Confederate General.  He died of yellow fever in New Orleans, Louisiana at age 48.

1801 ~ Brigham Young (d. 1877), Mormon leader.  He died at age 76.

1791 ~ John Nelson (d. 1860), 17^th US Attorney General in the John Tyler administration.  He served in that office from July 1843 until March 1845.  He died at age 68.

1637 ~ Jacques Marquette (d. 1675), French explorer and Roman Catholic missionary who, along with Louis Jolliet, explored the Mississippi River.  He died at age 37.

Events that Changed the World:

2011 ~ A tornado outbreak struck in Springfield, Massachusetts killing at least 4 people.

2009 ~ Air France Flight 447, while en route to Paris from Rio de Janeiro, crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of shortly after take-off.  All 228 passengers and crew were killed.  Almost exactly 2 years later, researchers discovered that the crash was due to pilot failure.

2001 ~ A Hamas suicide bomber killed 21 people at the Dolphinarium, a disco, in Tel Aviv.

2001 ~ Nepalese Crown Prince Dipendra (1971 ~ 2001) shot and killed several members of the royal family, including his parents, King Birendra (1945 ~ 2001) and Queen Aiswarya (1949 ~ 2001).  He was said to have killed his family over a marriage dispute because his parents disapproved of the woman he wanted to marry.  The Prince was injured in the massacre, but was named King after he had killed his father, despite being in a coma.  He died from his wounds on June 3, 2001.  His uncle, King Birendra’s brother, Gyanedra then became king.

1990 ~ US President George H.W. Bush and Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev signed a treaty to end chemical weapon production.

1980 ~ The Cable News Network (CNN) began broadcasting.

1974 ~ The procedure for the Heimlich maneuver was published in the journal Emergency Medicine.

1967 ~ The Beatles released their Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album.

1943 ~ British Overseas Airways Corporation Flight 777 was shot down over the Bay of Biscay by the Germans, killing all 17 crew and passengers aboard, including Leslie Howard (1893 ~ 1943) was aboard  It has been speculated that the Germans believed British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was on the flight, and the plane was targeted as an assassination attempt.

1941 ~ The Farhud, a pogrom of Iraqi Jews, began in Baghdad.  During the two days of rioting, which occurred on the Jewish holiday of Shavout, 175 Jews were killed and over 1000 were injured.  In addition, Jewish homes and shops were looted and destroyed.

1916 ~ Louis Brandeis (1856 ~ 1941) was confirmed as the first Jewish member of the United States Supreme Court.

1831 ~ James Clark Ross (1800 ~ 1862) discovered the Magnetic North Pole.

1812 ~ President James Madison asked Congress to declare war on the United Kingdom during the War of 1812.

1796 ~ Tennessee became the 16th State of the Union.

1792 ~ Kentucky became the 15th State of the Union.

1779 ~ Benedict Arnold (1741 ~ 1801), a general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, was court-martialed for being a traitor.

1533 ~ Anne Boleyn (1501 ~ 1536) was crowned Queen of England.

1495 ~ Friar John Cor recorded the first known batch of Scotch whisky.

987 ~ Hugh Capet was elected King of France.  His coronation was on July 3, 987.

Good-Byes:

2013 ~ Hanfried Lenz (b. 1916), German mathematician.

2008 ~ Yves Saint Laurent (b. 1936), French fashion designer.  He was 71 years old.

2005 ~ George Mikan (b. 1924), the Lakers legend who was basketball’s first superstar.  He died less than 2 weeks before his 81^st birthday.

2005 ~ Hilda Crosby Standish (b. 1902), American physician who was a leader in the birth control movement.  The exact date of her birth is unknown, but she was at least 102 at the time of her death.

2004 ~ William Manchester (b. 1922), American historian and writer.  He was 82 years old.

2001 ~ Hank Ketcham (b. 1920), American cartoonist and creator of Dennis the Menace.  He was 81 years old.

2000 ~ Tito Puente (né Ernesto Antonio Puente, b. 1923), American musician.  He was 77 years old.

1980 ~ Arthur Neilsen (b. 1897), American market analyst and founder of the AC Nielsen company.  He was 82 years old.

1979 ~ Werner Forssmann (b. 1904), German physician and recipient of the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work with heart catheterization.  He was 74 years old.

1968 ~ Helen Keller (b. 1880), American author and activist.  In her early childhood, she was stricken with scarlet fever, which left her deaf and blind.  She was 87 years old.

1962 ~ Adolf Eichmann (b. 1906), German Nazi official.  After hiding out in Argentina for many years following World War II, he was captured by Mossad and brought to trial in Jerusalem.  He was found guilty of war crimes and hanged.  He was 56 years old.

1943 ~ Leslie Howard (b. 1893), English actor best known for his role as Ashley Wilkes in Gone with the Wind.  He was killed when the plane he was in was shot down over the Bay of Biscay by German during World War II.  He was 50 years old.

1927 ~ Lizzie Borden (b. 1860), American accused of killing her parents.  She died at age 66.

1925 ~ Thomas R. Marshall (b. 1854), 28^th Vice President of the United States.  He served under President Woodrow Wilson.  He died at age 71.

1879 ~ Napoléon, Prince Imperial of France (b. 1856), the last dynastic Bonaparte.  He was the son of Napoléon III.  He was killed in the Anglo-Zulu War at age 23.

1868 ~ James Buchanan (b. 1791), 15^th President of the United States.  He also served as the 17^th Secretary of State under President James Polk.  He died at age 77.

1846 ~ Pope Gregory XVI (né Bartolomeo Alberto Cappellari, b. 1765).  He was Pope from February 1831 until his death on this date in 1846.  He was 80 years old.