Today in History
Today is Saturday, June 1, the 153rd day of 2024. There are 213 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On June 1, 1967, the Beatles released “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” for years considered by many to be the greatest rock ‘n’ roll album of all time.
On this date:
In 1533, Anne Boleyn, the second wife of King Henry VIII, was crowned as Queen Consort of England.
In 1792, Kentucky became the 15th state.
In 1796, Tennessee became the 16th state.
In 1812, President James Madison, in a message to Congress, recounted what he called Britain’s “series of acts hostile to the United States as an independent and neutral nation”; Congress ended up declaring war.
In 1813, the mortally wounded commander of the USS Chesapeake, Capt. James Lawrence, gave the order, “Don’t give up the ship” during a losing battle with the British frigate HMS Shannon in the War of 1812.
In 1916, Louis Brandeis took his seat as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, the first Jewish American to serve on the nation’s highest bench.
In 1943, a civilian flight from Portugal to England was shot down by Germany during World War II, killing all 17 people aboard, including actor Leslie Howard.
In 1957, Don Bowden, a student at the University of California at Berkeley, became the first American to break the four-minute mile during a meet in Stockton, California, in a time of 3:58.7.
In 1958, Charles de Gaulle became premier of France, marking the beginning of the end of the Fourth Republic.
In 1980, Cable News Network made its debut.
In 2009, General Motors filed for Chapter 11, becoming the largest U.S. industrial company to enter bankruptcy protection.
In 2017, President Donald Trump declared he was pulling the U.S. from the landmark Paris climate agreement. (President Joe Biden signed an order returning the U.S. to that accord on his first day in office.)
In 2020, police violently broke up a peaceful and legal protest by thousands of people in Lafayette Park across from the White House, using chemical agents, clubs and punches to send protesters fleeing; the protesters had gathered following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis a week earlier. President Donald Trump, after declaring himself “the president of law and order” and threatening to deploy the U.S. military in a Rose Garden speech, then walked across the empty park to be photographed holding a Bible in front of St. John’s Church, which had been damaged a night earlier.
In 2021, the Biden administration suspended oil and gas leases in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, reversing a drilling program approved by the Trump administration.
In 2022, a Virginia jury ruled in favor of Johnny Depp in his libel lawsuit against ex-wife Amber Heard, vindicating his stance that Heard fabricated claims that she was abused by Heard and awarding him $15 million. But jurors also found in favor of Heard, who said she was defamed by Depp’s lawyer when he called her abuse allegations a hoax, giving her $2 million.
Today’s Birthdays: Singer Pat Boone is 90. Actor Morgan Freeman is 87. Opera singer Frederica von Stade is 79. Actor Brian Cox is 78. Rock musician Ronnie Wood is 77. Actor Jonathan Pryce is 77. Actor Gemma Craven is 74. Actor John M. Jackson (TV: “JAG,” “NCIS: Los Angeles”) is 74. Blues-rock musician Tom Principato is 72. Country singer Ronnie Dunn is 71. Actor Lisa Hartman Black is 68. Actor Tom Irwin is 68. Singer-musician Alan Wilder is 65. Rock musician Simon Gallup (The Cure) is 64. Actor-comedian Mark Curry is 63. Actor-singer Jason Donovan is 56. Actor Teri Polo is 55. Basketball player-turned-coach Tony Bennett is 55. Actor Rick Gomez is 52. Model-actor Heidi Klum is 51. Singer Alanis Morissette is 50. Actor Sarah Wayne Callies is 47. Comedian Link Neal (Rhett & Link) is 46. TV personality Damien Fahey is 44. Americana singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile is 43. Actor Johnny Pemberton is 43. Actor-writer Amy Schumer is 43. Former tennis player Justine Henin is 42. Actor Taylor Handley is 40. Actor Zazie Beetz is 33. Actor Willow Shields is 24.
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