Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe Today is June 3. He did it for the woman he loved. It was on this date in 1937 that the Duke of Windsor, the former King Edward VIII, married divorcee Wallis Warfield Simpson of Baltimore, Md. The Duke had abdicated the British throne the previous December because British law wouldn't allow him to wed the divorced American commoner. After their marriage, the couple made their home in France and had little contact with the royal family. Advertisement The Battle of Midway began on this date in 1942. It raged for four days and was the turning point for the United States in the Pacific war against Japan. Astronaut Ed White became the first American to "walk" in space on this date in 1965. The 20-minute space walk took place during the Gemini 4 mission, during which White and fellow astronaut James McDivitt made 66 orbits of Earth. Advertisement The largest meeting on the environment in history opened on this date in 1992 amid tight security in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Ghali and the leaders of many nations attended, but not President Bush -- although the United States did have delegates at the gathering. We now return you to the present, already in progress. -------- Today is June 4. It became known as the Tiananmen Square massacre. On this date in 1989 -- after a month and a half of student protests calling for democracy -- armed Chinese troops swept the demonstrators from the square in Beijing, killing at least hundreds of people. In the following months, thousands more were rounded up and jailed. The World War II evacuation of Dunkirk, France, was completed on this date in 1940. A flotilla of small boats spent nearly a week crossing and re-crossing the English Channel to rescue nearly 350,000 British, French and Belgian troops from advancing German forces. The world met "Dr. Death" Jack Kevorkian on this date in 1990 when an Oregon woman, Janet Adkins, killed herself in Michigan using a "suicide machine" developed by the euthanasia advocate and retired pathologist. She was Kevorkian's first "medicide" patient. She would not be the last. Advertisement It was on this date in 1896 that Henry Ford wheeled his first car from a brick shed and drove it around the darkened streets of Detroit on a trial run. And in 1992, U.S. Postal officials announced that the young, 1950s-era Elvis Presley portrait was chosen overwhelmingly over the older, Las Vegas-style Elvis in a nationwide vote for a new postage stamp honoring "The King." The stamp would be issued Jan. 8, 1993, on the anniversary of Presley's birth. We now return you to the present, already in progress. -------- Today is June 5. Another Kennedy was shot on this date in 1968. Former Attorney General turned Calif. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy -- the younger brother of the late President John F. Kennedy -- was campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination when he was gunned down in Los Angeles. Kennedy, 42, died the next day. A Palestine-born man, Sirhan Sirhan, was convicted in his murder. The Six Day War between Israel and the Arab states of Egypt, Syria and Jordan began on this date in 1967. It lasted, as the name implies, six days. Israel won -- taking control of Syria's Golan Heights and Egypt's Gaza Strip -- and emerged as a major power in the region. Advertisement Disaster in Idaho: on this date in 1976, the Teton River Dam collapsed as the lake behind it was filling for the first time. 14 people were killed and 300 square miles were flooded, causing an estimated $1 billion damage. And it was on this date in 1986 that former National Security Agency employee Ronald Pelton was convicted in Baltimore, Md., of spying for the Soviet Union. The verdict came one day after former Navy intelligence analyst Jonathan Jay Pollard pleaded guilty to espionage on behalf of Israel. We now return you to the present, already in progress. -------- Today is June 6. It was known as "Operation Overlord," but we know it as "D-Day." It was on this date in 1944 that hundreds of thousands of Allied troops crossed the English Channel and began landing on the beaches of Normandy on the northern coast of France. The invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe was the largest in history, and opened the long-awaited second front of World War II. Israel invaded Lebanon on this date in 1982 in a bid to get rid of the Palestinian guerrillas who had been using southern Lebanon as a base of operations to shell Israel's northern towns and in general make life miserable for the Tel Aviv government. Israeli forces drove as far north as Beirut. Advertisement On this date in 1991, the Soviet KGB released secret documents from 1941 that showed the British had lured Rudolph Hess, Hitler's deputy, to the Duke of Hamilton's estate. Hess had surprised the world on May 10, 1941, by flying alone to Scotland and parachuting out of his plane on what he called a "mission of humanity," offering peace to Britain if it would join with Germany in attacking the Soviet Union. He was immediately imprisoned. And it was on this date in 1933 that the first drive-in movie theater opened in Camden, N.J., offering teen-agers a new place to go to make out. Today, drive-in theaters are a dying breed. We now return you to the present, already in progress. -------- Today is June 7. Two of Alaska's Aleutian Islands were overrun by Japanese forces on this date in 1942. The islands of Attu and Kiska were occupied by the Japanese for about a year until U.S troops retook the islands a year later. It was on this date in 1864 that Republican delegates -- meeting in Baltimore, Md. -- re-nominated Abraham Lincoln as the GOP presidential candidate. His running mate would be Andrew Johnson. Advertisement Poor Princess Di. A British newspaper reported on this date in 1992 that Diana, in despair over her failed marriage to Prince Charles, had tried to kill herself five times and was suffering from depression-linked illnesses. The royal couple would separate later in the year and divorce in 1996. The first videocassette recorders went on sale to the public on this date in 1975. The Sony Corp.'s Betamax sold for $995. Eventually, another VCR format, VHS, proved more successful and Sony stopped making the Betamax. These days you can buy a decent VHS VCR for under $100. We now return you to the present, already in progress. -------- Today is June 8. Oliver North's former secretary, Fawn Hall, testified on Capitol Hill on this date in 1987 as congressional hearings into the Iran-Contra scandal continued. Hall told lawmakers that, to protect her boss, she helped him alter and shred sensitive documents and smuggle papers out of the White House. She did so by stuffing them into her clothing and boots. It was on this date in 1999 that the case of 5 New York City police officers accused in the 1997 torturing of Haitian immigrant ended with the conviction of one of the officers by a federal court jury in Brooklyn. A second officer had pleaded guilty; 3 others were acquitted. The case focused national attention on the issue of police brutality. Advertisement A few days ago, we mentioned how American pilot Scott O'Grady was shot down by Serbian gunners while on a NATO patrol mission over Bosnia. He spent several days evading Serb forces searching for him before U.S. Marines rescued him on this date in 1995. Tennessee seceded from the Union to join the Confederacy on this date in 1861. The Civil War was less than two months old. And it was on this date in 1869 that Ives McGaffney of Chicago obtained a patent for a "sweeping machine." It was the first vacuum cleaner. We now return you to the present, already in progress. -------- Today is June 9. The taxman cometh. It was on this date in 1943 that Congress passed a measure authorizing employers to withhold income tax payments from the salaries of their workers. It was on this date in 1898 that Britain signed an agreement with China to administer Hong Kong as a British Crown Colony for 99 years. The lease expired in 1997 and on July 1 of that year, Hong Kong's sovereignty reverted to the People's Republic of China. An Italian prosecutor's report released on this date in 1984 linked the Bulgarian secret service to the 1981 assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II. Three Bulgarians were indicted, but a trial failed to prove charges against them. Advertisement And this is Donald Duck's birthday. It was on this date in 1934 that Donald made his first screen appearance -- in a Disney cartoon titled "The Wise Little Hen." We now return you to the present, already in progress.
