On This Day in History - June 3rd - Almanac

Today is Wednesday, June 3, the 155th day of 2020 with 211 to follow.

The moon is waxing. Morning stars are Jupiter, Mars, Neptune, Saturn and Uranus. Evening stars are Jupiter, Mercury and Saturn.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Gemini. They include Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy during the Civil War, in 1808; automaker Ransom Olds in 1864; British King George V in 1865; British actor Maurice Evans in 1901; jazz dancer/singer Josephine Baker in 1906; actor Paulette Goddard in 1910; actor Ellen Corby in 1911; actor Colleen Dewhurst in 1924; country blues singer Jimmy Rogers in 1924; actor Tony Curtis in 1925; poet Allen Ginsberg in 1926; TV producer Chuck Barris in 1929; author Marion Zimmer Bradley in 1930; author Larry McMurtry in 1936 (age 84); former Cuban President Raul Castro in 1931 (age 89); singer/songwriter Curtis Mayfield in 1942; singer Deniece Williams in 1950 (age 70); actor Scott Valentine in 1958 (age 62); journalist/TV anchor Anderson Cooper in 1967 (age 53); comedic author John Hodgman in 1971 (age 49); actor Jodie Whittaker in 1982 (age 38); tennis player Rafael Nadal in 1986 (age 34); actor Imogen Poots in 1989 (age 31); actor Anne Winters in 1994 (age 26).

On this date in history:

In 1888, the comic baseball poem "Casey at the Bat" was published in the Sunday edition of the San Francisco Examiner.

In 1937, the Duke of Windsor, formerly King Edward VIII, married divorcee Wallis Warfield Simpson of Baltimore after abdicating the British throne.

In 1940, waves of German bombers raided Paris, killing 48 people, damaging buildings and narrowly missing U.S. Ambassador William C. Bullitt.

In 1965, Gemini IV astronaut Ed White made the first American "walk" in space. White, attached to a 25-foot cord, was outside the spacecraft for 23 minutes. He later said the order to end his spacewalk was the "saddest moment" of his life.

In 1968, radical feminist author and actor Valerie Solanas shot artist Andy Warhol at his New York City studio The Factory. Warhol survived the shooting after a five-hour operation to repair damage to several internal organs.

In 1989, Iran's Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, leader of the Islamic revolution, died 11 days after surgery to stop internal bleeding.

In 2004, CIA Director George Tenet resigned.

In 2008, U.S. Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois clinched the Democratic presidential nomination on the final day of the party's primary season.

In 2011, Jack Kevorkian, 83, the Michigan physician known as "Dr. Death," died. His advocacy for assisted suicide created havoc for medical ethicists and law agencies.

In 2012, a Dana Air jetliner crashed into a two-story apartment building in a densely populated suburb of Lagos, Nigeria, killing 153 people on the plane and 10 on the ground.

In 2017, a van mowed down pedestrians on London Bridge and the drivers stabbed people at nearby bars and restaurants, killing seven victims. Police fatally shot the attackers and the Islamic State claimed credit for both attacks.

In 2018, Guatemala's Fuego volcano erupted, sending lava ash into nearby villages and killing more than 100 people.

In 2019, Jay-Z became the first hip-hop artist to become a billionaire, according to Forbes.

A thought for the day: "I improvised, crazed by the music ... Even my teeth and eyes burned with fever. Each time I leaped I seemed to touch the sky, and when I regained the Earth it seemed to be mine alone. -- American singer/dancer/actor Josephine Baker