Today is Wednesday, June 2, the 153rd day of 2021. There are 212 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On June 2, 1979, Pope John Paul II arrived in his native Poland on the first visit by a pope to a Communist country.
On this date:
In 1897, Mark Twain was quoted by the New York Journal as saying from London that “the report of my death was an exaggeration.” (Twain was responding to a report in the New York Herald that he was “grievously ill” and “possibly dying.”)
In 1924, Congress passed, and President Calvin Coolidge signed, a measure guaranteeing full American citizenship for all Native Americans born within U.S. territorial limits.
In 1941, baseball’s “Iron Horse,” Lou Gehrig, died in New York of a degenerative disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; he was 37.
In 1953, the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II took place in London’s Westminster Abbey, 16 months after the death of her father, King George VI.
In 1966, U.S. space probe Surveyor 1 landed on the moon and began transmitting detailed photographs of the lunar surface.
In 1995, a U.S. Air Force F-16C was shot down by a Bosnian Serb surface-to-air missile while on a NATO air patrol in northern Bosnia; the pilot, Capt. Scott F. O’Grady, was rescued by U.S. Marines six days later.
In 1997, Timothy McVeigh was convicted of murder and conspiracy in the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City that killed 168 people. (McVeigh was executed in June 2001.)
In 1999, South Africans went to the polls in their second post-apartheid election, giving the African National Congress a decisive victory; retiring president Nelson Mandela was succeeded by Thabo Mbeki.
In 2008, Bo Diddley, 79, a founding father of rock ‘n’ roll, died in Archer, Florida, at age 79.
Today’s Birthdays: Actor-singer Sally Kellerman is 84. Actor Ron Ely is 83. Actor Stacy Keach is 80. Rock musician Charlie Watts is 80. Actor Charles Haid is 78. Actor Jerry Mathers is 73. Actor Joanna Gleason is 71. Comedian Dana Carvey is 66. TV personality-producer Andy Cohen (“The Real Housewives” TV franchise) is 53. Olympic gold medal soccer player Abby Wambach is 41.
