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Today in history: June 4




Crewmen aboard the USS Yorktown battle fire after the carrier was hit by Japanese bombs during the Battle of Midway on June 4, 1942. Later the vessel had to be abandoned and was sunk by a Japanese submarine torpedo hit.Associated Press

Crewmen aboard the USS Yorktown battle fire after the carrier was hit by Japanese bombs during the Battle of Midway on June 4, 1942. Later the vessel had to be abandoned and was sunk by a Japanese submarine torpedo hit.Associated Press

Today is Friday, June 4, the 155th day of 2021. There are 210 days left in the year.

Today’s highlight in history:

On June 4, 1919, Congress approved the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which said the right to vote could not be denied or abridged based on gender. The amendment was sent to the states for ratification.

On this date:

In 1812, the Louisiana Territory was renamed the Missouri Territory, to avoid confusion with the recently admitted state of Louisiana. The U.S. House of Representatives approved, 79-49, a declaration of war against Britain.

In 1912, Massachusetts became the first state to adopt a minimum wage law.

In 1940, during World War II, the Allied military evacuation of some 338,000 troops from Dunkirk, France, ended. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill declared: “We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.”

Angela Davis talks to news media after her acquittal on murder, kidnap and conspiracy charges in San Jose, Calif., on June 4, 1972. Davis was accused of supplying some of the weapons used in the attempted escape of prisoners from the Marin County Courthouse shootout in August 1970. Five people were killed.Associated Press

Angela Davis talks to news media after her acquittal on murder, kidnap and conspiracy charges in San Jose, Calif., on June 4, 1972. Davis was accused of supplying some of the weapons used in the attempted escape of prisoners from the Marin County Courthouse shootout in August 1970. Five people were killed.Associated Press

In 1942, the World War II Battle of Midway began, resulting in a decisive American victory against Japan and marking the turning point of the war in the Pacific.

In 1972, a jury in San Jose, California, acquitted radical activist Angela Davis of murder and kidnapping for her alleged connection to a deadly courthouse shootout in Marin County in 1970.

In 1977, the VHS home videocassette recorder was introduced to North America by JVC during a news conference in Chicago.

In 1985, the Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling striking down an Alabama law providing for a daily minute of silence in public schools.

In 1986, Jonathan Jay Pollard, a former U.S. Navy intelligence analyst, pleaded guilty in Washington to conspiring to deliver information related to the national defense to Israel. (Pollard, sentenced to life in prison, was released on parole on Nov. 20, 2015.)

 

 

In 1989, a gas explosion in the Soviet Union engulfed two passing trains, killing 575.

In 1990, Dr. Jack Kevorkian carried out his first publicly assisted suicide, helping Janet Adkins, a 54-year-old Alzheimer’s patient from Portland, Oregon, end her life in Oakland County, Michigan.

In 1998, a federal judge sentenced Terry Nichols to life in prison for his role in the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.

In 2016, a day after the death of Muhammad Ali, President Barack Obama said the boxing legend “shook up the world and the world is better for it,” and that Ali stood with Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela in fighting for what was right. Hillary Clinton scored a sweeping win in the U.S. Virgin Islands, picking up all seven pledged delegates at stake as she inched tantalizingly close to the Democratic nomination. Garbine Muguruza won her first Grand Slam title by beating defending champion Serena Williams 7-5, 6-4 at the French Open.

In 2020, in the first of a series of memorials set for three cities over six days, celebrities, musicians and political leaders gathered in front of George Floyd’s golden casket in Minneapolis. Protesters stayed on the streets of New York City after curfew for another day. Major cities across California lifted curfews amid more peaceful demonstrations over Floyd’s death. In an incident captured by a TV news crew, a 75-year-old protester, Martin Gugino, fell and hit his head on the pavement after being pushed backward by two police officers in Buffalo, New York, who were clearing demonstrators from in front of City Hall. (Gugino spent about a month in the hospital with a fractured skull and a brain injury; the officers were suspended without pay, but criminal charges against them were eventually dropped.) Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam said a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee would be removed from Richmond’s Monument Avenue and that the state would no longer “preach a false version of history.” Casinos in Las Vegas and throughout Nevada reopened for the first time since March. A judge rejected Ponzi king Bernard Madoff’s bid for early release from his 150-year prison sentence. (Madoff died in prison in April 2021.)

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