Today in History
Today is Friday, June 3, the 155th day of 2016. There are 211 days left in the year.
Today's Highlight in History:
On June 3, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed the National Defense Act of 1916, which, among other things, created the Army Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC).
On this date:
In 1808, Confederate President Jefferson Davis was born in Christian County, Kentucky.
In 1888, the poem "Casey at the Bat" by Ernest Lawrence Thayer was first published in the San Francisco Daily Examiner.
In 1924, author Franz Kafka, 40, died near Vienna.
In 1937, Edward, The Duke of Windsor, who had abdicated the British throne, married Wallis Warfield Simpson in a private ceremony in Monts, France.
In 1948, the 200-inch reflecting Hale Telescope at the Palomar Mountain Observatory in California was dedicated.
In 1955, convicted murderer Barbara Graham, 31, was executed in the gas chamber at San Quentin State Prison in California, as were Jack Santo and Emmett Perkins, for the 1953 slaying of Mabel Monahan.
In 1963, Pope John XXIII died at age 81; he was succeeded by Pope Paul VI.
In 1965, astronaut Edward H. White became the first American to "walk" in space during the flight of Gemini 4.
In 1972, Sally J. Priesand was ordained as America's first female rabbi at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, Ohio.
In 1983, Gordon Kahl, a militant tax protester wanted in the slayings of two U.S. marshals in North Dakota, was killed in a gun battle with law-enforcement officials near Smithville, Arkansas.
In 1989, Iran's spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, died. Chinese army troops began their sweep of Beijing to crush student-led pro-democracy demonstrations. SkyDome (now called Rogers Centre) opened in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
In 1992, Democratic presidential candidate Bill Clinton appeared on "The Arsenio Hall Show," where he played "Heartbreak Hotel" on the saxophone.
Ten years ago: Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, attending a security conference in Singapore, branded Iran the world's leading terrorist nation yet hoped that Tehran would seriously consider incentives from the West in exchange for suspending suspect nuclear activities. Gunmen attacked a car belonging to the Russian Embassy in Baghdad, killing one diplomat and kidnapping four employees who were later slain.
Five years ago: Former Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards admitted he had "done wrong" and hurt others but strongly denied breaking the law after federal prosecutors charged him with using $925,000 in under-the-table campaign contributions to hide his mistress and baby during his 2008 White House run. (After a 2012 trial in North Carolina, jurors acquitted Edwards on one count of accepting illegal campaign contributions and deadlocked on five other counts; prosecutors decided against retrying the case.) Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh was wounded when rebel rockets barraged his palace; he later went to Saudi Arabia for treatment. Physician-assisted suicide advocate Dr. Jack Kevorkian died at a Michigan hospital at 83. Actor James Arness (TV: "Gunsmoke"), 88, died in Brentwood, California.
One year ago: The Pentagon disclosed that it had inadvertently shipped possibly live anthrax to at least 51 laboratories across the U.S. and in three foreign countries over the previous decade, but said that public health was not at risk.
