1199 – English King Richard I was killed by an arrow at the siege of the castle of Chaluz in France.

1607 – An expedition led by Captain Christopher Newport arrived at the Spanish colony of Puerto Rico for supplies before continuing on their journey. On May 14, they went ashore and founded Jamestown, Virginia, as the first permanent English colony in America.

1652 – Jan van Riebeeck established a settlement at Cape Town, South Africa.

1789 – The first U.S. Congress began regular sessions at the Federal Hall in New York City.

1814 – Granted sovereignty in the island of Elba and a pension from the French government, Napoleon Bonaparte abdicates at Fountainebleau. He was allowed to keep the title of emperor.

1830 – Joseph Smith and five others organized the Mormon Church in western New York.

1830 – Relations between the Texans and Mexico reached a new low when Mexico would not allow further emigration into Texas by settlers from the U.S.

1862 – The American Civil War Battle of Shiloh began in Tennessee.

1865 – At the Battle of Sayler’s Creek, a third of Lee’s army was cut off by Union troops pursuing him to Appomattox.

1875 – Alexander Graham Bell was granted a patent for the multiple telegraph, which sent two signals at the same time.

1896 – The first modern Olympic Games began in Athens, Greece.

1903 – French Army Nationalists were revealed for forging documents to guarantee a conviction for Alfred Dryfus.

1909 – Americans Robert Peary and Matthew Henson claimed to be the first men to reach the North Pole.

1916 – Charlie Chaplin became the highest-paid film star in the world when he signed a contract with Mutual Film Corporation for $675,000 a year. He was 26 years old.

1917 – The U.S. Congress approved a declaration of war on Germany and entered World War I on the Allied side.

1924 – Four planes left Seattle on the first successful flight around the world.

1927 – William P. MacCracken, Jr. earned license number ‘1’ when the Department of Commerce issued the first aviator’s license.

1931 – “Little Orphan Annie” debuted on the NBC Blue network.

1938 – The United States recognized the German conquest of Austria.

1941 – German forces invaded Greece and Yugoslavia.

1945 – “This is Your FBI” debuted on ABC radio.

1953 – Iranian Premier Mossadegh demanded that the shah’s power be reduced.

1957 – Trolley cars in New York City completed their final runs.

1959 – Hal Holbrook opened in the off-Broadway presentation of “Mark Twain Tonight.”

1965 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson authorized the use of ground troops in combat operations in Vietnam.

1967 – In South Vietnam, 1,500 Viet Cong attacked Quangtri and freed 200 prisoners.

1981 – A Yugoslav Communist Party official confirmed reports of intense ethnic riots in Kosovo.

1983 – The U.S. Veteran’s Administration announced it would give free medical care for conditions traceable to radiation exposure to more than 220,000 veterans who participated in nuclear tests from 1945 to 1962.

1985 – William J. Schroeder became the first artificial heart recipient to be discharged from the hospital.

1987 – Dennis Levine began a two-year jail term for insider trading.

1987 – The Dow Jones industrial average closed above 2,400 for the first time.

1987 – Sugar Ray Leonard took the middleweight title from Marvin Hagler.

1988 – Mathew Henson was awarded honors in Arlington National Cemetery. Henson had discovered the North Pole with Robert Peary.

1997 – Mario Lemieux (Pittsburgh Penguins) announced that he would retire from the National Hockey League (NHL) following the playoffs of the current season.

1998 – Citicorp and Travelers Group announced that they would be merging. The new creation was the largest financial-services conglomerate in the world. The name would become Citigroup.

1998 – The Dow Jones industrial average closed above 9,000 points for the first time.

1998 – Federal researchers in the U.S. announced that daily tamoxifen pills could cut breast cancer risk among high-risk women.

1998 – Pakistan successfully tested medium-range missiles capable of attacking neighboring India.

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Matthew Henson was an African American explorer best known as the co-discoverer of the North Pole with Robert Edwin Peary in 1909.

Who Was Matthew Henson?

Famed African American explorer Matthew Henson was hired by explorer Robert Edwin as his valet for expeditions. For more than two decades, they explored the Arctic, and on April 6, 1909, Peary, Henson and the rest of their team made history, becoming the first people to reach the North Pole — or at least they claimed to have. Henson died in New York City in 1955.

Early Life

Matthew Alexander Henson was born on August 8, 1866, in Charles County, Maryland. The son of two freeborn black sharecroppers, Henson lost his mother at an early age. When Henson was 4 years old, his father moved the family to Washington, D.C., in search of work opportunities. His father died there a few years later, leaving Henson and his siblings in the care of other family members. 

At the age of 11, Henson left home to find his own way. After working briefly in a restaurant, he walked all the way to Baltimore, Maryland, and found work as a cabin boy on the ship Katie Hines. Its skipper, Captain Childs, took Henson under his wing and saw to his education, which included instruction in the finer points of seamanship. During his time aboard the Katie Hines, he also saw much of the world, traveling to Asia, Africa and Europe.

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1242 – Russian troops repelled an invasion attempt by the Teutonic Knights.

1614 – American Indian Pocahontas married English colonist John Rolfe in Virginia.

1621 – The Mayflower sailed from Plymouth, MA, on a return trip to England.

1792 – U.S. President George Washington cast the first presidential veto. The measure was for apportioning representatives among the states.

1806 – Isaac Quintard patented the cider mill.

1827 – James H. Hackett became the first American actor to appear abroad as he performed at Covent Garden in London, England.

1843 – Queen Victoria proclaimed Hong Kong to be a British crown colony.

1869 – Daniel Bakeman, the last surviving soldier of the U.S. Revolutionary War, died at the age of 109.

1887 – Anne Sullivan taught Helen Keller the meaning of the word “water” as spelled out in the manual alphabet.

1892 – Walter H. Coe patented gold leaf in rolls.

1892 – In New York, the Ithaca Daily Journal published an ad introducing a new 10 cent Ice Cream Specialty called a Cherry Sunday.

1895 – Playwright Oscar Wilde lost his criminal libel case against the Marquess of Queensberry. Wilde had been accused of homosexual practices.

1908 – The Japanese Army reached the Yalu River as the Russians retreated.

1919 – Eamon de Valera became president of Ireland.

1923 – Firestone Tire and Rubber Company began the first regular production of balloon tires.

1930 – Mahatma Ghandi defied British law by making salt in India.

1933 – The first operation to remove a lung was performed at Barnes Hospital in St. Louis, MO.

1941 – German commandos secured docks along the Danube River in preparation for Germany’s invasion of the Balkans.

1951 – Americans Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were sentenced to death for committing espionage for the Soviet Union.

1953 – Jomo Kenyatta was convicted and sentenced to 7 years in prison for orchestrating the Mau-Mau rebellion in Kenya.

1955 – Winston Churchill resigned as British prime minister.

1984 – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Los Angeles Lakers) became the all-time NBA regular season scoring leader when he broke Wilt Chamberlain’s record of 31,419 career points.

1985 – John McEnroe said “any man can beat any woman at any sport, especially tennis.”

1986 – A discotheque in Berlin was bombed by Libyan terrorists. The U.S. attacked Libya with warplanes in retaliation on April 15, 1986.

1987 – FOX Broadcasting Company launched “Married….With Children” and “The Tracey Ullman Show”. The two shows were the beginning of the FOX lineup.

1989 – In Poland, accords were signed between Solidarity and the government that set free elections for June 1989. The eight-year ban on Solidarity was also set to be lifted.

1998 – The Akashi Kaikyo Bridge in Japan opened becoming the largest suspension bridge in the world. It links Shikoku and Honshu. The bridge cost about $3.8 billion.

1999 – Two Libyans suspected of bombing a Pan Am jet in 1988 were handed over so they could be flown to the Netherlands for trial. 270 people were killed in the bombing.

1999 – In Laramie, WY, Russell Henderson pled guilty to kidnapping and felony murder in the death of Matthew Shepard.

2004 – Near Mexico City’s international airport, lightning struck the jet Mexican President Vicente Fox was on.

2009 – North Korea launched the Kwangmyongsong-2 rocket, prompting an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council.

The protest had started on April 16 as about 1,000 students marched to mourn the death of Hu Yaobang, a pro-reform leader within the Chinese government.

Despite government warnings, pro-reform and pro-democracy demonstrations continued for a month drawing ever-larger crowds of young people, eventually totaling over a million persons.

On May 13, three thousand students began an eight-day hunger strike. The government imposed martial law on May 20 and brought in troops.

On June 2, in their first clash with the People’s Army, demonstrators turned back an advance of unarmed troops. However, in the pre-dawn hours of June 4, the People’s Army, using tanks, machine-guns, clubs and tear gas, opened fire on the unarmed protesters.

Armored personnel carriers then rolled into the square crushing students still sleeping in their tents. The Chinese government later claimed only 300 died in the attack. U.S. estimates put the toll at over 3,000. Following the massacre, over 1,600 demonstrators were rounded up and jailed, with 27 being executed.