1940 – During the Battle of Dunkirk from May 26 to June 4, 1940, some 338,000 British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and other Allied troops were evacuated from Dunkirk to England as German forces closed in on them. The massive operation, involving hundreds of naval and civilian vessels, became known as the “Miracle of Dunkirk” and served as a turning point for the Allied war effort.
0017 – Germanicus of Rome celebrated his victory over the Germans.
0451 – The Battle of Avarayr between Armenian rebels and the Sassanid Empire takes place. The Armenians are defeated militarily but are guaranteed freedom to openly practice Christianity.
1328 – William of Ockham, Franciscan Minister-General Michael of Cesena and two other Franciscan leaders secretly leave Avignon, fearing a death sentence from Pope John XXII.
1521 – Martin Luther was banned by the Edict of Worms because of his religious beliefs and writings.
1538 – Geneva expels John Calvin and his followers from the city. Calvin lives in exile in Strasbourg for the next three years.
1637 – Pequot War: A combined Protestant and Mohegan force under German Captain John Mason attacks a Pequot village in Connecticut, massacring approximately 500 Native Americans.
1647 – A new law banned Catholic priests from the colony of Massachusetts. The penalty was banishment or death for a second offense.
1647 – Alse Young becomes the first person executed as a witch in the American colonies, when she is hanged in Hartford, Connecticut.
1660 – King Charles II of England landed at Dover after being exiled for nine years.
1670 – A treaty was signed in secret in Dover, England, between Charles II and Louis XIV ending the hostilities between them.
1691 – Jacob Leiser, leader of the popular uprising in support of William and Mary’s accession to the English throne, was executed for treason.
1736 – Battle of Ackia: British and Chickasaw soldiers repel a French and Choctaw attack on the Chickasaw village of Ackia, near present-day Tupelo, Mississippi. The French, under Louisiana governor Jean Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, had sought to link Louisiana with Acadia and the other northern colonies of New France
1770 – The Orlov Revolt, a first attempt to revolt against the Turks before the Greek War of Independence ends in disaster for the Greeks
1790 – Territory South of River Ohio created by Congress
1791 – The French Assembly forced King Louis XVI to hand over the crown and state assets.
1805 – Napoleon Bonaparte was crowned King of Italy in Milan Cathedral.
1828 – Mysterious feral child Kaspar Hauser is discovered wandering the streets of Nuremberg.
1830 – The Indian Removal Act is passed by the U.S. Congress; it is signed into law by President Andrew Jackson two days later.
1835 – A resolution was passed in the U.S. Congress stating that Congress has no authority over state slavery laws.
1836 – The U.S. House of Representatives adopted what has been called the Gag Rule.
1864 – The Territory of Montana was organized.
1865 – Arrangements were made in New Orleans for the surrender of Confederate forces west of the Mississippi.
1868 – U.S. President Andrew Johnson was acquitted, by one vote, of all charges in his impeachment trial.
1896 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average appeared for the first time in the “Wall Street Journal.”
1896 – The last czar of Russia, Nicholas II, was crowned.
1908 – At Masjed Soleyman ( ) in southwest Persia, the first major commercial oil strike in the Middle East is made. The rights to the resource are quickly acquired by the United Kingdom
1922 – Lenin suffers a stroke
1926 – In Morocco, rebel leader Abd el Krim surrendered.
1930 – Supreme Court rules buying liquor does not violate the Constitution
1938 – The House Committee on Un-American Activities began its work of searching for subversives in the United States.
1940 – The evacuation of Allied troops from Dunkirk, France, began during World War II. https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/dunkirk
1942 – Belgian Jews are required by Nazis to wear a Jewish star
1943 – Jews riot against Germany in Amsterdam
1946 – A patent was filed in the United States for an H-bomb.
1948 – The U.S. Congress passed Public Law 557 which permanently established the Civil Air Patrol as the Auxiliary of the new U.S. Air Force.
1956 – Aircraft carrier “”Bennington”” burns off Rhode Island, killing 103
1956 – The first trailer bank opened for business in Locust Grove, Long Island, NY. The 46-foot-long trailer took in $100,000 in deposits its first day.
1959 – The word “Frisbee” became a registered trademark of Wham-O.
1960 – The Soviets are accused by UN Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge of concealing a microphone inside a wood carving of the Great Seal of the United States that was presented to the U S embassy in Moscow
1961 – Civil rights activist group Freedom Ride Coordinating Committee was established in Atlanta, GA.
1969 – The Apollo 10 astronauts returned to Earth after a successful eight-day dress rehearsal for the first manned moon landing.
1970 – The Tupolev Tu-144 becomes the first commercial transport to exceed Mach 2, The Russian plane, sometimes nicknamed Concordski, first took to the skies in 1968, two months before the Concorde.
1972 – The Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT I) was signed by the U.S. and USSR. The short-term agreement put a freeze on the testing and deployment of intercontinental and submarine-launched ballistic missiles for a 5-year period.
1974 – During a David Cassidy concert in London a 14 year old is trampled
1975 – American stuntman Evel Knievel suffered severe spinal injuries in Britain when he crashed while attempting to jump 13 buses in his car.
1978 – The first legal casino in the Eastern U.S. opened in Atlantic City, NJ.
1981 – The Italian Prime Minister Arnaldo Forlani and his coalition cabinet resign following a scandal over membership of the pseudo-masonic lodge P2 (Propaganda Due)
1987 – Sri Lanka launched Operation Liberation. It was an offensive against the Tamil rebellion in Jaffra.
1987 – Supreme Court ruled dangerous defendants could be held without bail
1992 – Charles Geschke, co-founder of Adobe Systems, Inc. was kidnapped at gunpoint from the Adobe parking lot in Mountain View, California for $650,000 and is held hostage in a rented house in Hollister, California. The FBI rescues him four days later
1994 – U.S. President Clinton renewed trade privileges for China, and announced that his administration would no longer link China’s trade status with its human rights record.
1998 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Ellis Island was mainly in New Jersey, not New York.
1998 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that police officers in high-speed chases are liable for bystander injuries only if their “actions shock the conscience.”
2004 – The New York Times publishes an admission of journalistic failings, claiming that its flawed reporting and lack of skeptism towards sources during the buildup to the 2003 war in Iraq helped promote the belief that Iraq possessed large stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction
2004 – The U.S. Army veteran Terry Nichols is found guilty of 161 state murder charges for helping carry out the Oklahoma City bombing.
2010 – Former model Angela Sanclemente arrested in Argentina on drug charges. She is suspected head of international operation that uses models as drug mules
2012 – Pope Benedict XVI’s butler is arrested for allegedly leaking confidential documents
2014 – Protests across Thailand in response to military coup; General Prayuth warns of a crackdown in demonstrations continue
2014 – World Health Organization confirms that Ebola has reached Sierra Leone
2020 – Costa Rica becomes the first county in Central America to legalize same-sex marriage
2020 – Twitter adds warning labels to warn about inaccuracies in US President Donald Trump’s tweets for the first time
2021 – Amazon says it will buy 97-year-old film and television studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for $8.45 billion
2021 – In landmark case oil giant Royal Dutch Shell ordered by a Hague court to cut its global carbon emissions by 45% by 2030
2021 – Nine people shot and killed by their colleague, a public transit employee in San Jose, California
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
