On this day: First American walks in space

Events, birthdays and anniversaries for 3 June
On this day in 1965, following the launch of Gemini 4, Edward White became the first American astronaut to walk in space. Picture: GettyOn this day in 1965, following the launch of Gemini 4, Edward White became the first American astronaut to walk in space. Picture: Getty
On this day in 1965, following the launch of Gemini 4, Edward White became the first American astronaut to walk in space. Picture: Getty

AD959: Edgar, first King of All England, was crowned in Bath by Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury.

1896: Treaty was signed in Moscow whereby China and Russia formed defensive alliance for 15 years, and China granted Russia right to operate railway in northern Manchuria.

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1899: England cricket captain WG Grace played his final Test Match, aged almost 51, against Australia at Trent Bridge.

1931: Derby Day races at Epsom became first sports and news event to be televised in Britain.

1937: The Duke of Windsor, the abdicated King Edward VIII, married Mrs Wallis Simpson in Monts, France.

1950: Himalayan peak of Annapurna was first climbed, by Maurice Herzog and Louis Lachenal.

1956: Third class rail travel was abolished in Britain and renamed second class.

1959: Singapore became self-governing.

1965: Gemini 4 was launched, with James McDivitt and Edward White. During the flight, White became the first American to walk in space.

1971: The longest-running comedy in theatre history, No Sex Please – We’re British, opened in London. It ran for 16 years.

1973: Soviet supersonic airliner crashed during international air show near Paris, killing six crew and seven French villagers.

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1976: Bolivia’s former president, Juan Jose Torres, was found murdered in Argentina.

1978: The Guinness Book of Records went into the Guinness Book of Records as the most stolen book from British libraries.

1981: Shergar, the racehorse later stolen without trace, won the Derby by ten lengths.

1988: US president Ronald Reagan said summit meetings with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev had started to “take down the barriers” of the Cold War.

1989: Tiananmen Square massacre of students demonstrating for democratic reforms in China began as troops cleared central Beijing; the death toll eventually reached 2,600.

1989: Seamus Heaney, Irish poet, was elected Oxford University’s professor of poetry after a two-day poll, in which only 0.6 per cent of the electorate voted.

1990: The Social Democratic Party national committee voted 17 to five to suspend its constitution, thereby ending its existence.

1991: Kuwait’s emir resisted opposition’s demand for early parliamentary elections and set polls for October, 1992.

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1992: The Earth Summit, the United Nations conference on environment and development, opened in Rio de Janeiro, attended by many world leaders.

2006: The union of Serbia and Montenegro came to an end with Montenegro’s formal declaration of independence.

2007: USS Carter Hall engaged pirates after they boarded the Danish ship Danica White off the coast of Somalia.

2011: A major fire at a scrap metal yard in Fife caused a huge plume of smoke to drift across the Firth of Forth. No-one was injured.

2012: In the highlight of the Jubilee celebrations, more than one million rain-soaked people watched the Queen’s 1,000-boat Diamond Jubilee pageant weave its way along the Thames.

BIRTHDAYS

James Purefoy, actor, 50; Wasim Akram, Pakistani Test cricketer, 48; Brian Barnes, golfer, 69; George Burley, Scottish football manager, 58; Raúl Castro, president of Cuba, 83; Anita Harris, singer and actress, 72; Ian Hunter, guitarist and vocalist (Mott the Hoople), 75; Kelly Jones, singer and guitarist (Stereophonics), 40; Clive Mantle, actor, 57; Michael Moore MP, Secretary of State for Scotland 2010-2013, 49; Rafael Nadal, tennis champion, 28; Suzi Quatro, singer, 64; Penelope Wilton OBE, actress, 68; Michelle Keegan, actress (Coronation Street), 27; Hale Irwin, golfer, 69.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 1774 Robert Tannahill, chief of the many Paisley poets; 1805 James Wilson, Hawick-born anti-Corn Law politician; 1808 Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate States in the American Civil War; 1865 King George V; 1877 Raoul Dufy, artist; 1898 Samuel Plimsoll, social reformer who devised the Plimsoll line for safe loading of ships; 1906 Josephine Baker, singer and dancer; 1924 Curtis Mayfield, soul singer; 1925 Cardinal Thomas Winning, Archbishop of Glasgow; 1925 Tony Curtis, actor; 1926 Allen Ginsberg, poet; 1928 Archie Hind, author.

Deaths: 1657 William Harvey, physician who discovered and demonstrated the circulation of blood; 1875 Georges Bizet, composer; 1899 Johan Strauss the Younger, composer; 1924 Franz Kafka, novelist; 1967 Arthur Ransome, writer and spy; 1989 Ayatollah Khomeini, leader of Iran; 1992 Robert Morley, actor; 2001 Anthony Quinn, actor; 2009 David Carradine, actor; 2010 Rue McClanahan, actress.

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