On This Day: 3 June

French scholar Peter Abelard is found guilty of heresy, for his support of the belief that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are three different modes or aspects of God, as opposed to the Trinitarian view of three distinct persons within the Godhead		1140
Thomas à Becket consecrated as Archbishop of Canterbury (one day after his ordination as a priest)		1162
Hernando de Soto claims Florida for Spain		1539
Battle of Lowestoft: an English fleet under James Stuart, Duke of York (later James II of England) defeats the Dutch		1665
Chinese scholar–official Lin Tse–hsü (Zexu) destroys 1.2 million kg of opium confiscated from British merchants, providing Britain with a casus belli to open hostilities, resulting in the First Opium War		1839
Confederates kill over 6,000 Unionists in less than an hour, in the Battle of Cold Harbor		1864
Prince George (George V) born		1865
Lacrosse is introduced into Britain from Montreal (1876 – Indy)		1874
W. G. Grace plays his last Test match, aged 50		1899
New Zealand becomes a Dominion		1907
15,000 are made homeless by a fire in Constantinople		1912
The penny postage for sealed letters in Britain is abolished		1918
The French liner Normandie captures the Blue Riband		1935
The Duke of Windsor marries Wallis Simpson at Chateau Conde Monts, near Tours, France		1937
Evacuation of the British army from Dunkirk begins (ends next day)		1940
Paris is bombed by the Luftwaffe		1940
Nazi official Franz Rademacher proposes plans to establish a "Jewish homeland" in Madagascar		1940
The Cretan village of Kandanos is razed to the ground, and 80 of its inhabitants murdered, by German forces "in retribution for the murder of 25 German soldiers, never to be rebuilt again" (it was of course rebuilt after the war ended)		1941
Battle of Midway Island begins		1942
White US Navy sailors and Marines clash with Latino youths in Los Angeles, in the so–called Zoot Suit Riots		1943
Louis Reard shows the first bikini at a Paris fashion show		1946
Mount Palomar telescope (USA) dedicated		1948
Wesley Anthony Brown becomes the first African American to graduate rom the US Naval Academy		1949
French climbers Maurice Herzog and Louis Lachenal reach the summit of Annapurna – the first successful ascent of an 8,000–metre peak		1950
British Railways abolishes third–class travel		1956
Noël Coward, on a visit to Britain from his home in Jamaica, brushes off questions about tax evasion – describing himself as "disgusted but entirely unworried" by such talk		1957
130 lives are lost when an Air France Boeing 707, carrying VIPs from Atlanta, Georgia (celebrating Air France's new office there), overruns the runway and explodes, as the crew attempts to abort take–off from Paris's Orly Airport; it's the worst ever recorded air disaster involving a single aircraft, up to that time		1962
The Rolling Stones begin their first US tour		1964
Ed White leaves Gemini 4 for 21 minutes, becoming the first US astronaut to walk in space		1965
The US Navy destroyer Frank E. Evans is cut in half when it sails under the bow of the Australian aircraft carrier Melbourne during a SEATO exercise off the coast of South Vietnam; 74 of the Evans's crew lose their lives		1969
Soldiers use rubber bullets and water cannon to disperse crowds as a Protestant march against "no–go" areas in Londonderry turns violent at Craigavon Bridge		1972
Sally Priesand is ordained in Cincinnati as the first woman rabbi		1972
13 lives are lost when a Tupolev Tu–144 crashes at the Paris Air Show – the first supersonic passenger aircraft to crash		1973
A blowout at an oil well in the Gulf of Mexico, operated by Mexico's state–owned oil company, causes the second–worst oil spill recorded up to that time (the sixth largest up to 2019) – at least 3,000,000 barrels (480,000 m³) of oil are spilled		1979
Shergar wins the Derby by a record ten lengths		1981
Shlomo Argov, Israel's ambassador to the UK, is shot in the head by members of a Palestinian splinter group (hostile to the PLO) outside the Dorchester Hotel in Park Lane, London; he survives, but is left paralysed		1982
The Indian government launches a military offensive at the Golden Temple (Harmandir Sahib) in Amritsar, the holiest shrine of the Sikh religion, where the militant religious leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his followers had been sheltered for almost two years; the operation continues until June 6, with casualties, most of them civilians, in excess of 5,000		1984
HM Government admits that there is a higher than average incidence of leukaemia around Sellafield		1984
The Chinese government sends tanks into Tiananmen Square, Beijing, to crush the demonstration for democracy that has made headlines around the world		1989
Three IRA gunmen are shot dead by a specialist covert army team, acting on intelligence, as they drive through the village of Coagh in County Tyrone on their way to mount an ambush on Protestant workmen. The IRA later admits that the men were its members and were on "active service"		1991
The Australian High Court grants land rights to Aborigines		1992
Western nations send a rapid reaction force into Bosnia–Herzegovina		1995
101 lives are lost when Germany's fastest train derails following a mechanical failure and hits a bridge at Eschede, 35 miles north of Hanover		1998
Russian and EU envoys report from Belgrade that President Milosevich is about to concede defeat after 72 days of NATO bombing		1999
One million people throng the area around Buckingham Palace for a special pop concert to mark the golden jubilee celebrations		2002
George Tenet, Director of the CIA who insisted to President Bush that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, resigns "for personal reasons"		2004
The union of Serbia and Montenegro comes to an end as Montenegro formally declares independence		2006
All 153 people on board, and 10 on the ground, lose their lives when a domestic flight (from Abuja) crashes in a residential district of Lagos, Nigeria, following engine failure and pilot error		2012
The pageant for the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II takes place on the Thames		2012
The trial of US Army private Chelsea Manning, for leaking classified material to WikiLeaks, begins in Fort Meade, Maryland		2013
At least 119 lives are lost in a fire at a poultry farm in Jilin Province in north–eastern China		2013
Over 200 lives are lost in an explosion at a petrol station in Accra, the capital city of Ghana		2015
Eight people are murdered, and dozens wounded, when Islamist terrorists drive a van into pedestrians on London Bridge and run through Borough Market, stabbing people in restaurants and pubs. All three attackers are shot dead by police		2017
As the Allies prepare to mark the 75th anniversary of D–Day, President Donald Trump arrives in Britain for a controversial three–dat state visit		2019

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On This Day: 3 June