Events

Up to 1950 
 350 - Roman usurper Nepotianus, of the Constantinian dynasty, proclaims himself Roman Emperor, ending Rome, leading a group of gladiators.
 1326 – The Treaty of Novgorod determines the border between Russia and the Finnmark region of northern Norway.
 1539 – Hernando de Soto claims Florida for Spain.
 1608 – Samuel de Champlain completes his 3rd voyage to New France at Tadoussac, Quebec.
 1621 – The Dutch West India Company receives a charter for the New Netherlands.
 1665 - Future-King James II of England/James VII of Scotland defeats the Dutch fleet off Lowestoft, Suffolk, England.
 1769 – At Tahiti, James Cook observes the transit of Venus.
 1781 - American Revolutionary War: Jack Jouett makes a midnight ride to warn Thomas Jefferson and the Virginia Legislature of coming British cavalry who had been sent to capture them.
 1789 – From Fort Chipewyan, a Alexander MacKenzie-led expedition, to find a river link to the Pacific Ocean coast of Canada, sets off.
 1839 - In Humen, China, Lin Tse-hsu destroys 1.2 million kilograms of opium taken from British merchants, providing the United Kingdom with the "casus belli" to begin hostilities, resulting in the First Opium War.
 1858 – Francis Thomas Gregory climbs the world's biggest monolith (single piece of rock), Mount Augustus in Western Australia. He names the rock after his brother, Augustus Gregory.
 1861 – American Civil War: Union troops defeat Confederate forces in the Battle of Philippi in Virginia.
 1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Cold Harbor - Union forces attack Confederate troops in Hanover County, Virginia.
 1885 - Last military engagement on Canadian soil - Cree leader Big Bear escapes from the North-West Mounted Police.
 1889 – The Transcontinental Canadian Pacific Railway is completed.
 1889 – The first long-distance electric power transmission line in the United States is completed, 14 miles (23 kilometres) from a Generator at Willamette Falls in Oregon to Portland, Oregon.
 1916 - The National Defense Act is signed into law, increasing the size of the United States National Guard.
 1937 – Almost 6 months after his abdication as King, Edward VIII of the United Kingdom marries Wallis Simpson.
 1940 – World War II: The Battle of Dunkirk ends, as Allied forces retreat.
 1940 – World War II: The Luftwaffe bombs Paris.
 1940 - Franz Redemacher proposes Madagascar as the "Jewish Homeland".
 1941 – World War II: The Wehrmacht razes the village of Kandanos, Greece, to the ground, killing 180 of its residents.
 1942 – World War II: Japan begins its Aleutian Islands campaign by attacking Unalaska Island.
 1947 - Viceroy Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma announces the planned Partition of India.
 1950 – Maurice Herzog and Louis Lachenal climb Annapurna in the Himalayas. It is the first successful ascent of a mountain higher than 8000 metres.

From 1951 
 1959 - Singapore is declared a self-governing state, though remaining within the British Empire.
 1961 - US President John F. Kennedy and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev meet in Vienna, Austria, for talks.
 1962 – A Boeing 707 plane crashes near Paris, killing 130 people.
 1963 – A Northwest Airlines DC-7 crashes into the Pacific Ocean off British Columbia, Canada, killing 101 people.
 1965 – NASA Gemini 4 mission: Crew member Edward Higgins White becomes the first American to perform a spacewalk.
 1968 - Valerie Solanas attempts to kill artist Andy Warhol.
 1969 – Off South Vietnam, Australian aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne cuts United States Navy destroyer USS Frank E. Evans in half.
 1973 – The Supersonic Tupolev Tu-144 plane crashes in France, killing 14 people.
 1979 – The Ixtoc I oil well explodes in the Gulf of Mexico, leading to one of the worst-ever oil spills.
 1980 – Seven tornadoes hit Grand Island, Nebraska, killing 5 people and destroying many homes.
 1982 - Shlomo Argov, Israel's Ambassador to the United Kingdom, is shot and seriously injured in an assassination attempt in London.
 1984 – The Indian government's Operation Blue Star military offensive begins at the Golden Temple in Amritsar.
 1989 – The crushing of protests at Tiananmen Square in Beijing begins. Hundreds of people are killed.
 1989 – Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini dies.
 1991 – Mount Unzen on Kyushu, Japan, erupts, killing 43 people, all of them researchers or journalists.
 1992 - Aboriginal land rights are granted in Australia.
 1993 - France and Spain recognize the independence of Andorra.
 1998 – A major train derailment occurs in Eschede, Germany, killing 101 people.
 2003 - A train crash in Chinchilla, Castile-La Mancha, Spain, kills 19 people and injures around 50.
 2006 – Montenegro becomes independent.
 2008 – Barack Obama secures the Democratic Party nomination for President of the United States, over Hillary Clinton.
 2010 – The name of the Queen Charlotte Islands, British Columbia, Canada, is officially changed back to Haida Gwaii.
 2012 – Dana Air Flight 997 crashes into a building in Lagos, Nigeria, killing all 153 people on board and more than 40 on the ground.
 2017 - The June 2017 London attack is carried out, killing 8 people in a car-ramming and stabbing attack.
 2018 - The Volcan de Fuego volcano in Guatemala erupts, killing at least 69 people.

Births

Up to 1900 
 20 BC - Sejanus, Roman political figure (d. 31)
 1537 – John Manuel, Prince of Portugal (d. 1554)
 1540 – Charles II of Austria (d. 1590)
 1579 - Jens Munk, Danish-Norwegian explorer (d. 1628)
 1635 - Philippe Quinault, French writer (d. 1688).
 1636 – John Hale, American minister (d. 1700)
 1659 - David Gregory, Scottish astronomer (d. 1708)
 1723 – Giovanni Antonio Scopoli, Italian naturalist (d. 1788)
 1726 – James Hutton, Scottish geologist (d. 1797)
 1770 – Manuel Belgrano, Argentine politician and general (d. 1820)
 1808 – Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America (d. 1889)
 1819 - Anton Anderledy, Swiss religious leader (d. 1892)
 1832 – Alexandre Charles Lecocq, French composer (d. 1918)
 1840 - Michael O'Laughlen, American conspirator in the Abraham Lincoln assassination (d. 1867)
 1843 – King Frederick VIII of Denmark (d. 1912)
 1844 – Detlev von Lilencron, German poet (d. 1909)
 1844 – Garret Hobart, Vice President of the United States (d. 1899)
 1853 – Flinders Petrie, English Egyptologist (d. 1942)
 1864 – Ransom E. Olds, American pioneer (d. 1950)
 1865 – King George V of the United Kingdom (d. 1936)
 1872 – Habibullah Khan, Emir of Afghanistan (d. 1919)
 1873 – Otto Loewi, German doctor, won the 1936 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1961)
 1876 - Nikolay Burdenko, Russian surgeon (d. 1946)
 1877 – Raoul Dufy, French painter (d. 1953)
 1878 - Barney Oldfield, American racing driver (d. 1946)
 1879 - Alla Nazimova, Russian-American movie and theatre actress (d. 1945)
 1881 - Mikhail Larionov, Russian painter (d. 1964)
 1885 – Yakov Sverdlov, Russian revolutionary and politician (d. 1919)
 1890 - Baburao Painter, Indian actor, director, producer and screenwriter (d. 1954)
 1895 – Zoltan Korda, movie director (d. 1961)
 1897 – Memphis Minnie, American blues guitarist, singer and songwriter (d. 1973)
 1899 – Georg von Bekesy, Hungarian physicist and physiologist (d. 1972)
 1900 - Leo Picard, German-Israeli geologist (d. 1997)

1901  1950 
 1901 – Maurice Evans, English actor (d. 1989)
 1901 – Zhang Xueliang, Chinese warlord (d. 2001)
 1903 – Eddie Acuff, American actor (d. 1956)
 1904 – Charles Drew, American surgeon (d. 1950)
 1906 – Josephine Baker, American-born dancer (d. 1975)
 1910 – Paulette Goddard, American actress (d. 1990)
 1910 - Wilfred Thesiger, English explorer and writer (d. 2003)
 1911 – Ellen Corby, American actress (d. 1999)
 1913 - Lloyd Percival, Canadian tennis player, boxer, cricketer and coach (d. 1974)
 1917 – Leo Gorcey, American actor (d. 1969)
 1922 - Alain Resnais, French director (d. 2014)
 1923 - Igor Shafarevich, Russian mathematician (d. 2017)
 1924 - M. Karunanidhi, Indian politician, 3rd Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu (d. 2018)
 1924 - Ingrid Espelid Hovig, Norwegian television chef and cookbook author (d. 2018)
 1924 - Bernard Glasser, American actor (d. 2014)
 1924 - Jimmy Rogers, American singer and guitarist (d. 1997)
 1924 – Torsten Wiesel, Swedish neuropsychologist and Nobel Prize winner
 1925 – Tony Curtis, American actor (d. 2010)
 1925 – Thomas Joseph Winning, Archbishop of Glasgow (d. 2001)
 1926 – Allen Ginsberg, American poet (d. 1997)
 1929 – Werner Arber, Swiss microbiologist and geneticist
 1930 - Marion Zimmer Bradley, American writer (d. 1999)
 1930 - George Fernandes, Indian journalist and politician
 1930 – Dakota Staton, American jazz singer (d. 2007)
 1931 – Raul Castro, President of Cuba
 1931 – Lindy Remigino, American athlete
 1933 – Isa ibn Salman Al Khalifah, Emir of Bahrain (d. 1999)
 1935 - Enzo Jannacci, Italian singer-songwriter and actor (d. 2013)
 1936 - Colin Meads, New Zealand rugby player (d. 2017)
 1937 - Solomon P. Ortiz, American politician
 1937 – Edward Winter, American actor
 1938 - David L. Mills, American computer engineer
 1939 – Ian Hunter, English musician (Mott the Hoople)
 1940 - Antonio Brack Egg, Peruvian ecologist and politician (d. 2014)
 1940 - Loretta Long, American actress and singer
 1942 – Curtis Mayfield, American musician (d. 1999)
 1943 - Billy Cunningham, American basketball player
 1944 - Edith McGuire, American sprinter
 1944 - Mary Thom, American feminist
 1945 - Ramon Jacinto, Filipino singer, guitarist and businessman
 1945 – John Derbyshire, British-American mathematician and political commentator
 1945 – Hale Irwin, American golfer
 1946 - Michael Clarke, American drummer (d. 1993)
 1946 - Eddie Holman, American singer
 1946 - Penelope Wilton, English actress
 1947 - Mickey Finn, English singer and musician (d. 1993)
 1948 - Jan Reker, Dutch footballer and manager
 1949 - Floyd Lloyd, Jamaican singer
 1950 - Melissa Mathison, American film and television screenwriter (d. 2015)
 1950 – Suzi Quatro, American rock musician
 1950 - Deniece Williams, American singer

1951  1975 
 1951 - Jill Biden, Second Lady of the United States
 1952 – Billy Powell, American musician (Lynyrd Skynyrd) (d. 2009)
 1954 - Dan Hill, Canadian singer
 1954 – Bajram Rexhepi, former Prime Minister of Kosovo (d. 2017)
 1956 – George Burley, Scottish football manager
 1956 - Danny Wilde, American singer and guitarist (The Quick and The Rembrandts)
 1957 - Peter de Villiers, South African rugby coach
 1962 – Susannah Constantine, English television presenter
 1963 - Rudy Demotte, Belgian politician, Prime Minister of Wallonia
 1964 – Kerry King, American rock guitarist (Slayer)
 1964 - James Purefoy, British actor
 1965 – Michael Moore, British politician
 1965 – Thomas Ohrner, German actor and television presenter
 1966 – Wasim Akram, Pakistani cricketer
 1967 – Anderson Cooper, American broadcast journalist
 1968 - Saffron, Nigerian singer and dancer
 1970 - Greg Hancock, American motorcycle speedway racer
 1972 - Julie Gayet, French actress
 1974 – Kelly Jones, Welsh singer (Stereophonics)

From 1976 
 1976 - Laila Samuelsen, Norwegian singer-songwriter
 1977 – Cristiano Marques Gomes, Brazilian footballer
 1979 - Christian Malcolm, British sprinter
 1980 – Amauri, Brazilian-Italian footballer
 1980 - Ibrahim Yattara, Guinean footballer
 1980 - Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Emir of Qatar
 1982 – Yelena Isinbayeva, Russian pole vaulter
 1982 - Jodie Whittaker, English actress
 1984 – Emily Scott, Australian model
 1984 – Prince Félix of Luxembourg
 1985 – Enkhbatyn Badar-Uugan, Mongolian boxer
 1985 - Papiss Cissé, Senegalese footballer
 1985 - Lukasz Piszczek, Polish footballer
 1986 – Rafael Nadal, Spanish tennis player
 1986 – Tomas Verner, Czech ice skater
 1986 - Al Horford, Dominican basketball player
 1987 - Angela Crawley, Scottish politician
 1987 - Michelle Keegan, English actress
 1987 - Masami Nagasawa, Japanese actress
 1987 – Lalaine, American actress
 1989 – Katie Hoff, American swimmer
 1989 - Imogen Poots, British actress
 1990 – Fabian Götze, German footballer
 1992 – Mario Götze, German footballer
 1993 - Otto Porter, American basketball player
 2006 - Countess Leonore of Orange-Nassau, Jonkrouwe van Amsberg, Dutch royal

Deaths

Up to 1975 
 628 - Liang Shidu, Chinese rebel leader
 800 - Staurakios, Byzantine general
 1395 - Ivan Shishman of Bulgaria (b. 1350)
 1397 - William de Montacute, 2nd Earl of Salisbury, English commander (b. 1328)
 1411 – Leopold IV, Regent of Tyrol and Further Austria
 1615 - Sanada Yukimura, Japanese samurai (b. 1567)
 1649 - Manuel de Faria e Sousa, Portuguese historian and poet (b. 1590)
 1657 – William Harvey, English physician (b. 1578)
 1780 – Thomas Hutchinson, colonial Governor of Massachusetts (b. 1711)
 1826 – Nikolai Karamzin, Russian writer (b. 1766)
 1858 – Julius Reubke, German composer (b. 1834)
 1861 – Stephen A. Douglas, American politician (b. 1813)
 1875 – Georges Bizet, French composer (b. 1838)
 1882 - Christian Wiberg, German painter (b. 1839)
 1894 – Karl Eduard Zachariae, expert on Byzantine Law (b. 1812)
 1899 – Johann Strauss II, Austrian composer (b. 1825)
 1900 – Mary Kingsley, English explorer (b. 1862)
 1906 - John Maxwell, American golfer (b. 1871)
 1918 - Ramon Maximiliano Valdes, 7th President of Panama (b. 1867)
 1924 – Franz Kafka, Austrian novelist (b. 1883)
 1928 – Li Yüan-hung, Chinese general and political figure (b. 1864)
 1946 – Mikhail Kalinin, Soviet-Russian politician (b. 1875)
 1963 – Nazim Hikmet (b. 1902)
 1963 – Pope John XXIII (b. 1881)
 1964 – Frans Eemil Sillanpaa, Finnish writer (b. 1888)
 1969 - George Edwin Cooke, American soccer player (b. 1883)
 1970 – Hjalmar Schacht, Minister of Economics and President of the Reichsbank under Adolf Hitler (b. 1877)
 1971 – Heinz Hopf, German mathematician (b. 1894)
 1975 - Eisaku Sato, Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1901)
 1975 – Ozzie Nelson, American band leader, producer, director, and actor (b. 1906)

1976  2010 
 1977 – Roberto Rossellini, Italian movie director, father of Isabella Rossellini, husband of Ingrid Bergman (b. 1906)
 1977 – Archibald Hill, English mathematician, won the 1922 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1886)
 1986 - Anna Neagle, English actress (b. 1904)
 1987 - Will Sampson, American actor and artist (b. 1933)
 1989 – Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Iranian Shi'ite Islamic leader (b. 1900)
 1990 – Stiv Bators, American musician, punk rock singer with The Dead Boys (b. October 22, 1949)
 1990 – Robert Noyce, American inventor (b. 1927)
 1991 – Katia Krafft, French volcanologist (b. 1942)
 1991 – Maurice Krafft, French volcanologist (b. 1946)
 1991 – Takeshi Nagata, Japanese geophysicist (b. 1913)
 1992 – Robert Morley, English actor (b. 1908)
 1994 - Puig Aubert, French rugby player (b. 1925)
 1997 - Dennis James, American actor and game show host (b. 1917)
 2000 - Merton Miller, American economist (b. 1923)
 2001 – Anthony Quinn, Mexican-American actor (b. 1915)
 2002 - Lew Wasserman, American talent agent and studio executive (b. 1913)
 2003 – Felix de Weldon, Austrian sculptor (b. 1907)
 2004 – Frances Shand Kydd, mother of Diana, Princess of Wales (b. 1936)
 2005 – Harold Cardinal, Cree political leader, writer and lawyer (b. 1945)
 2006 - Johnny Grande, American singer (b. 1932)
 2009 – Koko Taylor, American musician (b. 1928)
 2009 – David Carradine, American actor (b. 1936)
 2010 – Vladimir Arnold, Russian mathematician (b. 1937)
 2010 – Rue McClanahan, American actress (b. 1934)

From 2011 
 2011 – Jack Kevorkian, American physician and assisted suicide activist (b. 1928)
 2011 – James Arness, American actor (b. 1923)
 2012 – Roy Salvadori, British racing driver (b. 1922)
 2013 - Frank Lautenberg, United States Senator for New Jersey (b. 1924)
 2013 - Jiah Khan, American-born British-Indian actress (b. 1988)
 2013 - Atul Chitnis, German-Indian technician (b. 1962)
 2014 - Gopinath Munde, Indian politician (b. 1949)
 2014 - James Alan Shelton, Australian bluegrass guitarist (b. 1960)
 2014 - Karl Harris, British motorcycle racer (b. 1979)
 2014 - Svyatoslav Belza, Russian scholar, critic and essayist (b. 1942)
 2014 - Virginia Luque, Argentine actress (b. 1927)
 2015 - Avi Beker, Israeli academic (b. 1951)
 2015 - Margaret Juntwait, American radio host (b. 1957)
 2016 - Muhammad Ali, American boxer (b. 1942)
 2016 - Jocelyn Lovell, Canadian cyclist (b. 1950)
 2016 - Sten Lundin, Swedish motocross racer (b. 1931)
 2016 - Luis Salom, Spanish motorcycle racer (b. 1991)
 2016 - Dave Swarbrick, English musician and singer-songwriter (b. 1941)
 2016 - Adolph Cornelis van Bruggen, Dutch malacologist (b. 1929)
 2017 - David Choby, American Roman Catholic prelate (b. 1947)
 2017 - Niels Helveg Petersen, Danish politician (b. 1939)
 2017 - Jimmy Piersall, American baseball player (b. 1929)
 2017 - John K. Watts, Australian footballer and broadcaster (b. 1937)
 2017 - Vincent Tshabalala, South African golfer (b. 1942)
 2018 - Robert Brylewski, Polish singer-songwriter (b. 1961)
 2018 - Frank Carlucci, American politician (b. 1930)
 2018 - Jerry Hopkins, American journalist and blogger (b. 1935)
 2018 - Miguel Obando y Bravo, Nicaraguan cardinal (b. 1926)
 2018 - Mario Toros, Italian politician (b. 1922)
 2018 - Georg von Tiesenhausen, German-American rocket scientist (b. 1914)

Observances 
 World Bicycle Day 
 European Bicycle Day 
 Montenegro Independence Day
 Confederate Memorial Day (Kentucky, Louisiana, Tennessee)

June 03