June 2
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Featured Event
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On this day in 1953, 27-year-old Elizabeth II, the elder daughter of King George VI, was formally crowned queen of the United Kingdom in a coronation ceremony at Westminster Abbey. In the crowds outside was reporter Jackie Bouvier, who covered the event for the Washington Times-Herald. It was one of her last assignments. Months later she would marry John F. Kennedy. [Read today’s edition of Today in History > >.]
Featured Biography
Featured Biography
Copyright RKO
American swimmer Johnny Weissmuller, who won five Olympic gold medals and set 67 world records and who was even more famous as a motion-picture actor, most notably in the role of Tarzan, was born in Romania this day in 1904.
Famous Birthdays
More on June 2
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2008
American singer, songwriter, and guitarist Bo Diddley, who was one of the most influential performers of rock music’s early period, died in Florida at age 79. [Take our quiz about rock and roll.]
© 2002 Blown Deadline Productions/HBO Entertainment
Bill Waugh—AP/Shutterstock.com
1997
A jury in Denver, Colorado, found Timothy McVeigh guilty of murder and conspiracy in the deaths of 168 people in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. He was executed in June 2001.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1946
In the aftermath of World War II, the people of Italy passed a referendum to replace the governing monarchy with a republic.
AP
1941
American professional baseball player Lou Gehrig, who was nicknamed “the Iron Horse” for his record-setting number of consecutive games played, died at age 37, two years after being diagnosed with ALS. [Test your knowledge of baseball.]
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1940
Constantine II, king of Greece from 1964 to 1974, was born in Psikhikó, near Athens. [Take our quiz about kings and emperors.]
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
1886
Frances Folsom, age 21, married U.S. President Grover Cleveland in the White House and became the youngest first lady in American history. [Test your knowledge of U.S. first ladies.]
Image: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1865
Confederate soldiers yielded to Union troops in Galveston, Texas, marking the end of one of the final land operations of the American Civil War. [How much do you know about the American Civil War?]
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1840
Novelist and poet Thomas Hardy, who set much of his work in Wessex, an imaginary county in southwestern England, was born in Dorset. [Take our quiz about English authors.]
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1740
The Marquis de Sade, the French nobleman known for his perverse sexual preferences and erotic writings, was born in Paris. [How much do you know about French writers?]