June 3
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Featured Event
Atlantic World/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (2021666732); Photo Illustration Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
The Dutch East India Company was not just a trading firm. It was also an empire builder—and the Republic of the United Netherlands wanted to expand. So on this day in 1621, it granted a charter to the Dutch West India Company and gave it a monopoly over Dutch trade and colonization in the Atlantic, including parts of North America, the Caribbean, and West Africa. [Read today’s edition of Today in History > >]
Featured Biography
Featured Biography
© Gaston Paris—Roger-Viollet/Getty Images
Tall.
Entertainer Josephine Baker, born in Missouri this day in 1906, became one of France’s most popular performers, took French citizenship, worked with the Resistance in World War II, and received the Legion of Honour.
Famous Birthdays
More on June 3
UPI/Bettmann Archive
2016
American boxer and social activist Muhammad Ali—who justified his self-proclaimed nickname “the Greatest” by becoming arguably the most admired and dominant heavyweight boxer in the history of the sport—died at age 74. [Take our quiz about the world’s greatest athletes.]
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
2006
Montenegro’s parliament declared the republic’s independence, severing some 88 years of union with Serbia. [How much do you know about European history?]
PRNewsFoto/Sony Classical/AP Images
2001
Mel Brooks’s musical The Producers, starring Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane, won a record-setting 12 Tony Awards. [Test your knowledge of theatre.]
© chrisdorney/Shutterstock.com
1992
A lawsuit brought before the High Court of Australia by activist Eddie Koiki Mabo was decided in favour of Torres Strait Islander peoples and Aboriginal peoples. The Mabo case established land rights for all Indigenous peoples in Australia. [Test what else you know about Australia.]
© Archive Photos/Getty Images
1989
The Chinese government called in the military to put down a pro-democracy demonstration carried out by more than 100,000 people in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, resulting in hundreds of deaths. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about China.]
Peter Probst/age fotostock
1989
Iranian Shiʿi cleric Ruhollah Khomeini—who led the revolution that overthrew Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi in 1979 and later served as Iran’s ultimate political and religious authority—died in Tehrān. [Take our quiz about the geography of Iran.]
U.S. Navy Photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Chad J. McNeeley/U.S. Department of Defense
1985
The talk show Larry King Live debuted on CNN, and it became hugely popular, in part because of King’s easygoing interviewing style. [How much do you know about pop culture?]
NASA
1965
Ed White emerged from the orbital spacecraft Gemini 4 and became the first American astronaut to walk in space. [Test your knowledge of famous astronauts and cosmonauts.]
© Everett Collection Historical/Alamy
1943
In Los Angeles, clashes erupted between U.S. servicemen and Mexican American youth wearing zoot suits; the Zoot Suit Riots, as they became known, occurred during a period of heightened racial tensions in the country. [Read about other riots in U.S. history.]
Camera Press/Globe Photos
1937
Some six months after abdicating the British throne, Prince Edward, duke of Windsor (formerly Edward VIII), married American socialite Wallis Simpson (who became duchess of Windsor). [How much do you know about the kings of England?]
AP
1932
American baseball great Lou Gehrig hit four consecutive home runs in one game. [Take our baseball quiz.]
Susan Ragan—AP/Shutterstock.com
1926
American poet Allen Ginsberg, a central figure in the Beat movement, was born in Newark, New Jersey. [Sort fact from fiction in our poetry quiz.]
U.S. National Archives and Records Administration
1904
American physician and surgeon Charles Richard Drew, a pioneer in the preservation of blood plasma and a lifelong critic of official decisions to separate the blood of whites and Blacks in blood banks, was born in Washington, D.C. [Take our quiz about famous doctors.]
National Archives, Brady Collection, Civil War Photographs
1864
Considered one of the worst Northern defeats of the American Civil War, the second Battle of Cold Harbor (Virginia), which would result in the loss of about 7,000 Union soldiers under General Ulysses S. Grant, began. [Test your knowledge of which side won which American Civil War battles.]
From The Birds of America, from Drawings Made in the United States, Vol. VII, by John James Audubon, 1844
1844
Great auks became extinct as the last two known specimens were killed by fishermen on Eldey island, Iceland (some sources give July 3, 1844, as the date of extinction).
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1808
Jefferson Davis, who became the president of the Confederate States of America, was born in Christian county, Kentucky. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about famous Americans.]