June 5 Fletcher ordered the tug Vireo from the French Frigate Shoals to tow her to Pearl, later joined by destroyer Gwin, and sent three more destroyers from the screen around Enterprise to get a salvage party aboard the ship. Captain Buckmaster was with these men as they boarded the Yorktown (above), and slowly, the carrier was towed toward Pearl Harbor. She was not to make it. Admiral Yamamoto had ordered the submarine I-168 (above) to go after the carrier, and it did, sinking it under of the protection of four destroyers as well as the destroyer Hammann alongside her. The 5th of June was the day of the submarine, indeed. Admiral Yamamoto, in a rather foolish attempt to gain at least something, ordered Admiral Kondo to bombard Midway. Admiral Kondo in turn gave the same order to Admiral Kurita Takeo, commanding the youngest and fastest cruiser division in the IJN. These ships, however, had not yet reached Midway..."
1249 Sixth Crusade: Louis IX of France lands in Egypt.
1594 Birth: Nicolas Poussin, French painter.
1723 Baptism: Adam Smith, in Kirkcaldy, Scotland, Scottish philosopher, author, influential economist. "...Smith was the son of the comptroller of the customs at Kirkcaldy, Fife, Scotland. The exact date of his birth is unknown, but he was baptized at Kirkcaldy on June 5, 1723, his father having died some six months previously. At around the age of 4, he was kidnapped by a band of Gypsies, but he was quickly rescued by his uncle and returned to his mother. Smith's biographer, John Rae, commented wryly that he feared Smith would have made "a poor Gypsy."...In 1759 he published his The Theory of Moral Sentiments,...This work...established Smith's reputation in his day...On returning home to Kirkcaldy he devoted much of the next ten years to his magnum opus, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, which appeared in 1776. It was very well-received and popular, and Smith became famous....The Wealth of Nations was influential since it did so much to create the field of economics and develop it into an autonomous systematic discipline. In the Western world, it is arguably the most influential book on the subject ever published. When the book, which has become a classic manifesto against mercantilism (the theory that large reserves of bullion are essential for economic success), appeared in 1776, there was a strong sentiment for free trade in both Britain and America. This new feeling had been born out of the economic hardships and poverty caused by the war. However, at the time of publication, not everybody was immediately convinced..."
1794 Congress passes the Neutrality Act, which prohibits Americans from enlisting in the service of another country.
1806 Holland is declared a kingdom with Louis Bonaparte as its king.
1819 Birth: John Couch Adams. "British mathematician, Adams was born in Laneast, Cornwall and died in Cambridge. His most famous achievement was predicting the existence and position of Neptune, using only mathematics. The calculations were made to explain discrepancies with Uranus's orbit and the laws of Kepler and Newton. At the same time, but unknown to both, the same calculations were made by Urbain Le Verrier. Le Verrier would assist Galle in locating the planet (September 1846); which was found within 1° of its predicted location, a point in Aquarius. (There was, and to some extent still is, some controversy over the apportionment of credit for the discovery; see Discovery of Neptune.) He won the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1866. In 1884, he attended the International Meridian Conference as a delegate for Great Britain. A crater on the Moon is jointly named after him, Walter Sydney Adams and Charles Hitchcock Adams. Neptune's outermost known ring and the asteroid 1996 Adams are also named after him."
1849 Denmark becomes a constitutional monarchy.
1865 Depositors line up to pay $1.50 per year for each $1,000 placed in the first ever safe-deposit vault, opened this day in New York City.
1873 Under pressure from the British, the sultan of Zanzibar signs a treaty abolishing slavery.
1875 The Pacific Stock Exchange formally opens.
1876 For one thin dime, visitors to Philadelphia's Centennial Exposition are able to buy foil-wrapped bananas, a popular taste treat in the United States.
1878 Birth: Pancho Villa, Mexican revolutionary.
1883 Birth: John Maynard Keynes, English economist. "...During World War I, he worked in the Treasury, advancing in 1919 to the position of principal British treasury representative. After accompanying British prime minister Lloyd George to the peace conference ending the war, however, he resigned in protest of what he considered the inequitable economic provisions of the Versailles Treaty. His Economic Consequences of the Peace (1919) vividly presented his views and won him world fame. Keynes criticized the Versailles Treaty for its vindictiveness, specifically the impossibly high reparations levied on the Germans, and for its abandonment of the relatively free pre-1914 economy based on gold and low tariffs. He foresaw that German economic weakness stemming from the Versailles provisions would involve the whole of Europe in ruin....For the sake of full employment Keynes also modified his classical belief in international free trade. His ideas, based on large-scale government economic planning, are best expressed in his chief work, The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money (1936). Coming at a time when many nations had been racked by depressed economies, the book offered a sharp critique of laissez-faire economic policies and argued that central government needed to step in, particularly during periods of chronic unemployment....Keynes was influential at Bretton Woods (1944) in the proposals for the establishment of a world bank to stimulate growth in underdeveloped areas...Today Keynesian economics stands as the most influential economic formulation of the 20th century; Keynes's ideas have appealed to both practical politicians and theoretical economists with equal force, perhaps because he attacked the real problems of national employment and income while still remaining faithful to the requirements of rigorous economic thought..."
1884 Civil War hero General William Sherman refuses the Republican presidential nomination.
1900 Boer War: British troops under Redvers Buller capture Pretoria.
1900 Death: Stephen Crane, US poet, novelist. "...Bolstered by the success of The Red Badge of Courage and his book of poetry The Black Riders, Crane became subsumed with ideas of war. He was hired to go to Cuba as a journalist to report on the rebellion there against the Spanish. On the way to the island, Crane was in a shipwreck, from which he was originally reported dead. He rowed to shore in a dinghy, along with three other men, having to swim to shore and drop his money in the sea to prevent from drowning. This experience directly led to his most famous short story "The Open Boat" (1897). For various reasons, Crane stopped writing novels during this time and moved primarily to short stories, probably because they could sell in magazines better but also because he was constantly moving. When staying in Jacksonville, Florida, he met the owner of a brothel, Cora Taylor. She accompanied him to Greece as he reported on the Greco-Turkish War for New York newspapers; and stayed with him until the end of his life. At this point, rumors abounded about Crane, few of them good. There was talk of drug addiction, rampant promiscuity, and even Satanism, none of them true. Crane was disgusted with them and eventually relocated to England. After reporting on the Spanish-American War and Theodore Roosevelt's famed Rough Riders, Crane returned home to England. He then drove himself deeply into debt by throwing huge, expensive parties, reportedly at Cora Taylor's insistence. While he could now count Joseph Conrad, H. G. Wells, and other authors in his circle, most people sponged off of Crane and his lavishness. He worked on a novel about the Greek War and continued writing short stories and poetry, at this point to pay off his large debts. The stress of this life, compounded by an almost blatant disregard for his own health, led to his contracting tuberculosis. He died while in Baden, Germany, trying to recover from this illness. He was not yet 29 years old."
1900 Birth: Dennis Gabor, inventor of 3D laser photography (holography).
1912 US marines land in Cuba.
1916 Death: Lord Horatio Herbert Kitchener of Khartoum, Irish soldier, statesman and conqueror of Sudan, lost at sea when his ship, HMS Hampshire, strikes a mine off the Orkneys.
1916 WW1: An Arab revolt breaks out against the Turks in the Hejaz region of Saudi Arabia. The revolt spreads to Palestine and Syria under the leadership of British archaeologist T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia), a brilliant tactician who joins forces with Husayn Ibn Ali. Lawrence, with a force of only a few thousand Arabs, threatens the Turks' entire line of communications through Syria to the Taurus Mountains.
1917 WW1: About 10 million American men begin registering for the draft.
1918 WW1: The US Second Division begins a drive to uproot the Germans from positions at Vaux, Bouresches, and Belleau Wood.
1921 Birth: Bosin Blackbear, artist.
1933 FDR signs a bill taking the United States off the gold standard.
1934 Birth: Bill Moyers, Emmy Award-winning journalist, presidential aide under Johnson.
1934 Holocaust: The possibilities for legislating on "race-protection" are discussed at the 37th Meeting of the German Criminal Law Commission. Professor Dahm says: "Ideally, sexual relationships between "Aryans" and "non-Aryans" should be punished." (Science)
1934 Church and Reich: June 5-7 The Fulda Bishops' Conference notes that "contrary to earlier declarations of the Fuehrer, the National Socialist movement itself now wanted to constitute a Weltanschauung (worldview)." Religion could not be based on Blood and race or other dogmas of human creation, the bishops write, but only on divine revelation taught by the Church and its visible head, the Vicar of Christ in Rome. (Lewy)
1934 Church and Reich: June 5-7 The Fulda Bishops' Conference pronounces that Catholic nurses may not assist or take part in sterilization operations. See Also: July 24, 1940.
1940 WW2: The Germans launch another offensive southward from the Somme in France.
1940 WW2: General de Gaulle is appointed French Undersecretary of War.
1940 WW2: General Erhard Milch, Goering's deputy, inspects the beach at Dunkirk and rushes back to report to Goering, telling him that, "I recommend that this very day all our air units -- both the Second and Third Air Forces -- should be moved up the Channel coast, and that Britain should be invaded immediately. If we leave the British in peace for four weeks it will be too late." (Irving II)
1940 The first synthetic rubber tire is exhibited in the US's rubber capitol; Akron, Ohio.
1942 WW2: The crucial Battle of Midway continues. "...The coming of the evening of June 4th saw five carriers bobbing, four burning, and all abandoned. But while the Japanese carriers were clearly unsalvageable, the Yorktown was not. Fletcher, now aboard the Heavy Cruiser Astoria, had set off to join Spruance, but the destroyer Hughes remained near the carrier and reported that chances were she could be saved.
1943 Holocaust: The Germans deport 1,266 Jewish children under the age of 16 from Holland to Sobibor. All are gassed on arrival. (Atlas)
1944 WW2: King Victor Emmanuel is forced to relinquish power in Italy to his son, Prince Humbert.
1944 WW2: The first British gliders touch down on French soil in preparation for D-Day.
1944 WW2: The Cafe Gondree is the first place to be liberated from the Germans on the eve of the D-Day landings.
1944 WW2: Churchill, before going to bed on the evening on this night, tells his wife: "Do you realize that by the time you wake up in the morning twenty-thousand men may have been killed?" He is unhappy about the pre-invasion bombing of France but accepts the arguments of the Americans that it is necessary both to limit the losses and ensure the success of the invasion. See: June 6. (Churchill Center)
1945 WW2: The Allied Control Commission takes control of Germany, dividing it into four occupation zones.
1946 Nuremberg War Crimes Trials: To the great impatience of the Soviet members of the Tribunal, German General Alfred Jodl testifies concerning the Russian and German gang rape of Poland. "...the Polish territories east of an agreed demarcation line would be occupied by Soviet Russian troops at the appointed time. When we were approaching this agreed demarcation line, which was shown to me on a map, the line was the East Prussian Lithuanian border, Narew, Vistula, San. I telephoned to our military attache in Moscow and informed him that we could probably reach individual points of this demarcation line in the course of the following day. Shortly afterwards I was informed over the telephone that the Russian divisions were not yet ready. When, the day after the next, we reached the demarcation line and had to cross it in pursuit of the Poles, I once again received news from Moscow, at 0200 hours, that the Soviet Russian divisions would take up their position along the entire front at 0400 hours. This maneuver was punctually carried out, and I then drafted an order to our German troops that wherever they had contacted the troops of the Soviet Union, and in agreement with them, they were to withdraw behind the demarcation line...THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Exner, now all that the defendant has just been telling us seems to be to me a simple waste of our time, with absolutely no relevance to this case at all; and why you let him do it, I do not know. DR. EXNER: You have been accused of having used your personal influence and your close relations with the Fuehrer to attack a whole series of neutral countries. Tell me, is that true? JODL: No, it is untrue. I remember that a witness here spoke of a sinister influence, of a key position of a sinister kind-at any rate, something sinister. But my influence on the Fuehrer was unfortunately not in the least as great as it might, or perhaps even ought to have been in view of the position I held. The reason lay in the powerful personality of this despot who never suffered advisors gladly..."
1946 The first medical sponges are offered for sale in Detroit, Michigan.
1947 Marshall Plan: US Secretary of State George Marshall, speaking at Harvard University, announces his aid program to help Europe recover financially from the effects of WW2.
1953 King Frederick signs the new Danish constitution into effect, under which Greenland and the Faroes become integral parts of Denmark.
1967 Six Day War: Led by Defense Minister Moshe Dayan, Israel launches simultaneous attacks against Egypt and Syria. Jordan will subsequently enter the fray, but the Arab coalition will be no match for Israel's armed forces. In six days of fighting, the Israelis, who had at first meet strong Egyptian resistance, will destroy 50 of Egypt's tanks and occupy the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt, the Golan Heights of Syria, and the West Bank and Arab sector of East Jerusalem, both previously under Jordanian rule. By the time the UN cease-fire takes effect on 11 June, Israel will have more than doubled its size; a humiliating defeat for Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser. Both sides, to this day, still blame the other for firing the first shot. The UN Security Council will call for a withdrawal from all the occupied regions, but Israel will decline, permanently annexing East Jerusalem and setting up military administrations in the occupied territories. Israel will let it be known that Gaza, the West Bank, the Golan Heights, and the Sinai will be returned in exchange for Arab recognition of the right of Israel to exist and guarantees against future attack. Arab leaders, deciding upon a policy of no peace, no negotiations, and no recognition of Israel, will make plans to defend zealously the rights of Palestinian Arabs in the occupied territories. The Suez canal will be closed for 8 years until 1975 as a result of this fracas.
1968 Death: Senator Robert F. (Francis) Kennedy, while celebrating his victory in the California Democratic presidential primary in Los Angeles at The Ambassador hotel, is shot in the head. He will die the following day. The gunman Sirhan Bishara Sirhan is immediately arrested, and will later be convicted of the murder.
1975 Europe votes 17 million Yes and almost 8.5 million No in a referendum to stay in the Common Market.
1975 Egypt reopens the Suez Canal to international shipping, eight years after it was closed because of the Six Day War with Israel.
1976 The Teton River Dam in Idaho collapses as it is being filled for the first time, killing 14 people, flooding 300 square miles and causing an estimated $1 billion damage.
1977 A revolution takes place in the Seychelles Islands.
1980 Soyuz T-2 is launched.
1985 General Motors agrees to buy Hughes Aircraft for more than $5 billion; to date the biggest corporate purchase outside the oil industry.
1986 Former National Security Agency employee Ronald Pelton is convicted in Baltimore of spying for the Soviet Union. The verdict comes one day after former Navy intelligence analyst Jonathan Jay Pollard had pleaded guilty to espionage on behalf of Israel.
1989 Solidarity's defeat of the Communists in Poland's first free elections since WW2 is confirmed.
1990 Authorities in the People's Republic of Oakland County, Michigan, move to prevent further use of Dr. Jack Kevorkian's suicide device one day after Janet Adkins, an Oregon woman diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, had used the device to take her own life.
1991 The South African parliament votes to repeal the pro-apartheid Group Areas Act and Land Acts of 1913 and 1936, which had reserved 87 percent of the land for whites.
1991 President Chadli Benjedid declares a state of siege in Algeria, sacking the government and putting off the country's first multiparty general election after 11 days of protests by Islamic fundamentalists.
1991 Two anti-Soviet protesters force President Mikhail Gorbachev to interrupt his Nobel Peace Prize speech in Oslo.
1992 On the 20th anniversary of the first UN environmental conference, Brazil and 11 other nations sign a controversial bio-diversity treaty setting guidelines for the protection and use of plant and animal species.
1993 14 men charged in an Iraqi plot to kill former President George H.W. Bush go on trial in Kuwait.
1993 23 Pakistani troops serving with the UN peacekeeping forces in Somalia are killed in an ambush in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia.
1994 The ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front and its allies score an overwhelming victory in elections for a new assembly.
1998 Ethnic Albanian delegates pull out of peace talks with the Yugoslav republic of Serbia because of the ongoing crackdown by Serb police in the rebellious province of Kosovo.
1999 NATO and Yugoslav military officials begin meeting at the Kosovo border to discuss terms for NATO's suspension of its bombing campaign of Yugoslavia.
2000 Ukraine officials finally announce that the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, site of the worst radiation accident in history, will be closed.
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2004 Death: Former US President Ronald Reagan, perhaps the most popular and successful president since FDR, at the age of 93.
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