Sunday, June 5

This Day In History

• 1723   Economist Adam Smith was born in Kirkcaldy, Scotland.
• 1794   Congress passed the Neutrality Act, prohibiting Americans from enlisting in the service of a foreign power.
• 1883   Economist John Maynard Keynes was born in Cambridge, England.
• 1884   Civil War hero Gen. William T. Sherman refused the Republican presidential nomination, saying, ''I will not accept if nominated and will not serve if elected.''
• 1933   The United States went off the gold standard.
• 1940   The Battle of France began during World War II.
• 1947   Secretary of State George C. Marshall, speaking at Harvard University, outlined an aid program for Europe that came to be known as the Marshall Plan.
• 1956   Elvis Presley made his second appearance on Milton Berle’s "Texaco Star Theatre".
• 1967   Ongoing political problems (control and reunification of Jerusalem, access through the strait of Tiran, control of the West Bank of the Jordan River, etc.) came to a head, causing a major outbreak of hostilities (later referred to as the Six Day War) between Israel and Egypt. Syria, Jordan and Iraq entered the conflict.
• 1975   Egypt reopened the Suez Canal to international shipping, eight years after it was closed because of the 1967 war with Israel.
• 1981   The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that five homosexuals in Los Angeles had come down with a rare kind of pneumonia; they were the first recognized cases of what became known as AIDS.
• 1986   A federal jury in Baltimore convicted Ronald W. Pelton of selling secrets to the Soviet Union.
• 1987   Ted Koppel and guests discussed the topic of AIDS for four hours on ABC-TV’s "Nightline". It is believed that this was a record for the longest live-TV broadcast, other than of space coverage and political conventions.
• 1998   A strike at a General Motors parts factory near Detroit closed five assembly plants and idled workers nationwide; the walkout lasted seven weeks.
• 2002   Elizabeth Smart, 14, disappeared from her Salt Lake City home.
• 2002   Dee Dee Ramone, bass player for the pioneer punk band the Ramones, died in Los Angeles at age 50.

Happy Birthday To

• 1723   Adam Smith (philosopher and author: An Enquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations; died July 17, 1790)
• 1974   Chad Allen (actor: St. Elsewhere, Webster, Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman)