Thursday, June 2

This Day In History

• 1851   Maine became the first state to enact a law prohibiting alcohol.
• 1886   President Grover Cleveland married Frances Folsom in a White House ceremony.
• 1897   Mark Twain was quoted by the New York Journal as saying from London that ''the report of my death was an exaggeration.''
• 1924   Congress granted U.S. citizenship to all American Indians.
• 1941   Baseball's ''Iron Horse,'' Lou Gehrig, died in New York of a degenerative disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
• 1946   The Italian monarchy was abolished in favor of a republic.
• 1979   Pope John Paul II arrived in his native Poland on the first visit by a pope to a Communist country.
• 1987   President Reagan announced he was nominating economist Alan Greenspan to succeed Paul Volcker as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board.
• 1995   A U.S. Air Force F-16C was shot down by Bosnian Serbs while on a NATO air patrol in northern Bosnia; the pilot, Capt. Scott F. O'Grady, was rescued six days later.
• 1997   Timothy McVeigh was convicted of murder and conspiracy in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people.
• 1998   Voters in California passed Proposition 227, requiring that all schoolchildren be taught in English.
• 1886   Grover Cleveland became the first U.S. President to get married in the White House. He exchanged vows with his bride, Florence Folsom.
• 1930   Mrs. M. Niezes of Panama gave birth to the first baby to be born on a ship while passing through the Panama Canal.
• 1933   President Franklin D. Roosevelt accepted the first swimming pool to be built inside the White House.
• 1953   The coronation of 27-year-old Queen Elizabeth II was broadcast.

Happy Birthday To

• 1740   Marquis de Sade (Comte Donatien Alphonse Francois de Sade)
• 1890   Hedda Hopper (Elda Furry) (celebrity columnist; show biz gossip; radio commentator)
• 1904   Johnny Weissmuller (swimmer: won total of 5 gold medals in Olympic swimming [1924, 1928], he also collected 52 U.S. and 67 world swimming records; actor: Tarzan, the Ape Man, Tarzan and His Mate, Tarzan Escapes, Tarzan Finds a Son, Tarzan’s Secret Adventure, Tarzan's New York Adventure; died Jan 20, 1984)
• 1937   Sally Kellerman (actress: M*A*S*H)
• 1948   Jerry Mathers (actor: Leave It to Beaver)