Today in History

The U.S. reports finding wiretaps in the American embassy in Moscow.

Governor George Wallace vows to defy an injunction ordering integration of the University of Alabama.

Charles de Gaulle becomes premier of France.

America begins sending Lend-Lease materials to the Soviet Union.

The German Army completes the capture of Crete as the Allied evacuation ends.

The Douglas DC-4 makes its first passenger flight from Chicago to New York.

Christopher Lasch, American social critic and writer.

Marilyn Monroe (born Norma Jean Mortenson, later Norma Jean Baker), film actress and icon.

A white mob attacks the thriving Black community of the Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma, killing 85 people in what comes to be known as the Tulsa Race Massacre.

The National Defense Act increases the strength of the U.S. National Guard by 450,000 men.

Germany conducts the first zeppelin air raid over England.

John van Druten, English playwright (I am a Camera).

Molly Picon, comic actress and singer.

John Masefield, English poet.

U.S. troops are authorized to pursue bandits into Mexico.

James Buchanan, the 15th president of the United States, dies.

The Battle of Cold Harbor, Virginia, begins as Confederate general Robert E. Lee tries to turn Union general Ulysses S. Grant’s flank.

General Robert E. Lee assumes command of the Confederate army outside Richmond after General Joe Johnston is injured at Seven Pines.

John B. Hood, Confederate general.

Philip Kearney, Union general.

American navy captain James Lawrence, mortally wounded in a naval engagement with the British, exhorts to the crew of his vessel, the Chesapeake, “Don’t give up the ship!”

Brigham Young, American religious leader.

The first U.S. congressional act on administering oaths becomes law.

The British government orders the port of Boston closed.

Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury.

Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII‘s new queen, is crowned.

The Roman emperor, Marcus Didius, is murdered in his palace.