Historical Events on Monday, 2nd June

02/06/2023

A collision between two passenger trains and a parked freight train near the city of Balasor, Odisha in eastern India, results in 296 deaths and more than 1,200 people injured.

On 2 June 2023, three trains collided in Balasore district in the east Indian state of Odisha. The crash occurred around 19:00 IST when Coromandel Express, a passenger train, collided with a stationary goods train near Bahanaga Bazar railway station on the Howrah–Chennai main line. Due to the high speed of the passenger train and the heavy tonnage of the goods train, the impact resulted in 21 coaches of the Coromandel Express derailing, three of which collided with the oncoming SMVT Bengaluru–Howrah Superfast Express on the adjacent track.

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02/06/2022

Following a request from Ankara, the United Nations officially changed the name of the Republic of Turkey in the organization from what was previously known as "Turkey" to "Türkiye".

Ankara is the capital city of Turkey. Located in the central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of over 5.3 million residents in its urban center, out of 6 million residents in Ankara Province. Ankara is Turkey's second-largest city by population after Istanbul.

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02/06/2014

Telangana officially becomes the 29th state of India, formed from ten districts of northwestern Andhra Pradesh.

Telangana is a state in India situated in the south-central part of the Indian subcontinent on the high Deccan Plateau. It is the eleventh largest state by area and the twelfth most populated state in India, according to the 2011 census. On 2 June 2014, Telangana was separated from the northwestern part of United Andhra Pradesh as a newly formed state, with Hyderabad as its capital. It borders Maharashtra to the north, Chhattisgarh to the northeast, Andhra Pradesh to the southeast, and Karnataka to the southwest.

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02/06/2012

Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is sentenced to life imprisonment for his role in the killing of demonstrators during the 2011 Egyptian revolution.

The president of the Arab Republic of Egypt is the head of state of Egypt. Under the various iterations of the Constitution of Egypt following the Egyptian revolution of 1952, the president is also the Supreme commander of the Armed Forces, and head of the executive branch of the Egyptian government.

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02/06/2003

Europe launches its first voyage to another planet, Mars. The European Space Agency's Mars Express probe launches from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan.

Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", for its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous atmosphere that is primarily carbon dioxide. At the average surface level the atmospheric pressure is a few thousandths of Earth's, atmospheric temperature ranges from −153 to 20 °C, and cosmic radiation is high. Mars retains some water, in the ground as well as thinly in the atmosphere, forming cirrus clouds, fog, frost, larger polar regions of permafrost and ice caps, but no bodies of liquid surface water. Its surface gravity is roughly a third of Earth's or double that of the Moon. Its diameter, 6,779 km (4,212 mi), is about half the Earth's, or twice the Moon's, and its surface area is the size of all the dry land of Earth.

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02/06/1998

Space Shuttle Discovery is launched on STS-91, the final mission of the Shuttle-Mir program.

Space Shuttle Discovery is a retired American Space Shuttle orbiter. The spaceplane was one of the orbiters from NASA's Space Shuttle program and the third of five fully operational orbiters to be built. Its first mission, STS-41-D, flew from August 30 to September 5, 1984. Over 27 years of service it launched and landed 39 times, aggregating more spaceflights than any other spacecraft as of December 2024. The Space Shuttle launch vehicle had three main components: the Space Shuttle orbiter, a single-use central fuel tank, and two reusable solid rocket boosters. Nearly 25,000 heat-resistant tiles cover the orbiter to protect it from high temperatures on re-entry.

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02/06/1997

In Denver, Timothy McVeigh is convicted on 15 counts of murder and conspiracy for his role in the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, in which 168 people died. He was executed four years later.

Denver is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Officially a consolidated city and county, it is located in the South Platte River valley on the western edge of the High Plains, and is just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains (Rockies). Denver is the 19th-most populous city in the United States and the fifth-most populous state capital, with a population of 715,522 at the 2020 census. The ten-county Denver metropolitan area, with 3.1 million residents, is the 19th-largest metropolitan area in the country and functions as the economic and cultural center of the broader Front Range Urban Corridor.

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02/06/1990

The Lower Ohio Valley tornado outbreak spawns 66 confirmed tornadoes in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio, killing 12.

The June 1990 Lower Ohio Valley tornado outbreak spawned 65 tornadoes, including seven of F4 intensity, in southern Illinois, central and southern Indiana, southwestern Ohio, and northern Kentucky on June 2–3, 1990.

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02/06/1983

After an emergency landing because of an in-flight fire, twenty-three passengers aboard Air Canada Flight 797 are killed when a flashover occurs as the plane's doors open. Because of this incident, numerous new safety regulations are put in place.

Air Canada Flight 797 was an international passenger flight operating from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport to Montréal–Dorval International Airport, with an intermediate stop at Toronto International Airport.

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02/06/1979

Pope John Paul II starts his first official visit to his native Poland, becoming the first Pope to visit a Communist country.

Pope John Paul II was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death in 2005. He was the first non-Italian pope since Adrian VI in the 16th century, as well as the third-longest-serving pope in history, after St. Peter and Pius IX.

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02/06/1967

Luis Monge is executed in Colorado's gas chamber, in the last pre-Furman execution in the United States.

Luis José Monge was a convicted mass murderer who was executed in the gas chamber at Colorado State Penitentiary in 1967. Monge was the last inmate to be executed before an unofficial moratorium on executions that lasted for more than four years while most death penalty cases were on appeal, culminating in the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Furman v. Georgia in 1972, invalidating all existing death penalty statutes as written.

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Protests in West Berlin against the arrival of the Shah of Iran are brutally suppressed, during which Benno Ohnesorg is killed by a police officer. His death results in the founding of the terrorist group Movement 2 June.

West Berlin was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin from 1948 until 1990, during the Cold War. Although West Berlin was de jure not part of West Germany, lacked any sovereignty, and was under military occupation until German reunification in 1990, the territory was claimed by the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG). The legality of this claim was contested by the Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc countries, although West Berlin de facto aligned itself politically with the FRG from May 1949, was thereafter directly or indirectly represented in its federal institutions, and most of its residents were citizens of the FRG.

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02/06/1966

Surveyor program: Surveyor 1 lands in Oceanus Procellarum on the Moon, becoming the first U.S. spacecraft to soft-land on another world.

The Surveyor program was a NASA program that, from June 1966 through January 1968, sent seven robotic spacecraft to the surface of the Moon. Its primary goal was to demonstrate the feasibility of soft landings on the Moon. The Surveyor craft were the first American spacecraft to achieve soft landing on an extraterrestrial body. The missions called for the craft to travel directly to the Moon on an impact trajectory, a journey that lasted 63 to 65 hours, and ended with a deceleration of just over three minutes to a soft landing.

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02/06/1964

The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) is formed.

The Palestine Liberation Organization is a Palestinian nationalist coalition that is internationally recognized as the official representative of the Palestinian people in the occupied Palestinian territories. It is currently represented by the Palestinian Authority based in the West Bank city of Al-Bireh.

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02/06/1962

During the FIFA World Cup, police had to intervene multiple times in fights between Chilean and Italian players in one of the most violent games in football history.

The 1962 FIFA World Cup was the seventh edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football championship for senior men's national teams. It was held from 30 May to 17 June 1962 in Chile. The qualification rounds took place between August 1960 and December 1961, with 56 teams entering from six confederations, and fourteen qualifying for the finals tournament alongside Chile, the hosts, and Brazil, the defending champions.

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02/06/1958

Aeronaves de México Flight 111 crashes on approach to Guadalajara International Airport, killing 45.

Aeroméxico Flight 111 was a scheduled commercial flight from Tijuana to Acapulco with stopovers in Mazatlán, Guadalajara, and Mexico City. On June 2, 1958, the Lockheed L-749 Constellation was operating a scheduled flight and crashed near Tlajomulco de Zuñiga, killing all 45 occupants.

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02/06/1955

The USSR and Yugoslavia sign the Belgrade declaration and thus normalize relations between the two countries, discontinued since 1948.

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), also known as the Soviet Union, was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until its dissolution in 1991. It was the world's third-most populous country, largest by area, and bordered twelve countries. A diverse multinational state, it was organized as a federal union of national republics, the largest and most populous being the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. In practice, its government and economy were highly centralized. As a one-party state governed by the Communist Party, it was the flagship communist state. Its capital and largest city was Moscow.

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02/06/1953

The coronation of Queen Elizabeth II at Westminster Abbey becomes the first British coronation and one of the first major international events to be televised.

The coronation of Elizabeth II as queen of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms took place on 2 June 1953 at Westminster Abbey in London. Elizabeth acceded to the throne at the age of 25 upon the death of her father, George VI, on 6 February 1952, being proclaimed queen by her privy and executive councils shortly afterwards. The coronation was held more than one year later because of the tradition of allowing an appropriate length of time to pass after a monarch dies. It also gave the planning committees adequate time to make preparations for the ceremony. During the service, Elizabeth took an oath, was anointed with holy oil, was invested with robes and regalia, and was crowned Queen of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Pakistan, and Ceylon.

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02/06/1946

Birth of the Italian Republic: In a referendum, Italians vote to turn Italy from a monarchy into a Republic. After the referendum, King Umberto II of Italy is exiled.

An institutional referendum was held by universal suffrage in the Kingdom of Italy on 2 June 1946, a key event of contemporary Italian history. Until 1946, Italy was a kingdom ruled by the House of Savoy, reigning since the unification of Italy in 1861 and previously rulers of the Kingdom of Sardinia. In 1922, the rise of Benito Mussolini and the creation of the Fascist regime in Italy, which eventually resulted in engaging the country in World War II alongside Nazi Germany, considerably weakened the role of the royal house.

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02/06/1941

World War II: German paratroopers murder Greek civilians in the villages of Kondomari and Alikianos.

World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated. Tanks and aircraft played major roles, the latter enabling the strategic bombing of cities and delivery of the only nuclear weapons used in war. World War II was the deadliest conflict in history, causing the death of 60 to 75 million people. Millions died as a result of massacres, starvation, disease, and genocides including the Holocaust. After the Allied victory, Germany, Austria, Japan, and Korea were occupied, and German and Japanese leaders were tried for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and crimes against peace.

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02/06/1924

U.S. President Calvin Coolidge signs the Indian Citizenship Act into law, granting citizenship to all Native Americans born within the territorial limits of the United States.

Calvin Coolidge was the 30th president of the United States, serving from 1923 to 1929. A Republican lawyer from Massachusetts, he previously served as the 29th vice president from 1921 to 1923, under President Warren G. Harding, and as the 48th governor of Massachusetts from 1919 to 1921. Coolidge gained a reputation as a small-government conservative, with a taciturn personality and dry sense of humor that earned him the nickname "Silent Cal".

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02/06/1919

Anarchists simultaneously set off bombs in eight separate U.S. cities.

Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or hierarchy, primarily targeting the state and capitalism. Anarchism advocates for the replacement of the state with stateless societies and voluntary free associations. A left-wing movement, anarchism is sometimes described as the libertarian wing of the socialist movement.

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02/06/1910

Charles Rolls, a co-founder of Rolls-Royce Limited, becomes the first man to make a non-stop double crossing of the English Channel by plane.

Charles Stewart Rolls was a British motoring and aviation pioneer. With Henry Royce, he co-founded the Rolls-Royce car manufacturing firm. He was the first Briton to be killed in an aeronautical accident with a powered aircraft, when the tail of his Wright Flyer broke off during a flying display in Bournemouth. He was aged 32.

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02/06/1909

Alfred Deakin becomes Prime Minister of Australia for the third time.

Alfred Deakin was an Australian politician who served as the second prime minister of Australia from 1903 to 1904, 1905 to 1908, and 1909 to 1910. He held office as the leader of the Protectionist Party, and in his final term as that of the Liberal Party. He is notable for being one of the fathers of Federation and for his influence in early Australian politics.

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02/06/1896

Guglielmo Marconi applies for a patent for his wireless telegraph.

Guglielmo Giovanni Maria Marconi, 1st Marquess, was an Italian radio-frequency engineer, inventor, and politician known for his creation of a practical radio wave-based wireless telegraph system. This led to his being largely credited as the inventor of radio and sharing the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics with Ferdinand Braun "in recognition of their contributions to the development of wireless telegraphy." His work laid the foundation for the development of radio, television, and all modern wireless communication systems.

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02/06/1878

Nobiling assassination attempt by anarchist Karl Nobiling targeting the German Kaiser, Wilhelm I.

The Nobiling assassination attempt, or the assassination attempt on Wilhelm I of 2 June 1878, was an armed attack carried out by Karl Nobiling, a German anarchist philosopher, against the Kaiser Wilhelm I, severely wounding him. Along with the Hödel assassination attempt, less than a month earlier and aimed at the same target, it was one of the first acts of propaganda by the deed in history.

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02/06/1866

The Fenians defeat Canadian forces at Ridgeway and Fort Erie, but the raids end soon after.

The Fenian Brotherhood was an Irish republican organisation founded in the United States in 1858 by John O'Mahony and Michael Doheny. It was a precursor to Clan na Gael, a sister organisation to the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB). Members were commonly known as "Fenians". O'Mahony, who was a Gaelic scholar, named his organisation after the Fianna, the legendary band of Irish warriors led by Fionn mac Cumhaill.

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02/06/1848

The Slavic Congress opens in Prague.

The Prague Slavic Congress of 1848 took place in Prague, Austrian Empire between 2 June and 12 June 1848. It was the first occasion on which representatives from nearly all Slav populations of Europe met in one place to discuss the emerging idea of Pan-Slavism. The delegates at the Congress were not only anti-Austrian, but also anti-Russian, despite the latter being the only fully independent Slavic nation at the time.

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02/06/1805

Napoleonic Wars: A Franco-Spanish fleet recaptures from the British the island of Diamond Rock, which guards the entrance to the bay leading to Fort-de-France, Martinique.

The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a global series of conflicts fought by a fluctuating array of European coalitions against the French First Republic (1803–1804) under the First Consul followed by the First French Empire (1804–1815) under the Emperor of the French, Napoleon I. The wars originated in political forces arising from the French Revolution (1789–1799) and from the French Revolutionary Wars (1792–1802) and produced a period of French domination over Continental Europe. The wars are categorised as seven conflicts, five named after the coalitions that fought Napoleon, plus two named for their respective theatres: the War of the Third Coalition, War of the Fourth Coalition, War of the Fifth Coalition, War of the Sixth Coalition, War of the Seventh Coalition, the Peninsular War, and the French invasion of Russia.

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02/06/1793

French Revolution: François Hanriot, leader of the Parisian National Guard, arrests 22 Girondists selected by Jean-Paul Marat, setting the stage for the Reign of Terror.

The French Revolution was a period of political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the Coup of 18 Brumaire on 9 November 1799. Many of the revolution's ideas are considered fundamental principles of liberal democracy, and its values remain central to modern French political discourse. It was caused by a combination of social, political, and economic factors which the existing regime proved unable to manage.

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02/06/1780

The anti-Catholic Gordon Riots in London leave an estimated 300 to 700 people dead.

The Gordon Riots in London in 1780 involved several days of unrest and violence motivated by anti-Catholic sentiment. They began on 2 June 1780 with a large and orderly protest against the Papists Act 1778, which had somewhat reduced official discrimination against British Catholics enacted by the Popery Act 1698 . The Protestant Association, headed by Lord George Gordon, MP, noted that the law enabled Catholics to join the British Army and warned that the relaxation might enable Catholic soldiers to plot treason. The resultant protest led to widespread rioting and looting, including attacks on the buildings of Newgate Prison and of the Bank of England, and was the most destructive in the history of London.

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02/06/1774

Intolerable Acts: The Quartering Act of 1774 is enacted, allowing a governor in colonial America to house British soldiers in uninhabited houses, outhouses, barns, or other buildings if suitable quarters are not provided.

The Intolerable Acts, sometimes referred to as the Insufferable Acts or Coercive Acts, were a series of five punitive laws passed by the British Parliament in 1774 after the Boston Tea Party. The laws aimed to collectively punish Massachusetts colonists for the actions of those protesting the Tea Act, a tax measure enacted by Parliament in May 1773, by dumping tea into Boston harbor. In Great Britain, these laws were referred to as the Coercive Acts. Many Massachusetts colonists considered them a "virtual declaration of war" by the British government. They were a key development leading to the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War in April 1775.

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02/06/1763

Pontiac's Rebellion: At what is now Mackinaw City, Michigan, Chippewas capture Fort Michilimackinac by diverting the garrison's attention with a game of lacrosse, then chasing a ball into the fort.

Pontiac's War was launched in 1763 by a confederation of Native Americans who were dissatisfied with British rule in the Great Lakes region following the French and Indian War (1754–1763). Warriors from numerous nations joined in an effort to drive British soldiers and settlers out of the region. The war is named after Odawa leader Pontiac, the most prominent of many Indigenous leaders in the conflict.

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02/06/1692

Bridget Bishop is the first person to be tried for witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts; she was found guilty the same day and hanged on June 10.

Bridget Bishop was a midwife and the first person executed for witchcraft during the Salem witch trials in 1692. Nineteen were hanged, and one, Giles Corey, was pressed to death. Altogether, about 200 people were tried.

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02/06/1676

Franco-Dutch War: France ensured the supremacy of its naval fleet for the remainder of the war with its victory in the Battle of Palermo.

The Franco-Dutch War, 1672 to 1678, was primarily fought by France and the Dutch Republic, with both sides backed at different times by a variety of allies. Related conflicts include the 1672 to 1674 Third Anglo-Dutch War and 1675 to 1679 Scanian War.

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02/06/1615

The first Récollet missionaries arrive at Quebec City, from Rouen, France.

The Franciscan Recollects were a French reform branch of the Friars Minor, a Franciscan order. Denoted by their gray habits and pointed hoods, the Recollects devoted their lives to an extra emphasis on prayer, penance, and spiritual reflection (recollection), focusing on living in small, remote communities to better facilitate these goals. Today they are best known for their activities as missionaries in various parts of the world, most notably in early French Canada.

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02/06/1608

The Colony of Virginia gets a charter, extending borders from "sea to sea".

The Colony of Virginia was a British colonial settlement in North America from 1606 to 1776. The first effort to create an English settlement in the area was chartered in 1584 and established in 1585; the resulting Roanoke Colony lasted for three attempts totaling six years. In 1590, the colony was abandoned. But nearly twenty years later, the colony was re-settled at Jamestown, not far north of the original site. A second charter was issued in 1606 and settled in 1607, becoming the first enduring English colony in North America. It followed failed attempts at settlement on Newfoundland by Sir Humphrey Gilbert in 1583 and the Roanoke Colony by Sir Walter Raleigh in the late 1580s.

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02/06/1098

First Crusade: The first Siege of Antioch ends as Crusader forces take the city; the second siege began five days later.

The First Crusade (1096–1099) was the first of a series of religious wars, or Crusades, which were initiated, supported and at times directed by the Latin Church in the Middle Ages. Their aim was to return the Holy Land—which had been conquered by the Rashidun Caliphate in the 7th century—to Christian rule. By the 11th century, although Jerusalem had then been ruled by Muslims for hundreds of years, the practices of the Seljuk rulers in the region began to threaten local Christian populations, pilgrimages from the West and the Byzantine Empire itself. The earliest impetus for the First Crusade came in 1095 when Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos sent ambassadors to the Council of Piacenza to request military support in the empire's conflict with the Seljuk-led Turks. This was followed later in the year by the Council of Clermont, at which Pope Urban II gave a speech supporting the Byzantine request and urging faithful Christians to undertake an armed pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

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02/06/0455

Sack of Rome: Vandals enter Rome, and plunder the city for two weeks.

The sack of Rome in 455 was carried out by the Vandals led by their king Gaiseric.

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02/06/0260

Sima Zhao's regicide of Cao Mao: The figurehead Wei emperor Cao Mao personally leads an attempt to oust his regent, Sima Zhao; the attempted coup is crushed and the emperor killed.

Sima Zhao's regicide of Cao Mao, also known as the Ganlu Incident, occurred on 2 June 260 in Luoyang, the capital of the state of Cao Wei, during the Three Kingdoms period. Cao Mao, the nominal emperor of Wei, attempted to oust the regent Sima Zhao, who effectively controlled the Wei government. However, the plot concluded with Cao Mao's death and Sima Zhao retaining his status. Contrary to its intention, the coup actually increased the Sima clan's power and influence in Wei, albeit at the cost of Sima Zhao's personal standing, thus providing a foundation for the eventual usurpation of the Wei throne in February 266 by Sima Zhao's son Sima Yan, who founded the Western Jin dynasty.

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