June 2 in History

Historical Events on June 2

1098 First Crusade: The first Siege of Antioch ends as Crusader forces take the city; the second siege began five days later.

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.

1805 Napoleonic Wars: A Franco-Spanish fleet recaptures Diamond Rock, an uninhabited island at the entrance to the bay leading to Fort-de-France, from the British.

1941 World War II: German paratroopers murder Greek civilians in the village of Kondomari.

1955 The USSR and Yugoslavia sign the Belgrade declaration and thus normalize relations between both countries, discontinued since 1948.

1979 Pope John Paul II starts his first official visit to his native Poland, becoming the first Pope to visit a Communist country.

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.

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.

2014 Telangana officially becomes the 29th state of India.

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Famous Birthdays on June 2

1423 Ferdinand I of Naples

1977 A.J. Styles

1988 Sergio Agüero

1989 Steve Smith (cricketer, born 1989)

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Famous Deaths on June 2

1882 Giuseppe Garibaldi

1941 Lou Gehrig

1962 Vita Sackville-West

2008 Bo Diddley

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