This date in history

[Jimbuna]

1903 Launch of the White Star Liner SS Ionic.

1906 Wright Brothers patent an aeroplane.

1939 Adolf Hitler & Benito Mussolini sign "Pact of Steel"

1990 Microsoft releases Windows 3.0

[Jimbuna]

1939 Submarine USS Squalus sinks in the Gulf of Maine, drowning 26, 33 remaining crew rescued from a depth of 243 ft (74 m) by divers using newly developed heliox air systems (divers later awarded the Medal of Honor).

1945 British military police arrest Admiral Karl Doenitz.

1945 German island of Helgoland in North Sea surrenders to British.

1945 Heinrich Himmler, German Nazi leader & Gestapo leader, commits suicide in prison at 44.

1945 Lord Haw-Haw (William Joyce) arrested at Danish boundary.

1949 Federal Republic of [West] Germany created out of the American, British and French occupation zones.

1960 Israel announces capture of Nazi Adolf Eichmann in Argentina.

1982 BBC warns Britain will bomb Argentina.

[Jimbuna]

1915 Second Battle of Ypres ends with 105,000 casualties.

[Jimbuna]

1908 At Masjed Soleyman (مسجد سليمان) in southwest Persia, the first major commercial oil strike in the Middle East is made, rights acquired by the United Kingdom.

1941 Aircraft from HMS Ark Royal sights German battleship Bismarck.

1946 Patent filed in US for H-Bomb.

1982 British ship Atlantic Conveyor carrying Chinook helicopters & destroyer HMS Coventry were hit in Falkland war: 39 crew members died.

[Jimbuna]

1940 British and Allied forces begin the evacuation of Dunkirk (Operation Dynamo) during WWII.

1940 World War II: In the Le Paradis massacre, 97 soldiers from a Royal Norfolk Regiment unit are shot after surrendering to German troops.

1941 German battleship Bismarck sunk by British naval force.

1942 Dorie Miller awarded navy cross for deeds at Pearl Harbor.

1942 Reinhard Heydrich, Nazi "Deputy Reich Protector of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia" is shot and mortally wounded in Prague during Operation Anthropoid.

1958 Maiden flight of the F-4 Phantom II.

1986 President Reagan orderes 2 Poseidon-class submarines be dismantled.

[Jimbuna]

1588 Spanish Armada under the Duke of Medina-Sidonia departs Lisbon to invade England.

1936 Alan Turing submits "On Computable Numbers" for publication, in which he set out the theoretical basis for modern computers.

1940 British-French troops capture Narvik, Norway.

1972 White House "plumbers" break into the Democratic National Headquarters at Watergate in Washington D.C.

1987 Monitor, Civil War warship, is discovered by a deep sea robot.

[Jimbuna]

1935 French liner Normandie begins its maiden voyage, arrived in NYC on June 3rd.

[Jimbuna]

1431 Hundred Years' War: 19 year old Joan of Arc is burned at the stake by an English-dominated tribunal in Rouen, France.

1982 Spain becomes 16th member of NATO.

[Jimbuna]

1911 RMS Titanic launched in Belfast.

1916 Battle of Jutland: Largest naval battle of World War I between the British Grand Fleet and the German High Seas Fleet which killed 8,645 in an inconclusive battle but strategic British victory. The German fleet never put to sea again.

1916 Battle of Jutland: British battle cruiser HMS Invincible explodes, killing all but 6.

1940 Major General Bernard Montgomery leaves Dunkirk.

1940 Winston Churchill flies to Paris to meet with French Marshal Philippe Pétain who announces he is willing to make a separate peace with Germany.

1942 U-boats sink and damage 146 allied ships this month (722,666 tons).

1943 42 U-boats sunk by the Allies this month.

1968 Movie star James Stewart retires from the US Air Force after 27 years of service, and is promoted to major general by President Reagan.

[Jimbuna]

1879 Napoleon Eugene, the last dynastic Bonaparte, is killed serving with British forces in the Anglo-Zulu War. He is buried in Farnborough, Hampshire.

1918 Canadian ace Billy Bishop downs 6 aircrafts over a three-day span, including German ace Paul Bilik, reclaiming his top scoring title from James McCudden.

1936 Queen Mary completes its maiden voyage, arriving in NY.

1939 British submarine "Thetis" sinks in Liverpool Bay with all 99 aboard.

1998 European Central Bank is founded in Brussels to define and execute the European Union's monetary policy.

[Jimbuna]

1896 Guglielmo Marconi applies to patent the radio, accepted 2 July 1897.

1917 Canadian ace Billy Bishop undertakes a solo mission behind enemy lines, shooting down three aircraft as they were about to take off and several more on the ground, for which he is awarded the Victoria Cross.

1943 99th Pursuit Squadron flies 1st combat mission (over Italy).

1953 Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in Westminster Abbey.

[Aktungbby]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

1917 Canadian ace Billy Bishop undertakes a solo mission behind enemy lines, shooting down three aircraft as they were about to take off and several more on the ground, for which he is awarded the Victoria Cross.

A most controversial claim to say the least. He had asked for other squadron mates to fly woth him on the mission and had 'proper' battle damage on return to his Nieuport: he shot at something and something certainly shot back so I give it credence. He later admitted occasionally embellishing accounts but they all did that. There were no gun cameras.... http://www.journal.forces.gc.ca/vo3/no3/doc/55-60-eng.pdf

[Catfish]

Both sides needed heroes. The british part of the Entente was reluctant at first in making their aviators public, because a lot of them died. Which would have had a negative impact on the public perception of the war. Considering what especially the british army was ordered to do, they sure did not want to know others about it, class system and military pressure in full swing.

The Bishop flight is regarded as a tale by almost all recent WW1 historians including most participants at the Aerodrome forum. On the other hand stranger real incidents have happened. I'd still say boasting and showing off (used for propaganda), but you never know for sure. Boasting about such excursions was probably looked down upon, the way of commenting on the job was (and is) very different between US and British people.

[Jimbuna]

1940 Last British & French troops evacuated from Dunkirk.

1944 Germans pull out of Rome.

1989 Beginning of the Tiananmen Square Massacre as Chinese troops open fire on pro-democracy supporters in Beijing.

[Bilge_Rat]

75 years ago.

june 4, 1942: Battle of Midway.