Today in History

Today is Sunday, June 3, the 154th day of 2018. There are 211 days left in the year.

Today’s highlight: On June 3, 1968, pop artist Andy Warhol was shot and critically wounded at his New York film studio, known as “The Factory,” by Valerie Solanas, an actress and self-styled militant feminist who ended up serving three years in prison for assault.

On this date:

In 1621, the Dutch West India Co. received its charter for a trade monopoly in parts of the Americas and Africa.

In 1781, Capt. Jack Jouett began riding his horse some 40 miles from Louisa County, Virginia, to Charlottesville, where Gov. Thomas Jefferson and other politicians were located, to warn of approaching British troops who intended to take them prisoner.

In 1888, the poem “Casey at the Bat” by Ernest Lawrence Thayer was first published in the San Francisco Daily Examiner.

In 1918, “His Family” by Ernest Poole became the first novel to win the Pulitzer Prize.

In 1937, Edward, The Duke of Windsor, who had abdicated the British throne, married Wallis Simpson in a private ceremony in Monts, France.

In 1943, the “Zoot Suit Riots” began in Los Angeles as white servicemen clashed with young Latinos wearing distinctive-looking zoot suits; the violence ended when military officials declared the city off limits to enlisted personnel.

In 1948, the 200-inch reflecting Hale Telescope at the Palomar Mountain Observatory in California was dedicated.

In 1955, convicted murderer Barbara Graham, 31, was executed in the gas chamber at San Quentin State Prison in California, as were Jack Santo and Emmett Perkins, for the 1953 slaying of Mabel Monahan.

In 1965, astronaut Edward H. White became the first American to “walk” in space during the flight of Gemini 4.

In 1977, the United States and Cuba agreed to set up diplomatic interests sections in each other’s countries; Cuba also announced the immediate release of 10 Americans jailed on drug charges.

In 1989, Iran’s spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, died. SkyDome (now called Rogers Centre) opened in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

In 2016, heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali died at a hospital in Scottsdale, Arizona, at age 74.

Today’s birthdays: The former president of Cuba, Raul Castro, is 87. Author Larry McMurtry is 82. Rock singer Ian Hunter (Mott The Hoople) is 79. Actress Penelope Wilton is 72. Singer Suzi Quatro is 68. Actress Suzie Plakson is 60. Actor James Purefoy is 54. TV host Anderson Cooper is 51.

Thought for today: “There are two cardinal sins from which all the others spring: impatience and laziness.” — Franz Kafka, Czech-born writer (born 1883, died this date in 1924).

— Associated Press