• On June 8, 632, in Medina, located in present-day Saudi Arabia, Muhammad, one of the most influential religious and political leaders in history, died in the arms of Aishah, his third and favorite wife. Today, Islam is the world’s second-largest religion.
• On June 6, 1683, The Ashmolean, the world’s first museum of science, opened in Oxford, England. Today, the collection at the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology ranges in time from the earliest implements of man, made about 500,000 years ago, to 20th-century works of art.
• On June 9, 1898, with the signing of the Second Convention of Peking by British and Chinese authorities, Britain was granted an additional 99 years of rule over the island of Hong Kong. On July 1, 1997, Hong Kong reverted back to Chinese rule.
• On June 4, 1919, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, guaranteeing women the right to vote, was passed by Congress and sent to the states for ratification.
• On June 10, 1935, in New York City, two recovering alcoholics, one a New York broker, the other an Ohio physician, founded Alcoholics Anonymous, a 12-step rehabilitation program that has helped countless people cope with alcoholism. Today, there are more than 80,000 local groups in the United States, with an estimated membership of almost 2 million people.
• On June 7, 1942, during World War II, Japanese forces captured Kiska and Attu in Alaska’s Aleutian island chain. The reconquest of the islands later by the United States secured the U.S. northern flank in the Pacific, and freed American forces to join in Allied offensives under way elsewhere in the Pacific Ocean.
• On June 5, 1993, in the Somalian capital of Mogadishu, 24 Pakistani U.N. peacekeepers were ambushed and massacred. The attack occurred under the control of Somali warlord Gen. Mohammed Aidid. U.S. troops were then sent to capture Aidid, but President Clinton later cut his losses and ordered a total U.S. withdrawal.