World War II - Lidice Massacre June 10, 1942 Under orders of Adolf Hitler, the village of Lidice, in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (now in the Czech Republic), is destroyed. The massacre was in retaliation for the assassination of Reich Protector Reinhard Heydrich in the late spring of 1942. The Nazis execute...

Richard Pryor Sets Himself on Fire June 9, 1980 The award-winning comedian Richard Pryor pours 151-proof rum on himself and lights himself on fire while on a freebasing binge. He then ran down the street ablaze until subdued by police. He was taken to a hospital, where he was treated for second and third degree burns c...

Vietnam War June 8, 1972 Nick Ut takes his Pulitzer-winning photo of a napalm attack on a South Vietnamese village. It showed nine-year-old Kim Phúc running naked after being badly burned and tearing her clothes off during a South Vietnamese Air Force napalm attack near Trang Bang. Trang Bang had been occupied b...

Robert F. Kennedy Shot June 5, 1968 24-year-old Palestinian Sirhan Bishara Sirhan shoots Robert F. Kennedy three times. Kennedy died the following day. Five other people were wounded. Kennedy had just won the California primary. After addressing his supporters at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California, he was ...

World War II - Battle of Midway June 4, 1942 The Battle of Midway begins. It would be Japan's first major defeat of the war. The United States scored a major defeat against the attacking Japanese fleet near Midway Atoll, inflicting severe damage to the Japanese. All four of Japan's large aircraft carriers and a heavy c...