On this day: June 3

Events on June 3

• 713 The Byzantine emperor Philippicus is blinded, deposed and sent into exile by conspirators of the Opsikion army in Thrace. He is succeeded by Anastasios II, who begins the reorganization of the Byzantine army. Wikipedia
• 1539 Hernando de Soto claims Florida for Spain. Wikipedia
• 1781 American Revolutionary War: Jack Jouett rode 40 miles (64 km) to warn Thomas Jefferson and the Virginia legislature of British cavalry who had been sent to capture them. Wikipedia
• 1781 Jack Jouett begins his midnight ride to warn Thomas Jefferson and the Virginia legislature of an impending British raid. Wikipedia
• 1861 American Civil War: Battle of Philippi (also called the Philippi Races): Union forces rout Confederate troops in Barbour County, Virginia, now West Virginia. Wikipedia
• 1864 American Civil War: Union forces under Ulysses S. Grant sustain heavy casualties attacking Confederate troops under Robert E. Lee at the Battle of Cold Harbor in Hanover County, Virginia. Wikipedia
• 1889 The first long-distance electric power transmission line in the United States is completed, running 14 miles (23 km) between a generator at Willamette Falls and downtown Portland, Oregon. Wikipedia
• 1892 Liverpool F.C. (stadium pictured), one of England's most successful football clubs, was founded. Wikipedia
• 1892 Liverpool F.C. is founded by John Houlding. Wikipedia
• 1917 A socialist convention in Leeds, United Kingdom, called for an end to the First World War and the establishment of Workers' and Soldiers' Delegates across the country. Wikipedia
• 1940 Franz Rademacher proposes plans to make Madagascar the "Jewish homeland", an idea that had first been considered by 19th century journalist Theodor Herzl. Wikipedia
• 1940 World War II: During the Battle of France, the Luftwaffe bombs Paris. Wikipedia
• 1941 World War II: In reprisal for the participation of the local population in the Battle of Crete, the German Wehrmacht destroyed the village of Kandanos, Greece, and killed about 180 of its inhabitants. Wikipedia
• 1943 In Los Angeles, California, white U.S. Navy sailors and Marines attack Latino youths in the five-day Zoot Suit Riots. Wikipedia
• 1965 The launch of Gemini 4, the first multi-day space mission by a NASA crew. Ed White, a crew member, performs the first American spacewalk. Wikipedia
• 1968 American radical feminist Valerie Solanas shot and wounded visual artist Andy Warhol and two others at Warhol's New York City studio, the Factory. Wikipedia
• 1969 During a SEATO exercise in the South China Sea, a collision between HMAS Melbourne and USS Frank E. Evans resulted in the latter vessel being cut in two and the deaths of 74 personnel. Wikipedia
• 1973 A Soviet supersonic Tupolev Tu-144 crashes near Goussainville, France, killing 14, the first crash of a supersonic passenger aircraft. Wikipedia
• 1979 A blowout at the Ixtoc I oil well in the southern Gulf of Mexico causes at least 3,000,000 barrels (480,000 m3) of oil to be spilled into the waters, the second-worst accidental oil spill ever recorded. Wikipedia
• 1980 The 1980 Grand Island tornado outbreak hits Nebraska, United States, causing five deaths and $300 million (equivalent to $1172 million in 2025) worth of damage. Wikipedia
• 1984 Operation Blue Star, a military offensive, is launched by the Indian government at Harmandir Sahib, also known as the Golden Temple, the holiest shrine for Sikhs, in Amritsar. The operation continues until June 6, with casualties, most of them civilians, in excess of 5,000. Wikipedia
• 1991 Mount Unzen erupts in Kyūshū, Japan, killing 43 people, all of them either researchers or journalists. Wikipedia
• 2006 The union of Serbia and Montenegro comes to an end with Montenegro's formal declaration of independence. Wikipedia
• 2012 A plane carrying 153 people crashes in a residential neighborhood in Lagos, Nigeria, killing everyone on board plus six people on the ground. Wikipedia
• 2013 The trial of United States Army private Chelsea Manning for leaking classified material to WikiLeaks begins in Fort Meade, Maryland. Wikipedia
• 2019 Khartoum massacre: In Sudan, over 100 people are killed when security forces accompanied by Janjaweed militiamen storm and open fire on a sit-in protest. Wikipedia

Born on June 3

• 1139 Conon of Naso, Basilian abbot (died 1236) Wikipedia
• 1726 James Hutton, Scottish geologist and physician (died 1797) Wikipedia
• 1808 Jefferson Davis, American colonel and politician, President of the Confederate States of America from 1861 - 1865 (died 1889) Wikipedia
• 1844 Garret Hobart, American lawyer and politician, 24th Vice President of the United States (died 1899) Wikipedia
• 1865 George V of the United Kingdom (died 1936) Wikipedia
• 1873 Otto Loewi, German-American pharmacologist and psychobiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1961) Wikipedia
• 1899 Georg von Békésy, Hungarian-American biophysicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1972) Wikipedia
• 1905 Martin Gottfried Weiss, German SS officer, commandant of the Dachau concentration camp, executed war criminal (died 1946) Wikipedia
• 1906 Josephine Baker, French actress, singer, and dancer; French Resistance operative (died 1975) Wikipedia
• 1910 Paulette Goddard, American actress and model (died 1990) Wikipedia
• 1922 Alain Resnais, French director, cinematographer, and screenwriter (died 2014) Wikipedia
• 1924 Torsten Wiesel, Swedish neurophysiologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate Wikipedia
• 1925 Tony Curtis, American actor (died 2010) Wikipedia
• 1926 Allen Ginsberg, American poet (died 1997) Wikipedia
• 1929 Werner Arber, Swiss microbiologist and geneticist, Nobel Prize laureate Wikipedia
• 1931 Raúl Castro, Cuban commander and politician, 18th President of Cuba Wikipedia
• 1951 Jill Biden, American educator, First Lady of the United States Wikipedia
• 1960 Catherine Davani, first female Papua New Guinean judge (died 2016) Wikipedia
• 1961 Lawrence Lessig, American lawyer, academic, and author, founded the Creative Commons Wikipedia
• 1982 Yelena Isinbayeva, Russian pole vaulter Wikipedia
• 1986 Rafael Nadal, Spanish tennis player Wikipedia
• 1992 Mario Götze, German footballer Wikipedia

Died on June 3

• 1657 William Harvey, English physician and academic (born 1578) Wikipedia
• 1826 Nikolay Karamzin, Russian historian and poet (born 1766) Wikipedia
• 1875 Georges Bizet, French pianist and composer (born 1838) Wikipedia
• 1899 Johann Strauss II, Austrian composer and educator (born 1825) Wikipedia
• 1924 Franz Kafka, Czech-Austrian lawyer and author (born 1883) Wikipedia
• 1963 Samuel Rocke, Australian politician who served as an independent member of the Legislative Assembly of Western Australia (born 1874) Wikipedia
• 1963 Pope John XXIII (born 1881) Wikipedia
• 1964 Frans Eemil Sillanpää, Finnish author and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1888) Wikipedia
• 1975 Eisaku Satō, Japanese and politician, Prime Minister of Japan (born 1901) Wikipedia
• 1977 Archibald Hill, English physiologist and politician, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1886) Wikipedia
• 1989 Ruhollah Khomeini, Iranian religious leader and politician, 1st Supreme Leader of Iran (born 1900) Wikipedia
• 1990 Robert Noyce, American physicist and businessman, co-founded the Intel Corporation (born 1927) Wikipedia
• 2001 Anthony Quinn, Mexican-American actor and producer (born 1915) Wikipedia
• 2016 Muhammad Ali, American boxer (born 1942) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day: Charles Lwanga and Companions (Roman Catholic Church), and its related observances: Martyrs' Day (Uganda) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Clotilde Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Blessed Francis Ingleby Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Juan Grande Román Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Kevin of Glendalough Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Ovidius Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Vladimirskaya (Russian Orthodox) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: June 3 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Confederate Memorial Day (Kentucky, and Tennessee, United States) Wikipedia
• Economist day (Buenos Aires, Argentina) Wikipedia
• Mabo Day (Australia) Wikipedia
• Opium Suppression Movement Day (Taiwan) Wikipedia
• World Bicycle Day Wikipedia

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “June 3” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-09 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. We picked the 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths with the widest coverage across Wikipedia's language editions (counted from Wikidata) and sorted them by year; the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures.