This day in history

[June 04, 2011]  (AP)  Today is Saturday, June 4, the 155th day of 2011. There are 210 days left in the year.

Today's highlight in history:

On June 4, 1940, during World War II, the Allied military evacuation of more than 338,000 troops from Dunkirk, France, ended.

On this date:

In 1783, the Montgolfier brothers first publicly demonstrated their hot-air balloon, which did not carry any passengers, over Annonay, France.

In 1784, opera singer Elizabeth Thible became the first woman to fly aboard a Montgolfier hot-air balloon, over Lyon, France.

In 1892, the Sierra Club was incorporated in San Francisco.

In 1910, the Ballets Russes premiered its dance adaptation of the Rimsky-Korsakov suite "Scheherazade" in Paris.

In 1919, Congress approved the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, guaranteeing citizens the right to vote regardless of their gender, and sent it to the states for ratification.

In 1939, the German ocean liner St. Louis, carrying more than 900 Jewish refugees from Germany, was turned away from the Florida coast by U.S. officials.

In 1942, the Pacific Battle of Midway began during World War II.

In 1954, French Premier Joseph Laniel and Vietnamese Premier Buu Loc signed treaties in Paris according "complete independence" to Vietnam.

In 1979, Joe Clark of the Progressive Conservatives became the 16th prime minister of Canada.

In 1986, Jonathan Jay Pollard, a former Navy intelligence analyst, pleaded guilty in Washington to conspiring to deliver information related to the national defense to a foreign government, specifically Israel. (He is serving a life prison term.)

Ten years ago: Nepal's King Dipendra died, three days after he'd shot and killed most members of the royal family before turning the gun on himself; he was succeeded by his uncle, Prince Gyanendra (gee-YAN'-en-drah).

Five years ago: Peru's former president, Alan Garcia, won the country's presidential runoff election. A Palestinian standoff intensified after Hamas rejected an ultimatum from President Mahmoud Abbas (mahk-MOOD' ah-BAHS') to endorse a plan implicitly recognizing Israel.

One year ago: On his third personal trek to the Gulf disaster, President Barack Obama said that he saw some progress in fighting the enormous oil spill but that it was "way too early to be optimistic." The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced a voluntary recall of 12 million U.S.-made "Shrek" drinking glasses sold by McDonald's which were found to be tainted with cadmium. Fourteen-year-old Anamika Veeramani (AHN'-uh-MEEK'-ah VEER'-ah-MAHN'-ee) of North Royalton, Ohio, won the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., correctly spelling the medical term "stromuhr." Death claimed postmodern author David Markson, 82; legendary basketball coach John Wooden, 99; and Jack Harrison, 97, survivor of the Great Escape plot by Allied prisoners in World War II.

Today's birthdays: Actor Bruce Dern is 75. Musician Roger Ball is 67. Actress-singer Michelle Phillips is 67. Jazz musician Anthony Braxton is 66. Rock musician Danny Brown (The Fixx) is 60. Actor Parker Stevenson is 59. Actor Keith David is 55. Actress Julie Gholson is 53. Actor Eddie Velez is 53. Singer-musician El DeBarge is 50. Actress Julie White is 50. Actress Lindsay Frost is 49. Tennis player Andrea Jaeger is 46. Rhythm-and-blues singer Al B. Sure! is 43. Actor Scott Wolf is 43. Comedian Horatio Sanz is 42. Actor Noah Wyle is 40. Rock musician Stefan Lessard (The Dave Matthews Band) is 37. Actor-comedian Russell Brand is 36. Actress Angelina Jolie is 36. Actor Theo Rossi is 36. Alt-country singer Kasey Chambers is 35. Rock musician JoJo Garza (Los Lonely Boys) is 31. Model Bar Refaeli (ruh-FEHL'-lee) is 26. Rock musician Zac Farro is 21.

Thought for today: "When you betray somebody else, you also betray yourself." -- Isaac Bashevis Singer, Polish-born American Nobel Prize-winning author (1904-1991)

[Associated Press]

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