On This Day, June 4: German occupiers flee Rome during World War II
On this date in history:
In 1783, the first public demonstration of a hot-air balloon occurred at Annonay, France.
In 1784, France's Marie Thible of Lyons became the first woman to fly in a hot-air balloon.
In 1896, Henry Ford wheeled his first car from a brick shed in Detroit and drove it around darkened streets on a trial run.
In 1917, the first Pulitzer Prizes were awarded.
In 1940, the World War II evacuation of Dunkirk, France, was completed. A flotilla of small boats spent nearly a week crossing the English Channel to rescue nearly 350,000 British, French and Belgian troops from advancing German forces.
In 1942, the Battle of Midway began. It raged for four days and was the turning point for the United States in the World War II Pacific campaign against Japan.
In 1944, the last of German occupiers fled Rome ahead of the advancing U.S. 9th Army. Reynolds Packard reopened the United Press' offices the next day.
In 1963, President John F. Kennedy ordered Alabama Gov. George C. Wallace "to cease and desist" from any unlawful obstruction of justice in connection with the admission of two African-American students to the University of Alabama. The order was a final technical step required before the president could use federal troops to enforce the court order for desegregation of the university.
In 1972, black militant Angela Davis was acquitted of murder, kidnapping and criminal conspiracy charges stemming from a California courtroom shootout in which a judge and three other people were killed.
In 1985, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down an Alabama minute-of-silence law as specifically fostering classroom prayer.
In 1986, American Jonathan Pollard, accused of selling stacks of secret documents to Israel, and his wife pleaded guilty to espionage charges, admitting they were part of an Israeli spy network that included three Israeli officials and an embassy secretary. Jonathan was sentenced to life in prison and was paroled and released in 2015. Anne Pollard was released after serving three and a half years in prison.
In 1989, in what became known as the Tiananmen Square massacre, hundreds of student-led pro-democracy demonstrators were reported killed and thousands injured as Chinese troops removed them from the square in Beijing.
In 1990, an Oregon woman, Janet Adkins, killed herself in Michigan using a "suicide machine" developed by "Dr. Death" Jack Kevorkian. She was the retired pathologist's first reported "medicide" patient.
In 1991, Albania's Cabinet resigned, ending 46 years of Communist rule.
In 1998, Terry Nichols was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for his part in the 1995 bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City.
In 2005, the Covington Diocese in Kentucky agreed to pay up to $120 million to more than 100 alleged victims of child molestation from the past 50 years.
In 2019, after racking up $2.4 million in prize money, professional sports gambler James Holzhauer's record-breaking run on Jeopardy!came to an end. In 33 games, he set 15 records for the most money won in a single episode, topping out with $131,127 on April 17.
In 2025, authorities evacuated more than 20,000 people in Germany as they worked to defuse three unexploded bombs from World War II. It was the largest evacuation in the country since the end of the war.
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This story was originally published June 4, 2026 at 12:00 AM.