List of June 2nd Major News Events

1965 Vietnam Australian Troops Arrive

1965 : The first contingent of Australian combat troops arrives by plane in Saigon as Australia takes a more active role in the Vietnam War.

1966 Space Surveyor 1 Moon Landing

1966 : First US space probe to land on the moon, "Surveyor 1" has a soft landing on Moon. The Soviet Union was the first when the Russian probe Luna 9 had a successful soft landing on the moon on February 3rd earlier in 1966.

1972 USA United Airlines Plane Hijack

1972 : In Reno, Nevada a United Airlines jet was hijacked by one man. He demanded a $200,000 ransom while the plane remained grounded. His only hostages were crew members since passengers had not boarded yet.

1979 Poland Pope John Paul II

1979 : Pope John Paul II returns home to his native Poland as the first Roman Catholic pontiff to visit a Communist-ruled country.

1985 English Soccer Clubs Banned in Europe

1985 : European football's governing body has banned English clubs from playing in Europe indefinitely, following a riot by Liverpool fans who were blamed for the tragedy at Brussels' Heysel stadium four days ago on May 31 in which 39 people died.

1985 USA Leonard Lake

1985 : Leonard Lake is arrested close to San Francisco, California, Charles Ng fled to Canada where he fought extradition proceedings for 6 years. Lake and Charles Ng were responsible for a series of particularly brutal crimes including kidnapping women to brainwash them into becoming their willing sex slaves during the mid-1980s.

1987 USA Alan Greenspan

1987 : President Ronald Reagan announced he was nominating economist Alan Greenspan to succeed Paul Volcker as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board. He retired from the position on January 31st, 2006, handing over the chairmanship to Ben Bernanke.

1997 USA Timothy McVeigh

1997 : Timothy McVeigh, a former U.S. Army soldier, is convicted on 15 counts of murder for his role in the 1995 terrorist bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.

1998 USA Proposition 227

1998 : Proposition 227, requiring that all schoolchildren be taught in English is passed by the voters of California.

2000 Zimbabwe Land Seizures

2000 : The government of Zimbabwe has issued a list of 800 plus farms earmarked for forcible seizure by the government who will devide them up between landless citizens.

2002 USA FBI Expanded Powers

2002 : The US Attorney General John Ashcroft has defended the FBI expanded investigative powers to monitor the activities of people and organisations suspected of plotting terrorist acts. FBI agents will now be able to monitor people at any public event or place if they suspect a terrorist plot without seeking approval from FBI headquarters.

2002 USA End of Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treat

2002 : The United States has formally withdrawn from the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty signed in 1972 by the US and the then Soviet Union. President George W Bush has said the ABM treaty is an outdated relic of the Cold War.

2003 Burma Colleges and Universities Closed

2003 : The ruling military authorities in Burma order the indefinite closure of universities and colleges, and shut down offices of the opposition National League for Democracy following the civil unrest after the arrest of the NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Friday. The NLD had won free elections back in 1990 by a landslide majority, but the military regime which has run the country since 1962 refused to hand over power.

2005 Australia Beached Whales Helped Off Beach

2005 : Several beached whales were helped back into the ocean by hundreds of locals who moved the animals. The false killer whales, which are actually a type of dolphin, had been stranded on a beach near Busselton in western Australia when the government asked local citizens to help move them back into the water. Only one false killer whale was reported to have died.

2007 Chinese Vice Premier Dies

2007 : A senior official in the Chinese government, Huang Ju, the vice-premier died of an illness at the age of sixty-eight. The type of illness that Huang suffered from was not disclosed, but cancer was suspected.

2008 Zimbabwe Aid Agencies Asked To Leave

2008 : With the upcoming election in Zimbabwe between President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai the government has banned the Care International aid group from operating in the country for allegedly campaigning for the opposition. It is thought up to 4 million Zimbabweans a third of the population - are in need of food aid.

2010 Japanese Prime Minister Resigns

2010 : The prime minister of Japan, Yukio Hatoyama, resigned after holding only eight months of office. Hatoyama announced his resignation in a televised speech, in which he emotionally addressed the Japanese people. Among reasons cited for his resignation were various scandals involving aides as well as a controversy surrounding a United States army base in Okinawa.

2011 New President Elected in Latvia

2011 : Andris Berzins, the challenger of incumbent president Valdis Zatlers, won the presidential election in Latvia. The parliament in Latvia chooses the president and Berzins received fifty-three out of the one hundred votes. Zalters had lost favor in parliament after accusing members of being weak on corruption.

2012 UK Queen's Diamond Jubilee Begins

2012 : The first major event of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebration, marking sixty years since the beginning of her reign, took place on this day as she watched teh Derby at Epsom.

2012 Television Actor Richard Dawson Dies

2012 : Richard Dawson, best known for his role as Peter Newkirk on Hogan's Heroes and hosting the game show Family Feud, died at the age of seventy-nine. Dawson had died as a result of complications due to esophageal cancer.

2013 Czech Republic Woman Gives Birth to Quintuplets

2013 : A twenty-three year old woman in the Czech Republic gave birth to quintuplets, a first for the country. The four boys and one girl were delivered by c-section and were conceived naturally without any IVF treatments.