Following are some of the major events to have occurred on June 6:
1944 – Operation Overlord, the landing of Allied forces on the coast of Normandy, France, took place. It was the largest sea-borne invasion in history and was better known as “D-Day”.
1954 – Eurovision, a network created by linking television stations across Europe, made its first broadcast — from the Festival of Flowers in Switzerland.
1966 – The U.S. Gemini 9 spacecraft splashed down after a three-day mission during which astronaut Eugene Cernan walked in space for a record two hours eight minutes.
1994 – U.S. President Bill Clinton makes a cross from pebbles on Normandy beach marking 50 years since D-Day landing.
1996 – Hungary’s world arm-wrestling champion Arpad Nick enters record books by pulling a 17-tonne airplane with his teeth.
1999 – Sri Lankan tailors attempt to make the world’s longest trousers.
2002 – Indian security forces shot dead Mohammed Rafiq Lone, head of the Harkat-ul-Jehadi Islami rebel group which is fighting for Indian Kashmir’s merger with Pakistan.
2003 – The UN signed a landmark agreement with Cambodia to set up special courts to try the leaders of the 1970s “Killing Fields” genocide of the Khmer Rouge.
2004 – German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder visited Normandy marking D-Day celebrations and joining Germany’s former World War Two enemies for the first time in the tribute to those killed on both sides during the conflict.
2005 – Bolivian President Carlos Mesa resigned after weeks of crippling protests by indigenous leaders demanding that he nationalise the country’s energy resources.
2013 – St. Petersburg’s Marinsky theatre hosts world’s first live broadcast of ballet in 3D.
(Reuters)