June 5
1851. Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin, or Life Among the Lowly, begins publication as a 40 week serial in an abolitionist periodical. Ms. Stowe wrote the book in response to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. As a result of its tremendous popularity, she was convinced to sell it as a book. It was the best selling novel of the 19th century, and the second best selling book, after only the Bible, and had a tremendous influence on the sectional debate that would ultimately lead to the Civil War. It is fair to say that it is one of the most influential novels in human history.
1947. In a speech at Harvard University, Secretary of State (and former 5 star US General) George Marshall calls for economic aid to war torn Europe, in furtherance of our own national security interests, first introducing what will become known as the Marshall Plan.
1967. The Six Day War begins, with Israel launching preemptive attacks on certain of her Arab neighbors.
1968. Robert Kennedy, the brother of former President John Kennedy, who was assassinated in Dallas only five years earlier, is shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles by Palestinian Sirhan Sirhan, and dies the next day. He becomes the third son of Joseph and Rose Kennedy to die. In addition to the John and Robert, their oldest brother Joe Jr., was killed while in the service during WWII. Another child, a daughter, died in a plane crash while only 28 years old.
Sirhan Sirhan planned the murder well in advance, and was fixated on Kennedy and his promise to support Israel. The murder occurred on the one year anniversary of the Six Day War. As of this date, he remains in prison, his sentence having been commuted from death to life imprisonment as a result of a California Supreme Court decision ruling the death penalty in violation of California's Constitution.
1975. The Suez Canal opens for the first time since the Six Days War.
1981. The Centers for Disease Control report that five individuals in teh Los Angeles California area are suffering from a rare form of pneumonia seen only in patients with weakened immune systems. This is effectively the first recognized cases of AIDS.
1989. In response to the Tiananmen Square Massacre, a single man stepped in front of a tank column that was exiting the square. The picture was a sensation. The man survived the experience, but has never been definitively identified by the West, and rumors abound as to who he was and whether he was executed shortly thereafter.
