This Day in History: June 3

The first spacewalk in US history was made by astronaut Edward H. White during the Gemini 4 mission, on June 3, 1965.   (Photo by Jim McDivitt/NASA/Roger Ressmeyer/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images)

On this day, June 3 …
 
1965: Edward H. White becomes the first American to "walk" in space during the flight of Gemini 4.

Also on this day:

• 1948: The 200-inch reflecting Hale Telescope at the Palomar Mountain Observatory in California is dedicated.

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• 1968: Andy Warhol is shot and critically wounded at his New York film studio, known as "The Factory," by Valerie Solanas, an actress and self-styled militant feminist who would serve three years in prison for assault.
• 1977: The United States and Cuba agree to set up diplomatic interests sections in each other's countries; Cuba also announces the immediate release of 10 Americans jailed on drug charges.
• 1989: Iran's spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, dies.
• 1989: Chinese army troops begin their sweep of Beijing to crush student-led pro-democracy demonstrations.
• 2008: Barack Obama claims the Democratic presidential nomination, speaking in the same St. Paul, Minn., arena where Republicans would be holding their national convention in September 2008.
• 2014: Tens of thousands of Syrians in government-controlled cities vote to give President Bashar Assad a new seven-year mandate; the opposition and its Western allies denounce the election as a farce, with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry calling it a "great big zero."

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• 2016: Boxing legend Muhammad Ali dies at a hospital in Scottsdale, Ariz., at age 74.
• 2017: A white van slams into pedestrians on London Bridge, killing eight people; the three attackers are shot and killed by police.

• 2018: Guatemala's Volcano of Fire, one of the most active volcanos in Central America, erupts in fiery explosions of ash and molten rock, killing more than 100 people and leaving scores of others missing.