History of the Day for:
June 2
- 1851: Maine became the first state to pass a law prohibiting alcohol.
- 1886: Grover Cleveland became the first and only president to be married in the White House when he took Frances Folsom as his wife.
- 1890: Gossip columnist Hedda Hopper was born.
- 1897: Responding to rumors that he was dead or dying, Mark Twain was quoted by the New York Journal as saying that "the report of my death was an exaggeration."
- 1924: Congress granted U.S. citizenship to all American Indians.
- 1933: President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the first swimming pool built inside the White House.
- 1941: Baseball's "Iron Horse," Lou Gehrig, died in New York of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a disease which would become forever linked with his name.
- 1946: The Italian monarchy was abolished in favor of a republic.
- 1953: Queen Elizabeth II was crowned in Westminster Abbey.
- 1960: The Broadway theater district closed in a labor dispute between theater owners and Actors Equity Union.
- 1966: Surveyor One landed on the moon.
- 1977: New Jersey legalized gambling in Atlantic City.
- 1985: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar became the all-time leading point scorer in the NBA playoffs. He rang up a total of 4,458 points, breaking the previous record held by Jerry West.
- 1997: Timothy McVeigh was convicted of murder and conspiracy in the Oklahoma City bombing trial.
- 1999: The Bhutan Broadcasting Service brings television transmissions to the Kingdom for the first time.
- 2003: Europe launches its first voyage to another planet, Mars. The European Space Agency's Mars Express probe launches from the Baikonur space centre in Kazakhstan.
- 2004: Ken Jennings begins his 74-game winning streak on the syndicated game show Jeopardy!