• On June 6, 1944, known as D-Day, 160,000 Allied troops land on the beaches of Normandy, France, beginning the liberation of Western Europe from control of Nazi Germany. Within three months, the northern part of France would be freed and Allied forces would be preparing to enter Germany. • On June 2, 1774, the British Parliament renews the Quartering Act, allowing Redcoats to stay in private American homes. Disgusted by the dumping of 342 chests of tea into Boston Harbor six months earlier, Parliament reasserted British control over the colonies, especially Boston. • On June 7, 1893, Mohandas K. Gandhi, a young Indian lawyer working in South Africa, commits his first act of civil disobedience when he refuses to comply with racial segregation rules on a train and is forcibly ejected. The British-educated Gandhi influenced leaders of civil-rights movements around the world. • On June 3, 1936, bestselling novelist Larry McMurtry is born in Texas. In the late 1990s, he began filling abandoned buildings in Archer, Texas, with hundreds of thousands of used books for sale in an attempt to create a haven for book lovers. • On June 1, 1968, Helen Keller dies in Connecticut at the age of 87. Blind and deaf from infancy, Keller circumvented her disabilities to become a world-renowned writer and lecturer. In 1904, she graduated cum laude from Radcliffe. • On June 4, 1986, Jonathan Pollard pleads guilty to espionage for selling U.S. intelligence information to Israel and is sentenced to life in prison. The former Navy intelligence analyst sold enough classified documents to fill a medium-size room. Israel continues to negotiate for Pollard's release. • On June 5, 1993, Julie Krone rides Colonial Affair to victory in the Belmont Stakes to become the first female jockey ever to win a Triple Crown race. Krone won her first horse race at just 5 years old in a 21-and-under race. © 2015 King Features Synd., Inc.
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