Something to think about.Something to discover.Something to remember.Every day.
⌕ My Time Capsule
HISTORY & TIMELINE
3 June

A journey through
3 June in history

The story of 3 June runs from Dutch merchants winning a charter to trade across the Atlantic in 1621 to the world’s leaders gathering in Rio de Janeiro for the Earth Summit in 1992. In between come Captain Cook timing Venus as it crossed the Sun, the last known pair of great auks killed on an Icelandic rock, Rodin’s anguished burghers unveiled in Calais, French climbers on top of Annapurna and Tunisia winning the right to govern itself.

Begin the Timeline ↓ ← Back to Explore This Day
JUMP THROUGH TIME
III
A CHANGING WORLD

Early Modern Era

Exploration, political change, scientific development and expanding global connections.

1621
The West-Indisch Huis (West India House) on the Herenmarkt in Amsterdam, once used by the companyThe West-Indisch Huis (West India House) on the Herenmarkt in Amsterdam, once used by the companyImage: S Sepp · CC BY-SA 3.0
world · Europe

The Dutch West India Company receives its charter

Twenty years after the Dutch East India Company was set up to trade with Asia, merchants in the young Dutch Republic wanted a similar company for the Atlantic. On 3 June 1621 the States General, the republic’s governing body, granted a charter to the Dutch West India Company, giving it a 24-year monopoly on Dutch trade with the Americas and West Africa. The charter ran to 45 articles and placed the company under a board of directors, the Lords Nineteen. It was far more than a trading licence. The company could make treaties, build forts, raise soldiers, found colonies and fight Spain, then at war with the Dutch. It went on to found New Netherland, with its capital New Amsterdam on Manhattan, to seize part of Brazil for a time, to capture Elmina on the Gold Coast, and to become one of the main carriers in the Atlantic slave trade.

Source: Library of Congress: Charter given by the States General on the date of June the third, 1621 ↗
1769
Drawings by Cook and Green of how Venus appeared against the Sun during the transit of 1769Drawings by Cook and Green of how Venus appeared against the Sun during the transit of 1769Image: Captain James Cook and Charles Green · Public domain
science · Oceania

Cook and Green time the transit of Venus from Tahiti

The Royal Society sent James Cook to Tahiti in HMS Endeavour so that astronomers could time Venus crossing the face of the Sun, one of many observations around the world meant to work out the distance between the Earth and the Sun. Cook built a fortified camp on a spit of land now called Point Venus, and on 3 June 1769 he and the astronomer Charles Green watched the whole transit under a clear sky.

Source: NASA Earth Observatory: Cook’s View of the Transit of Venus ↗
IV
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

The 1800s

Industry, empire, invention, reform and a century of enormous transformation.

1839
Chinese workers destroying confiscated opium in 1839, in a painting by a Chinese artistChinese workers destroying confiscated opium in 1839, in a painting by a Chinese artistImage: Chinese artist · Public domain
politics · Asia

China pours the British opium stocks into the sea at Humen

By the 1830s British merchants were shipping vast quantities of Indian opium into China, against the emperor’s ban, and paying for Chinese tea with the proceeds. Addiction spread and silver drained out of the country. In 1838 the Daoguang Emperor sent the respected official Lin Zexu to Canton (Guangzhou) as imperial commissioner, with full powers to end the trade. Arriving in March 1839, Lin blockaded the foreign merchants in their warehouses until they handed over their stocks, more than 20,000 chests of the drug. On 3 June 1839 Lin’s men began destroying the opium in public on the shore at Humen, at the mouth of the Pearl River. Rather than burn it, they broke it up in trenches filled with water, salt and lime, and let the foul-smelling mixture out to sea on the ebb tide. The work took about three weeks and disposed of well over a thousand tonnes. Lin became a national hero in China, but Britain answered with warships, and the First Opium War followed.

Source: The Opium War Museum (Google Arts & Culture): The Burning of Opium at Humen ↗
1844
The great auk, in a hand-coloured plate by John GouldThe great auk, in a hand-coloured plate by John GouldImage: John Gould · Public domain
world · Europe

The last known pair of great auks is killed

The great auk, a large flightless seabird of the North Atlantic, had been hunted for centuries for its meat, eggs and feathers, and by the 1840s it was very rare. Collectors paid well for specimens. On 3 June 1844 a party of Icelanders landed on the rocky island of Eldey, off south-west Iceland, caught the only two birds they found there and killed them. No living great auk was ever reliably seen again.

Source: Britannica: Great auk ↗
1895
Rodin's Burghers of Calais in front of the town hall in CalaisRodin’s Burghers of Calais in front of the town hall in CalaisImage: Romainberth · CC BY-SA 3.0
culture · Europe

Rodin’s Burghers of Calais are unveiled

In 1347, after a siege of nearly a year, the starving town of Calais surrendered to Edward III of England. According to the chronicler Jean Froissart, six leading citizens offered their lives to save the rest, walking out bareheaded with ropes round their necks and the keys of the town in their hands. The king spared them at the plea of his queen, Philippa. In the 1880s the town council asked Auguste Rodin for a monument to their leader, Eustache de Saint-Pierre. Rodin chose instead to show all six men together, not as noble heroes on a tall plinth but as frightened, exhausted people facing death, each wrestling with it in his own way. The council was uneasy with the design, and a lack of money held the project up for years. The bronze group was finally unveiled in Calais on 3 June 1895, and it is now counted among Rodin’s greatest works.

Source: Musee Rodin: Monument to the Burghers of Calais ↗
V
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

The 1900s

War and peace, technological leaps, social change, politics, sport and popular culture.

1929
A US State Department map of the Chile-Peru boundary drawn by the 1929 treatyA US State Department map of the Chile-Peru boundary drawn by the 1929 treatyImage: Department of State, USA · Public domain
world · Americas

Chile and Peru settle the Tacna-Arica dispute

After the War of the Pacific, Chile had held the Peruvian provinces of Tacna and Arica since 1883, and the plebiscite promised to decide their future never took place. With the United States mediating, the two countries signed the Treaty of Lima on 3 June 1929: Tacna went back to Peru and Arica stayed with Chile, and Peru received a payment of six million dollars and other concessions.

Source: US Office of the Historian: Foreign Relations of the United States, 1929 ↗
1935
A Communist Party of Canada poster showing the On-to-Ottawa trekkers arrested on 1 July 1935A Communist Party of Canada poster showing the On-to-Ottawa trekkers arrested on 1 July 1935Image: Communist Party of Canada · Public domain
world · Americas

Jobless men set out on the On-to-Ottawa Trek

In the Great Depression the Canadian government sent thousands of unemployed single men to remote relief camps, where they worked for 20 cents a day. In April 1935 about 1,500 men in British Columbia’s camps went on strike and gathered in Vancouver. On 3 June more than a thousand of them climbed on top of freight cars and headed east to take their grievances to Ottawa. The trek was stopped at Regina, where a riot broke out on 1 July.

Source: The Canadian Encyclopedia: On to Ottawa Trek and Regina Riot ↗
1947
Lord Mountbatten at the conference table with Nehru, Jinnah and other Indian leaders during the partition talks of 1947Lord Mountbatten at the conference table with Nehru, Jinnah and other Indian leaders during the partition talks of 1947Image: Unknown author · Public domain
world · Asia

Britain’s last viceroy announces the plan to divide India

Early in 1947 the British government said it would hand over power in India by June 1948, and sent Lord Louis Mountbatten to Delhi as the last viceroy to arrange it. The Indian National Congress wanted a single united India, while Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s Muslim League demanded a separate homeland for Muslims, Pakistan. As violence between communities grew, Mountbatten became convinced that only partition could bring a settlement. On 3 June 1947 he announced the plan on All India Radio: British India would become two independent dominions, India and Pakistan, and Punjab and Bengal would be divided between them. The Congress leader Jawaharlal Nehru, Jinnah and the Sikh leader Baldev Singh followed him on air to accept it, and the handover was brought forward to August 1947. Independence came within ten weeks, but the partition that followed uprooted millions of people and cost hundreds of thousands of lives.

Source: Britannica: All India Radio ↗
1950
The south face of Annapurna I in NepalThe south face of Annapurna I in NepalImage: PrajwalMohan · CC BY-SA 4.0
world · Asia

French climbers make the first ascent of an 8,000-metre peak

In 1950 Nepal opened its mountains to foreign climbers after more than a century, and a French expedition led by Maurice Herzog set out to climb either Dhaulagiri or its neighbour Annapurna. The team spent April searching for a route on Dhaulagiri without success, and by the time they switched to Annapurna in mid-May they had only a few weeks before the monsoon snows arrived. On 3 June 1950 Herzog and Louis Lachenal reached the 8,091-metre summit of Annapurna, climbing without bottled oxygen. It was the first time anyone had stood on top of one of the world’s fourteen peaks over 8,000 metres. The descent became a desperate ordeal through storm and avalanche, and both men lost toes, Herzog his fingers too, to frostbite. Herzog’s book about the climb became one of the best-selling mountaineering books ever written.

Source: American Alpine Club: Maurice Herzog, 1919-2012 ↗
1955
Habib Bourguiba on horseback during his triumphant return to Tunis on 1 June 1955Habib Bourguiba on horseback during his triumphant return to Tunis on 1 June 1955Image: Habib Osman · Public domain
world · Africa

France and Tunisia sign the agreements on self-rule

Tunisia had been a French protectorate since 1881. From the 1930s the Neo-Destour party of Habib Bourguiba led the campaign for independence, and by the early 1950s strikes, arrests and armed resistance had made French rule increasingly hard to sustain. In July 1954 the French prime minister, Pierre Mendes France, flew to Tunisia and promised the country internal autonomy, and negotiations began. Bourguiba came home from exile on 1 June 1955 and rode through cheering crowds in Tunis. Two days later, on 3 June, the French and Tunisian governments signed the agreements that gave Tunisia self-rule, while France kept control of defence and foreign affairs and its Resident-General gave way to a High Commissioner. The limits did not last long: Tunisia became fully independent in March 1956.

Source: CVCE (University of Luxembourg): Independence for Morocco and Tunisia ↗
1965
Ed White floating outside Gemini 4 on 3 June 1965, photographed by James McDivittEd White floating outside Gemini 4 on 3 June 1965, photographed by James McDivittImage: NASA / James McDivitt · Public domain
world · Americas

Ed White becomes the first American to walk in space

In March 1965 the Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov had become the first person to leave a spacecraft in orbit. NASA answered within weeks. At 10:16 in the morning on 3 June 1965, Gemini 4 lifted off from Cape Kennedy with James McDivitt and Ed White on board, on a four-day flight meant to show that astronauts could live and work in space for the length of a trip to the Moon. On their third orbit White opened his hatch and pushed himself out over the Pacific, tied to the capsule by a gold-wrapped tether. For the first few minutes he steered with a hand-held gas gun until its fuel ran out, then moved by pulling on the line and twisting his body. He stayed outside for about 23 minutes, until he was ordered back in over the Gulf of Mexico. The crew splashed down safely on 7 June after 62 orbits.

Source: NASA: Gemini IV ↗
1991
The Fugen-dake peak of Unzen with Heisei-shinzan, the new summit built by the 1990s eruptionThe Fugen-dake peak of Unzen with Heisei-shinzan, the new summit built by the 1990s eruptionImage: Fwng3431 · Public domain
world · Asia

A volcanic avalanche sweeps down Mount Unzen

Mount Unzen, near Shimabara on the Japanese island of Kyushu, woke in 1990 after nearly two centuries, and by May 1991 a lava dome was growing near its summit. On 3 June 1991 part of the dome collapsed and a large pyroclastic flow of hot ash and gas raced down the mountain’s eastern side. More than 40 people were killed, among them journalists and the volcanologists Katia and Maurice Krafft and Harry Glicken.

Source: Smithsonian Global Volcanism Program: Report on Unzendake, June 1991 ↗
1992
Courtroom 1 of the High Court of Australia in CanberraCourtroom 1 of the High Court of Australia in CanberraImage: Bidgee · CC BY-SA 3.0 au
world · Oceania

Australia’s High Court recognises native title in the Mabo case

In 1982 five Meriam people from Mer (Murray Island) in the Torres Strait, led by Eddie Koiki Mabo, went to court to establish that their people had always owned their island. The case struck at an old legal idea: that when Britain claimed Australia the land was terra nullius, belonging to no one, so that the Crown owned it all outright. The case dragged on for ten years, and Eddie Mabo died of cancer in January 1992, months before it was settled. On 3 June 1992 the High Court of Australia ruled by six judges to one that the Meriam people held traditional title to their lands. The court went further, finding that native title could survive for Indigenous peoples across Australia, and that the doctrine of terra nullius had no place in the country’s law. Parliament passed the Native Title Act the following year, and 3 June is now marked as Mabo Day.

Source: National Archives of Australia: Eddie Koiki Mabo and the Mabo case ↗
1992
A Greenpeace banner on Rio's Sugarloaf Mountain during the Earth Summit of 1992A Greenpeace banner on Rio’s Sugarloaf Mountain during the Earth Summit of 1992Image: Celso Meira · Public domain
world · Americas

The Earth Summit opens in Rio de Janeiro

On 3 June 1992 the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development opened in Rio de Janeiro, bringing together representatives of 179 countries. Over twelve days it adopted Agenda 21, a programme for sustainable development, and the Rio Declaration, and it opened two landmark treaties for signature: the Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Convention on Biological Diversity.

Source: United Nations: UN Conference on Environment and Development, Rio de Janeiro 1992 ↗
RESEARCH

Sources & Further Reading

Selected authoritative references supporting the events on this page.

WHY THESE MOMENTS?

Significance before volume

This page is not the longest possible list of events. It is a chronological journey through 3 June, where each entry is chosen for historical significance, human interest and reliability.

Facts are checked against authoritative museums, archives, universities and reference works. Where sources disagree, the page says so.

EXPLORED THE DEEPER STORY?

Return to the highlights of 3 June

Discover the lighter side of the date with famous birthdays, culture, firsts and lives remembered.

Explore This Day →
← PREVIOUS DAY2 June
HISTORY & TIMELINE3 June
NEXT DAY →4 June