Moments in Time: Ronald Reagan
The History Channel
On June 1, 1926, Norma Jeane Mortenson, who would later become famous as the voluptuous, platinum-blond actress and sex symbol Marilyn Monroe, was born in Los Angeles, California.
On June 2, 1985, Leonard Lake was arrested near San Francisco, California, ending one of the rare examples of serial killers working together. Lake and his partner, Charles Ng, committed a number of brutal crimes against young women in the 1980s. Lake committed suicide by ingesting a cyanide capsule while in custody, but Ng has remained on death row at San Quentin State Prison since 1999.
On June 3, 1754, Lieutenant Colonel George Washington began construction of the makeshift Fort Necessity, designed to defend his forces from French soldiers angered by the killing of Ensign Joseph Coulon de Jumonville by Washington's Native American ally while he was in Washington's custody. A month later, the French, led by Jumonville's half-brother, succeeded in getting Washington's surrender and signed confession (in French, which he didn't read) to the murder.
On June 4, 1972, Angela Davis, an activist and former UCLA philosophy professor, was acquitted on charges of conspiracy, murder and kidnapping. She had been accused of supplying weapons to Jonathan Jackson, who had stormed a courtroom in an effort to take hostages he hoped to exchange for his brother, a radical incarcerated at San Quentin. Jackson died in the subsequent police shootout.
On June 5, 2004, Ronald Reagan died, a decade after his announcement that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. Nicknamed the "Great Communicator" and one of America's most popular presidents, he had lived out his final years on his beloved ranch with his wife, Nancy, and was laid to rest at the Ronald Reagan Presidential LIBRAry in Simi Valley, California.
On June 6, 1933, eager viewers parked at the very first drive-in movie theater, the Camden Drive-In, in Pennsauken, New Jersey, to watch the English comedy "Wives Beware," starring Adolphe Menjou.
On June 7, 1692, a massive earthquake destroyed the town of Port Royal in Jamaica, killing thousands. Aftershocks discouraged the possibility of rebuilding, and the city of Kingston was constructed instead.
(c) 2026 King Features Synd., Inc.