Today in History....June 5

On this day in …

* 1884, Civil War hero Gen. William T. Sherman refused the Republican presidential nomination, saying, "I will not accept if nominated and will not serve if elected."

* 1917, about 10 million American men began registering for the draft in World War I

* 1933, the United States went off the gold standard

* 1940, during the World War II Battle of France, Germany attacked French forces along the Somme line

* 1947, Secretary of State George C. Marshall gave a speech at Harvard University in which he outlined an aid program for Europe that came to be known as "The Marshall Plan"

* 1967, Israel's Six Day War began

* 1968, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles'
Ambassador Hotel after claiming victory in California's Democratic presidential primary. Gunman Sirhan Bishara Sirhan was immediately arrested

* 1981, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that five homosexuals in Los Angeles had come down with a rare kind of pneumonia; they were the first recognized cases of what later became known as AIDS

* 1986, a federal jury in Baltimore convicted Ronald W. Pelton of selling secrets to the Soviet Union. (Pelton was sentenced to three life prison terms plus 10 years.)

* 1997, Harold J. Nicholson, the highest ranking CIA officer ever caught spying against his own country, was sentenced to more than 23 years in prison for selling defense secrets to Russia after the Cold War

* 2002, a suicide bomber, a practitioner of that "religion of peace", killed 17 Israelis on a bus. ALSO: 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart disappeared from her Salt Lake City home. (Smart was found alive in a Salt Lake suburb in March 2003; two people accused of abducting her have been found mentally unfit to stand trial.) AND:
Magic Johnson was introduced as a member of the 2002 class elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame

* 2004, Ronald Reagan, the 40th president of the United States, died in Los Angeles at age 93 after a long struggle with Alzheimer's disease