1875        Jun 2, Alexander Graham Bell made his 1st complex sound transmission.

1914        Jun 2, Glenn Curtiss flew his Langley Aerodrome. 

1972        Jun 2, Pres. Nixon in discussion with aide Charles Colson said: We want to decimate the god-damned place… North Vietnam is going to get reordered… it’s about time. It’s what should have been done years ago.”

1979        Jun 2, Pope John Paul II, formerly Cardinal Karol Wojtyla of Warsaw, arrived in his native Poland on the first visit by a pope to a Communist country. 

1989        Jun 2, President Bush returned from a European trip, calling it “a triumph of hope” for a world moving beyond the Cold War. 

1989        Jun 2, Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan told a joint session of the US Congress that Pakistan does not have nuclear weapons.

1990        Jun 2, Frederick Mellinger (76), founder of Fredericks of Hollywood, died.

1999        Jun 2, In South Africa Pres. Mandela set this date for elections. Thabo Mbeki, the deputy of Pres. Mandela, was expected to win. The ANC headed for victory with 62.2% support after half the votes were counted. The final count showed a 65.7% win. The Congress Party trailed a rival black party in KwaZulu-Natal province. The ANC won 266 seats, one shy of a two-third majority. Retiring president Nelson Mandela was succeeded by Thabo Mbeki. 

2003        Jun 2, President Bush, visiting the Middle East, pledged to work unstintingly for the goal of Israel and a Palestinian state living side by side without bloodshed.

2006        Jun 2, Russian President Vladimir Putin removed his hawkish chief prosecutor in what analysts said was a tactical victory for moderates over hardliners in a Kremlin power struggle.

2008        Jun 2, Nigeria’s President Umaru Yar’Adua arrived in South Africa for a four-day state visit to forge closer ties between Africa’s most populous country and its biggest economy.

2012        Jun 2, In Nicaragua Adolfo Calero (b.1931), one of the principal leaders of the US-backed Contra rebels, died. Calero was responsible for managing the bank accounts into which money was deposited and then used to buy supplies and arms as the Contras battled Nicaragua’s Sandinista government in the 1980s.

2013        Jun 2, China’s President Xi Jinping arrived in Costa Rica, the only country in Central America to have diplomatic relations with China.

2013        Jun 2, Palestinian Pres. Mahmoud Abbas appointed Rami Hamdallah to replace Salam Fayyad. Hamdallah was tasked with forming a new government of technocrats, not politicians. Fayyad had frequently clashed with Abbas and was seen as being too independent.

2014        Jun 2, President Mahmoud Abbas swore in a Palestinian unity government, taking a major step toward ending a crippling split with his Hamas rivals, but also setting the stage for new friction with Israel and possibly with the West.