Today is Friday, June 4, the 155th day of 2010. There are 210 days left in the year.

On this date

In 1783, the Montgolfier brothers first publicly demonstrated their hot-air balloon, which did not carry any passengers, over Annonay, France.

1913 — British suffragette Emily Davison ran in front of the King's horse during the Derby race; she died of her injuries on June 8.

In 1944, Allied troops liberated Rome from the Nazis.

In 1954, French Premier Joseph Laniel and Vietnamese Premier Buu Loc signed treaties in Paris according "complete independence" to Vietnam.

In 1989, hundreds – if not thousands – of Chinese student dissidents were killed in Beijing when the army moved in to remove them from Tiananmen Square; some estimates put the death toll in the thousands.

In 1989, Solidarity overwhelmingly defeated Poland's ruling Communists in the first partly free elections in four decades.

Thought for Today

"As people used to be wrong about the motion of the sun, so they are still wrong about the motion of the future. The future stands still; it is we who move in infinite space." — Rainer Maria Rilke German poet (1875-1926).