@rh18bold:Today in History

Today is Wednesday, June 2, the 153rd day of 2010. There are 212 days left in the year.

On this date

In 1897, Mark Twain, 61, was quoted by the New York Journal as saying from London that "the report of my death was an exaggeration."

In 1946, Italy held a referendum which resulted in the Italian monarchy being abolished in favour of a republic.

In 1953, the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II took place at Westminster Abbey in London, 16 months after the death of her father, King George VI; it was the first coronation to be televised.

In 1979, Pope John Paul II arrived in his native Poland on the first visit by a pope to a Communist country.

Thought for Today

"Only the man who finds everything wrong and expects it to get worse is thought to have a clear brain." — John Kenneth Galbraith, American economist (1908-2006).