On this day in 1883, the first regularly scheduled Orient Express departed Paris.
On this day in 1944, during World War II, more than 1,000 British bombers drop 5,000 tons of bombs on German gun batteries on the Normandy coast in preparation for D-Day.
On this day in 1947, in a speech at Harvard University, the United States Secretary of State George Marshall called for economic aid to war-torn Europe. This would become known as the Marshall Plan.
On this day in 1959, the first government of the State of Singapore was sworn in.
And on this day in 1989, the Tank Man halted the progress of a column of advancing tanks for over half an hour after the Tiananmen Square protests.