Today in History FacebookTwitterEmail Today in History Today is Thursday, June 3, the 154th day of 2021. There are 211 days left in the year. Today’s Highlight in History: On June 3, 1989, Iran’s spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, died. On the same day, Chinese army troops began their sweep of Beijing to crush student-led pro-democracy demonstrations. On this date: In 1621, the Dutch West India Co. received its charter for a trade monopoly in parts of the Americas and Africa. In 1861, Illinois Sen. Stephen A. Douglas, the Democratic presidential nominee in the 1860 election, died in Chicago of typhoid fever; he was 48. In 1937, Edward, The Duke of Windsor, who had abdicated the British throne, married Wallis Simpson in a private ceremony in Monts, France.