* The World Environment Day is marked on the initiative of the UN conference on the human environment (Stockholm, 1972).
* The Kingdom of Denmark marks a national holiday, the Constitution Day (1849). The present constitution was adopted on June 5, 1953.
* British economist and philosopher Adam SMITH (1723-1790), a major representative of classical political economy, was born 281 years ago. He is famous for his influential book "The Wealth of Nations".
* Brothers Joseph-Michel and Jacques-Etienne MONTGOLFIER built the first hot-air balloon to make an unmanned ascent to a height of 1,800 metres on June 5, 1783, 221 years ago. The first aeronauts were Jean-Francois Pilatre de Rozier and Marquis Francois d' Arlandes. They made the first manned balloon ascent over Paris on November 21, 1783 in a balloon made by the Montgolfier brothers.
* British astronomer John ADAMS (1819-1892) was born 185 years ago. He studied celestial mechanics and lunar acceleration and discovered the planet Neptune.
* Spanish poet and playwright Federico GARCIA LORCA (1898-1936), author of "Poem of the Deep Song", verse collection "Poet in New York", heroic drama "Mariana Pineda", tragedy "Blood Wedding", drama "The House of Bernarda Alba", etc., was born 106 years ago. He was assassinated by Spanish nationalists.
* American writer O.HENRY (William Sydney Porter, 1862-1910), famous for his short humorous stories ("Cabbages and Kings", etc.), died 94 years ago.
IN RUSSIA:
* The Ecologists' Day is marked in Russia since 1996.
* Emperor Peter the Great ordered to build the main military clinical hospital in Moscow 298 years ago, in 1706 (today the Burdenko hospital, the central clinic of the Russian Army).
* The first china factory (today the Lomonosov china factory) was opened in St. Petersburg 260 years ago, in 1744.
* Violinist, composer, and conductor Alexei LVOV (1798-1870) was born 206 years ago. He composed the Russian national anthem "God Save the Czar".
* Russian sculptor Peter KLODT (1805-1867), representative of late classicism, was born 199 years ago. He created the famous horses on Anichkov Bridge in St. Petersburg, and monuments to fabulist Ivan Krylov and Emperor Nicholas I.
* Academician Mikhail ALEKSEYEV (1896-1981), literature historian and theorist, honorary doctor of Universities of Oxford, Paris, Bordeaux, Rostock, and Budapest, was born 108 years ago. He studied British, German, French, Spanish and other literatures and their links with Russian literature.
* The Alexander Suvorov passenger liner wrecked on the Volga river near Ulyanovsk 21 years ago, in 1983, killing many people.
