1989, Iran’s spiritual leader the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini dies in Tehran. Khomeini’s rise to power in the Islamic Revolution led to the hostage crisis, in which Iran held dozens of Americans captive for 444 days. 1963, Pope John XXIII, who pushed to modernize the Roman Catholic Church, dies in Rome at age 81. Pope Paul IV succeeds him as pontiff.

1937, Britain’s Duke of Windsor marries American divorcée Wallis Warfield Simpson in France. It happens 6 months after the former King Edward VIII abdicated his country’s throne for Simpson. 1926, “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness.” Allen Ginsberg, the poet who becomes one of the icons of America’s Beat Generation, is born in Newark, New Jersey. And 1906, Josephine Baker, the dancer, singer and actress who gained fame with her shows in Paris during the 1920s, is born in St. Louis. Today in History. June 3rd. Camille Bohannon, the Associated Press