Schumacher reigns in Spain
1996 - Double world champion Michael Schumacher claimed his first victory for Ferrari when he drove a superb race in atrocious conditions at the Spanish Grand Prix. The German, who started from third position on the grid, took the lead after 12 laps of the 65-lap race and lapped the entire field bar the two men who finished second and third behind him. He won in one hour 59 minutes 49.307 seconds, having outclassed the rest of the field with an exceptional demonstration of his all-round supremacy in the treacherous wet conditions. Frenchman Jean Alesi, in a Benetton, the last man to win a race for Ferrari at last year’s Canadian Grand Prix, finished second, three seconds ahead of Canadian Jacques Villeneuve in a Williams.
June 2
1815 - Napoleon Bonaparte issues a liberal constitution in France.
1896 - The world’s first patent for a radio communications device is filed in Britain by Guglielmo Marconi, the Italian-born inventor.
1917 - Brazil declares war on Germany.
1946 - The Italian monarchy is abolished in favour of a republic.
1949 - Transjordan is renamed the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.
1953 - Queen Elizabeth II of Britain is crowned in Westminster Abbey.
1974 - Jigme Singye Wangchuk is crowned King of Bhutan at the age of 18.
1979 - Pope John Paul II arrives in his native Poland on the first visit by a pope to a Communist country.
1987 - Paul Volcker steps down as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board.
1988 - Raj Kapoor, one of the greatest showmen of Indian cinema, dies.
1990 - British actor Sir Rex Harrison dies at the age of 82.
1992 - Danes rejects the Maastricht treaty in a referendum.
1995 - Yemen and Oman conclude work for the demarcation of their borders.
1998 - Discovery blasts into orbit from Cape Canaveral on Nasa’s last mission to ailing Russian space station Mir.
2008 - Shaikh Nasser Bin Zayed Al Nahyan and his colleague are killed in a helicopter crash over Gulf waters.
2012 - Former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak is sentenced to life imprisonment along with his former interior minister Habib Al Adly for killing protesters.
2014 - Spanish King Juan Carlos abdicates in favour of his son Prince Felipe de Borbon.
2015 - Fifa president Sepp Blatter announces his resignation, five days after his re-election.
