Piggott wins fifth Oaks and 25th classic
1981 - Ace jockey Lester Piggott rode Irish-trained Blue Wind to an easy victory in the Epsom Oaks, his fifth win in this fillies’ classic and the 25th English classic victory of his career. Piggott is now only two winners off the all-time English classic record of 27 set around the turn of the 18th century by Frank Buckle. American Paul Mellon’s Leap Lively, joint favourite at 3 to 1 with the winner, made most of the running and looked likely to win when she turned into the straight, 3 furlongs from the end of the one-and-a-half-mile race, with a lead of about six lengths. Piggott, 45, had never ridden Blue Wind before. Piggott, as usual calm and collected as he headed along a familiar path to the winner’s enclosure, said: “She did it very easily.”
June 5
1827 - The Turks capture the Acropolis in Athens, Greece, after a long siege.
1862 - Vietnam cedes southern part of the country, called Cochinchina, to France.
1882 - A cyclone hits Mumbai, India, and drowns 108,000 people.
1885 - The British establish protectorate over Niger River region, now Nigeria.
1915 - Danish women win voting rights.
1945 - Allied Control Commission assumes control of Germany, which is divided into four occupation zones.
1968 - United States Senator Robert F. Kennedy is shot and wounded in Los Angeles. He dies the following day.
1975 - Suez Canal in Egypt reopens to international shipping for the first time since 1967.
1984 - Egyptian Prime Minister Fouad Mohi Al Deen dies of a heart attack in Cairo.
1985 - Greek Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou is sworn in for a second term.
1988 - Australian Kay Cottee becomes the first woman to sail alone nonstop around the world.
1999 - Nato and Yugoslav officers meet for the first time in Macedonia to discuss the withdrawal of Serb forces from Kosovo.
2000 - Rebel gunmen demand the resignation of Solomon Islands Prime Minister Bartholomew Ulufa’alu after seizing power in a coup.
2004 - Former US president Ronald Reagan dies at the age of 93 after a long struggle with Alzheimer’s disease.
2006 - Serbia declares independence from the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro.
2008 - Egypt unveils a 4,000-year-old ‘missing pyramid’.
2009 - Forty-two children and many others are hurt when a fire engulfs a day-care centre in northern Mexico.
2010 - The Capital Gate building in Abu Dhabi is certified as having the farthest incline in the world by Guinness World Records.
2011 - Rafael Nadal wins a 10th Grand Slam and equals Bjorn Borg’s record of six French Open titles.
2015 - Former Iraqi foreign minister Tariq Aziz dies in Nasiriyah, Iraq.
