CAMILLE BOHANNON

On June 5, 2004, Ronald Wilson Reagan, the 40th president of
the United States, died after a long struggle with Alzheimer’s
disease. Reagan, who was also a well-known actor and served
as governor of California, was a popular president known for
restoring American confidence after the problems of the 1970s.

On June 4, 1942, the Battle of Midway—one of the most
decisive U.S. victories against Japan during World War II
—began.

During the four-day sea-and-air battle, the outnumbered
U.S. Pacific Fleet succeeded in destroying four Japanese
aircraft carriers while losing only one of its own, the
Yorktown, to the previously invincible Japanese navy.

Recognized for heroically protecting the American flag during
the Civil War, Army Sgt. William Harvey Carney receives the
Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military decoration, on
May 23, 1900.

The first Black American service member to earn the award,
Carney was born into slavery in Virginia in 1840.

He was one of many Civil War-era honorees to be granted the
medal decades later.