June 7, 1981 (Sunday)
- Operation Opera: The Israeli Air Force destroyed Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor in a raid that lasted 1 minute and 20 seconds. Eight F-16 jet fighters and six F-15s from the Etzion Airbase at 3:55 pm in Israel, arriving over the target in Iraq at 6:35 pm local time. Timed for a Sunday evening when more than 100 foreign scientists would be off for the day, the attack killed ten Iraqis and one Frenchman. Among the pilots was Ilan Ramon, who would later become Israel's first astronaut and would die on the last voyage of the space shuttle Columbia. Israel's Prime Minister Menahem Begin defended the raid despite world wide condemnation, saying "There will never be another Holocaust in the history of the Jewish people. Never again, never again."
- Born Anna Kournikova, Russian tennis player, in Moscow; and Larisa Oleynik, American actress (The Secret World of Alex Mack), in Santa Clara, CA
Read more about this topic: June 1981
Famous quotes containing the word june:
“I sing of brooks, of blossoms, birds and bowers,
Of April, May, of June and July-flowers;
I sing of May-poles, hock-carts, wassails, wakes,
Of bridegrooms, brides and of their bridal cakes;
I write of youth, of love, and have access
By these to sing of cleanly wantonness;”
—Robert Herrick (1591–1674)