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Casino Royale is the 21st film in the James Bond film series and the first to star Daniel Craig as MI6 agent James Bond. Released in 2006, it was directed by Martin Campbell and written by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, and Paul Haggis. Casino Royale is set at the beginning of Bond's career as Agent 007, just as he is earning his license to kill. After preventing a terrorist attack at Miami International Airport, Bond falls for Vesper Lynd, the treasury agent assigned to provide the money he needs to bankrupt terrorist financier Le Chiffre by beating him in a high-stakes poker game. The story arc continues in the following Bond film, Quantum of Solace (2008). The film is a reboot, establishing a new timeline and narrative framework not meant to precede or succeed any previous Bond film. Casting the film involved a widespread search for a new actor to portray James Bond, and significant controversy around Craig when he was selected to succeed Pierce Brosnan. It is the third screen adaptation of Ian Fleming's 1953 novel of the same name. The film received largely positive critical response, with reviewers highlighting Craig's performance and the reinvention of the character of Bond. It earned over $594 million worldwide, making it the highest-grossing James Bond film to date. (more...)

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• ... that participants in performance art by Polish-born American artist Olek (pictured) are literally crocheted into her body suits, without fasteners?
• ... that Bach chose an unusually complex instrumentation in his cantata for the feast of Ascension, Auf Christi Himmelfahrt allein, BWV 128, "two horns, oboes of every kind, strings and continuo and latterly one trumpet"?
• ... that Jetsun Pema is going to marry Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, the King of Bhutan, in October 2011?
• ... that one proposed reason for constructing the Takoradi Harbour in Ghana was for it to serve as a naval port for the British empire in times of war?
• ... that gold medal-winning Paralympian Ron Stein trained with the Chicago White Sox before falling ill with polio?
• ... that Saudi Arabian women's rights activist Manal al-Sharif was arrested after a video of her driving a car was posted on YouTube and Facebook?
• ... that revenues from Tennessee's Hall income tax vary by as much as 26 percent from one year to the next, due to the "roller-coaster behavior" of capital gains from investments?
• ... that Filipino comics illustrator Harold "Hal" Santiago took his pen name from his American idol Hal Foster, the creator of Prince Valiant?
  
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• Sepp Blatter (pictured) is re-elected President of FIFA amid corruption allegations within association football's world governing body.
• One of the largest outbreaks of E. coli ever recorded strikes Germany and several other European countries.
• Germany permanently closes eight nuclear plants and announces plans to abandon nuclear power by 2022.
• President of Abkhazia Sergei Bagapsh dies from complications of surgery in Moscow.
• In auto racing, Sebastian Vettel wins the Monaco Grand Prix and Dan Wheldon wins the Indianapolis 500.
• A referendum to introduce divorce passes in Malta.
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June 3: Feast day of Saint Carl and the Uganda Martyrs (Roman Catholic Church)

• 1839 – In Humen, China, Qing government official Lin Zexu (pictured) ordered the destruction of nearly 1.2 million kg (2.6 million lbs) of opium, the primary catalyst for the First Opium War.
• 1888 – American writer Ernest Thayer's baseball poem "Casey at the Bat" was first published in the San Francisco Examiner.
• 1937 – Months after he abdicated the British throne, Edward, Duke of Windsor married American socialite Wallis Simpson in a private ceremony near Tours, France.
• 1963 – Buddhist crisis: Soldiers of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam attacked protesting Buddhists in Huế, South Vietnam, with liquid chemicals from tear gas grenades, causing 67 people to be hospitalised.
• 1984 – The Indian Army began Operation Blue Star to remove Sikh separatists from the Golden Temple who were accused of stockpiling weapons there.

More anniversaries: June 2 – June 3 – June 4

An ink-and-wash illustration of a stucco relief on a building in Palenque, a Maya city in southern Mexico that flourished in the 7th century, but was abandoned around 800. It was rediscovered in the 16th century, but remained mostly unexplored until 1773. This particular piece was likely constructed during the long reign of K'inich Janaab' Pakal (mid-7th century), and is thought to depict ancestor rulers or their parents. The standing figure holds a sceptre in the left hand, and in the right, a length of material. The seated figures adopt a posture of submission or deference, with hands placed on opposite shoulders. Artist: Ricardo Almendáriz; Restoration: Lise Broer Recently featured: The Great Presidential Puzzle – Helen Keller – Cleveland Arcade Archive – More featured pictures...