May 31st

1433 - Sigismund was crowned emperor of Rome.

1854 - The Kansas-Nebraska Act passed by the U.S. Congress.

1859 - The Philadelphia Athletics were formally organized to play the game of Town Ball.

1870 - E.J. DeSemdt patented asphalt.

1879 - New York's Madison Square Garden opened.

1880 - The first U.S. national bicycle society was formed in Newport, RI. It was known as the League of American Wheelman.

1884 - Dr. John Harvey Kellogg patented "flaked cereal."

1889 - In Johnstown, PA, more than 2,200 people died after the South Fork Dam collapsed.

1900 - U.S. troops arrived in Peking to help put down the Boxer Rebellion.

1902 - The Boer War ended between the Boers of South Africa and Great Britain with the Treaty of Vereeniging.

1907 - The first taxis arrived in New York City. They were the first in the United States.

1909 - The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) held its first conference.

1910 - The Union of South Africa was founded.

1913 - The 17th Amendment went into effect. It provided for popular election of U.S. senators.

1915 - A German zeppelin made an air raid on London.

1926 - Frank Lockhart won the 14th Indy 500. He averaged 95.9 mph.

1927 - Ford Motor Company produced the last "Tin Lizzie" in order to begin production of the Model A.

1929 - In Beverly, MA, the first U.S. born reindeer were born.

1941 - The first issue of the still popular "Parade: The Weekly Picture Newspaper" went on sale.

1943 - "Archie" was aired on the Mutual Broadcasting System for the first time.

1947 - Communists seized control of Hungary.

1955 - The U.S. Supreme Court ordered that all states must end racial segregation "with all deliberate speed."

1961 - South Africa became an independent republic.

1962 - Adolf Eichmann was hanged in Israel. Eichmann was a Gestapo official and was executed for his actions in the Nazi Holocaust.

1970 - An earthquake in Peru killed tens of thousands of people.

1974 - Israel and Syria signed an agreement on the Golan Heights.

1977 - The trans-Alaska oil pipeline was finished after 3 years of construction.

1979 - Zimbabwe proclaimed its independence.

1988 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan arrived in Moscow in an effort to relieve Cold War tensions. He was the first president to do so in 14 years.

1994 - The U.S. announced it was no longer aiming long-range nuclear missiles at targets in the former Soviet Union.

1995 - Bob Dole singled out Time Warner for "the marketing of evil" in movies and music. Dole later admitted that he had not seen or heard much of what he had been criticizing.

2003 - In North Carolina, Eric Robert Rudolph was captured. He had been on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list for five years for several bombings including the 1996 Olympic bombing.

Wow! There for a moment I thought your plan to live forever had been cut short. Glad to see this post.

Thanks, Nick. The plan is still my intended plan. 'Tis good to see your post as well.

June 1st



~195 BC – Died this day: Emperor Gaozu of Han of China (b. 256 BC).

~193 – Roman Emperor Didius Julianus was assassinated in his palace by a soldier just 2 months after buying the throne from the corrupt Praetorian Guard, who had assassinated his predecessor Pertinax.

~1215 – The Battle of Beijing: Beijing, then under the control of the Jurchen ruler Emperor Xuanzong of Jin, was captured by the Mongols under Genghis Khan who then proceeded to massacre the city's inhabitants.

~1252 – Alfonso X was crowned King of Castile and León.

~1434 – Died this day: King Wladislaus II of Poland (b. 1362).

~1494 – Friar John Cor recorded the first known batch of scotch whisky.

~1533 – Anne Boleyn was crowned Queen of England. (Enjoy the party while you can Annie...it won't last!)

~1660 – Mary Dyer was hanged for repeatedly defying a law banning Quakers from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. (Is it me or did people just take religion FAR too seriously back then?)

~1679 – In South Lanarkshire, Scotland the Scottish Covenanter rebels defeated Scottish Royal dragoons led by John Graham of Claverhouse at the Battle of Drumclog.

~1792 – Kentucky was admitted as the 15th state of the Union.

~1794 – 400 nautical miles west of Ushant, off the coast of France, the Third Battle of Ushant was fought between the Royal Navy and the French Atlantic Fleet. It was the first naval engagement between Britain and France during the French Revolutionary Wars. Although the British seriously mauled the French and won a decisive victory that day, the grain convoy the Atlantic Fleet was escorting did manage to get through.

~1796 – Tennessee was admitted as the 16th state of the Union.

~1812 – U.S. President James Madison asked the Congress to declare war on the United Kingdom.

~1813 – James Lawrence, the mortally-wounded commander of the USS Chesapeake, gave his famous order: "Don't give up the ship!" while engaging the smaller and more lightly armed HMS Shannon. The Chesapeake was quickly disabled by the smaller ship and her crew overwhelmed by a British boarding party, though, and Chesapeake was captured.

~1831 – Sir John Ross and James Clark Ross located the position of the North Magnetic Pole on the Boothia Peninsula in the far north of Canada.

~1846 – Died this day: Pope Gregory XVI (b. 1765).

~1862 – In Virginia, during the Peninsula Campaign, the Battle of Seven Pines ended with inconclusive results but a combined casualty total of more than 11,000 between the Confederate and Union forces.

~1868 – The Treaty of Bosque Redondo was signed between the US government and Navajo leaders. It allowed the Navajos to return to their lands in Arizona and New Mexico.

~1879 – Prince Napoleon Eugene, the last dynastic Bonaparte, was killed in the Anglo-Zulu War. (Due in large part to his own damned stupidity.)

~1893 - The Royal Sovereign class battleship HMS Hood received her commission from the Royal Navy, for service with the Mediterranean Fleet.

~1918 – Near the Marne River in France, the Battle of Belleau Wood was fought between Allied forces (under US Generals John J. Pershing and James Harbord) and Imperial German Forces under Wilhelm, German Crown Prince.

~1921 – The Tulsa Race Riot: In Tulsa, Oklahoma simmering racial tensions exploded into violence as rioters stormed into the predominately black neighborhood of Greenwood. Black owned businesses were firebombed and blacks themselves were seized, beaten and murdered as the night progressed. Oklahoma National Guard troops finally arrived from Oklahoma City by train shortly after 9 AM. By this time most of the surviving black citizens had either fled the city or were in custody at various detention centers. Although they had arrived too late to stop what had happened during the previous 10 hours, by noon (and after declaring martial law) the troops had managed to put an end to most of the remaining violence.

~1922 – The Royal Ulster Constabulary (1922-2001) was founded by the merger of the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC), the Belfast Borough Police Force and the Londonderry Borough Police Force. At its peak the force had around 8,500 officers with a further 4,500 who were members of the RUC Reserve.

~1935 – The first driving tests were introduced in the United Kingdom. (Judging by the driving of some Brits, there are a lot of our Limey friends who have never gotten around to taking those tests...)

~1939 – The Focke-Wulf Fw 190 Würger fighter plane took off on its maiden flight.

~1940 – The Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Corporation went out of business, giving the City of New York full control of the subway system in the city.

~1941 – The Battle of Crete ended with the island's defenders surrendering to German forces.

~1941 – The Farhud, a pogrom of Iraqi Jews, began in Baghdad. It took place when the city was without political leadership, after Rashid Ali al-Kaylani had fled but before British and Transjordanian forces had arrived. The rioters killed some 180 Jews.

~1942 – The Warsaw paper Liberty Brigade published the first news of Nazi concentration camps.

~1943 – British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) Flt. 777 was shot down over the Bay of Biscay by German Junkers Ju 88s, killing actor Leslie Howard and leading to speculation the downing was an attempt to assassinate British Prime Minister Winston Churchill whom Howard's manager resembled.

~1946 – Ion Antonescu, the Conducator (dictator) of Romania during World War II, was executed. He had been convicted of war crimes, crimes against the peace and treason.

~1958 – Charles de Gaulle came out of retirement to become Premier of France and was given emergency powers for 6 months by the National Assembly.

~1963 - Governor George Wallace vowed to defy an injunction that ordered the integration of the University of Alabama.

~1968 – Died this day: Helen Keller, American humanitarian. Keller had been deaf and blind since the age of 18 months. During her life she learned to speak, ride horses, and the waltz. She also graduated from Radcliffe cum laude (b. 1880).

~1974 – The Flixborough Disaster: An explosion at a chemical plant owned by Nypro killed 28 people and seriously injured 36 others near the village of Flixborough in Humberside, England.

~1974 – The Heimlich maneuver for rescuing choking victims was first published in the journal Emergency Medicine.

~1979 – The first black led government of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in 90 years took power with Abel Muzorewa as Prime Minister.

~1980 – Cable News Network (CNN) was launched by Ted Turner.

~1990 – US President George H. Bush and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev signed a treaty to end chemical weapon production.

~1993 – The Dobrinja Mortar Attack: 13 people were killed and another 133 wounded when Serb mortar shells were fired at a football (soccer) game in Dobrinja, west of Sarajevo.

~1999 – American Airlines Flt. 1420, a McDonnell Douglas MD-82, overran the runway and crashed while landing at Little Rock National Airport. 11 people onboard the flight from Dallas to Little Rock were killed.

~2001 – The Nepalese Royal Massacre: Crown Prince Dipendra of Nepal shot and killed several members of his family including his father and mother, King Birendra of Nepal and Queen Aiswarya. As a result of the shooting, 10 people died and 5 were wounded.

~2001 – The Dolphinarium Discotheque Massacre: A Hamas suicide bomber killed 21 patrons and injured another 132 at a disco in Tel Aviv.

~2005 – The Dutch referendum on the European Constitution resulted in its being rejected.

~2007 – Jack Kevorkian was released from prison after serving just over 8 years of his 10-25 year prison term for second-degree murder in the 1998 death of Thomas Youk, 52, of Oakland County, Michigan.

~2009 – Air France Flt. 447, an Airbus A330, crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Brazil on a flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. All 228 passengers and crew were killed.

~2009 – General Motors filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy. It was the 4th largest United States bankruptcy in history.

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This post has been edited at member's request.Ron,

June 2nd



~455 – The Vandals entered Rome and plundered the city for 2 weeks.

~910 – Died this day: Richilde of Provence, Queen of Western Francia (b. 845).

~1098 – The First Crusade: The first Siege of Antioch ended as the Crusaders took the city. The second siege by the army of Kerbogha would start only 5 days later.

~1418 – Died this day: Katherine of Lancaster, wife of Henry III of Castile (b. 1373)

~1537 - Pope Paul III promulgated Sublimus Dei, a papal bull which forbade the enslavement of the indigenous peoples of the Americas (called Indians of the West and the South) and all other people.

~1615 – The first Récollet missionaries arrive at Quebec City, from Rouen, France.

~1692 – Bridget Bishop was the first person to go to trial in the Salem witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts.

~1763 – Pontiac's Rebellion: At what is now Mackinaw City, Michigan, Chippewas capture Fort Michilimackinac by diverting the garrison's attention with a game of stickball (lacrosse). The ball was hit through the open gate of the fort; the teams rushed in and were then handed weapons which had been smuggled into the fort by Native women. About 15 men of the 35 man garrison were killed in the struggle and 5 more were later tortured to death.

~1793 – Jean-Paul Marat recited the names of 29 people to the French National Convention. Almost all of them were later guillotined, followed by 17,000 more over the course of the next year during the Reign of Terror.

~1855 – The Portland Rum Riot occurred in Portland, Maine in response to the Maine law which prohibited the sale and manufacture of alcohol in the state the year before.

~1886 – U.S. President Grover Cleveland married Frances Folsom in the White House, becoming the only president to wed in the executive mansion.

~1896 – Guglielmo Marconi applied for a patent for his newest invention: the radio.

~1897 - Mark Twain, at age 61, was quoted by the New York Journal as saying "the report of my death was an exaggeration." This in response to the rumors that he had died.

~1903 - The Duncan class battleship HMS Exmouth received her commission from the Royal Navy. She served as a flagship for various fleets including the Mediterranean Fleet, the Channel Fleet and the Atlantic Fleet from her commissioning until the start of the First World War.

~1910 - Charles Stewart Rolls, of Rolls Royce fame, became the first person to make a non-stop double crossing of the English Channel by plane.

~1923 - The rugged and simple Boeing Model 15, an open cockpit biplane fighter, took to the skies over Western Washington on her maiden flight. The Model 15 saw service with the United States Army Air Service as the PW-9 series and with the United States Navy as a carrier-based fighter, the FB series. The agile little bipe was dearly loved by the sevicemen who flew her for the abundant power and delightful handling abilities she displayed.

~1924 – U.S. President Calvin Coolidge signed the Indian Citizenship Act into law, granting citizenship to all Native Americans born within the territorial limits of the United States.

~1925 – Because of a lineup revision by Miller Huggins, Wally Pipp was replaced by Lou Gehrig at first base for the New York Yankees, beginning a streak of 2,130 consecutive games played, topped only by Cal Ripken, Jr. in 1995.

~1935 - George Herman "Babe" Ruth announced that he was retiring from baseball.(3 out of 7 sources give this as June 1st).

~1941 - Died this day: Lou Gehrig, American baseball legend, from Amyotropic lateral sclerosis (ALS)(b. 1903).

~1941 – The Massacre of Kondomari: An ad hoc firing squad consisting of German paratoopers murdered Greek civilians in the village of Kondomari. The shooting was the first of a long series of mass reprisals in Crete that was orchestrated by Generaloberst Kurt Student, in retaliation for the participation of Cretans in the Battle of Crete which had ended with the surrender of the island only 2 days earlier.

~1946 – In a referendum, Italians voted to transform Italy from a monarchy into a Republic. After the referendum the king of Italy Umberto II di Savoia was exiled.

~1953 – The coronation of Queen Elizabeth II took place in Westminster Abbey. She was crowned Queen of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Her Other Realms and Territories & Head of the Commonwealth. This was the first major international event to be televised.

~1955 – The USSR and Yugoslavia signed the Belgrade declaration and normalized relations between both countries, discontinued since 1948. (Even though they kissed and made up, the bloom came off the love again shortly thereafter.)

~1966 – The Surveyor Program: Surveyor 1 landed in Oceanus Procellarum on the Moon, becoming the first U.S. spacecraft to soft land on another world.

~1967 – Protests in West Berlin against the arrival of the Shah of Iran turned into riots, during which Benno Ohnesorg was killed by police. His death resulted in the founding of the terrorist group Movement 2 June by former members of Kommune 1.

~1969 - The Canadian National Arts Center, a centre for the performing arts located in Ottawa, opened its doors to the public.

~1984 – Operation Bluestar: A military offensive was launched by the Indian government at Harmandir Sahib (also known as Golden Temple) the holiest shrine for the Sikhs, in Amritsar. The operation continued until June 6th with causalities, most of them civilians, in excess of 5,000.

~1990 – The Lower Ohio Valley Tornado Outbreak spawned 66 confirmed tornadoes in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio, killing 12. Petersburg, Indiana was the hardest hit town in the outbreak, with 6 deaths.

~1992 – In a national referendum Denmark rejected the Maastricht Treaty by a thin margin.

~1995 – The Mrkonjić Grad incident: A US Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon, piloted by Captain Scott O'Grady, was shot down by a Bosnian Serb SA-6 surface to air missile over Bosnia while patrolling the NATO no-fly zone.

~1997 – In Denver, Colorado, a 29 year old former infantryman was convicted on 15 counts of murder and conspiracy for his role in the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

~1998 - Royal Caribbean Cruises agreed to pay $9 million to settle charges of dumping waste at sea.

~1998 - Voters in California passed Proposition 227. The act abolished the state's 30-year-old bilingual education program by requiring that all children be taught in English.

~1999 – The Bhutan Broadcasting Service brought television transmissions to the Kingdom of Bhutan for the first time.

~2003 – Europe launched its first voyage to another planet, Mars. The European Space Agency's Mars Express probe launched from the Baikonur space centre (Cosmodrome) in Kazakhstan.

~2004 – Ken Jennings began his 74 game winning streak on the syndicated game show Jeopardy!

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This post has been edited at member's request.Ron,

June 3rd



~350 – The Roman usurper Nepotianus (of the Constantinian dynasty) proclaimed himself Roman Emperor, entering Rome at the head of a group of gladiators. He was killed 27 days later.

~1326 – The Treaty of Novgorod was signed in Novograd, Russia. It marked the end of decades of the Norwegian-Novgorodian border skirmishes in the far-northern region called Finnmark. The terms were an armistice for 40 years. A few years earlier, Republic of Novgorod had settled its conflict with Sweden in the Treaty of Nöteborg. The treaty did not delineate the border but rather stipulated which part of the Sami people would pay tribute to Norway and which to Novgorod, creating a kind of buffer zone in between the countries.

~1395 – Died this day: Ivan Shishman Tsar of Bulgaria (b. 1351).

~1620 – Construction of the oldest stone church in French North America, Notre Dame des Anges, began in Quebec City, Quebec.

~1770 – Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo was founded in Carmel by the Sea, California.

~1800 – U.S. President John Adams took up residence in Washington, D.C. (in a tavern because the White House was not yet completed). (A tavern...good place for the dink!)

~1839 – In Humen, China, Governor Lin Zexu ordered the destruction of 1.2 million kg of opium confiscated from British merchants. This provided Britain with a casus belli to open hostilities, resulting in the First Opium War.

~1856 - Cullen Whipple patented his screw making machine.
(This is cool!)
http://www.todayinsci.com/Even...BlankFeeder15052.htm

~1861 – The Battle of Philippi, the first land battle of the Civil War, was fought. Union forces led by Brigadier General Thomas A. Morris routed Confederate troops under Colonel George A. Porterfield in Barbour County, Virginia. (now West Virginia). (With the Union outmunbering the Rebs nearly 4 to 1, ya' kinda saw that one coming.)

~1864 - As many as 7,000 Union troops were killed within 30 minutes during a poorly coordinated assault on Confedrate positions at the Battle of Cold Harbor in Virginia.

~1866 – The Fenians were driven out of Fort Erie, Ontario, (by force) back into the United States. The Fenians and their attempted invasions of Cabada were one of the driving reasons behind Canadian Confederation in 1867.

~1871 - Frank and Jesse James, Cole Younger, and Clell Miller robbed the bank in Corydon, Iowa. The bank contacted the Pinkerton National Detective Agency in Chicago, the first involvement of the famous agency in the pursuit of the James-Younger Gang. Agency founder Allan Pinkerton dispatched his son, Robert Pinkerton, who joined a county sheriff in tracking the gang to a farm in Civil Bend, Missouri. A short, indecisive gunfight ensued, as the gang successfully escaped along with the $15,000 from the heist.

~1888 – The poem "Casey at the Bat", by Ernest Lawrence Thayer, was first published in the San Francisco Examiner.

~1889 – The coast to coast Canadian Pacific Railway was completed with the completion of the International Railway of Maine, connecting Montreal with Saint John, New Brunswick.

~1906 - Born this day: Josephine Baker, American dancer, risqué performer and pioneering feminist (d. 1975).

~1916 – The National Defense Act is signed into law, increasing the size of the United States National Guard by 450,000 men.

~1920 - A naval milestone: The USS Tennessee (BB-43), the lead ship of her class, received her commission from the US Navy. As a result of extensive experimentation and testing, her underwater hull protection was much greater than that of previous battleships. As well, both her main and secondary batteries had fire control systems. Since Tennessee's 14 in (360 mm) turret guns could be elevated to 30° rather than only to the 15° of earlier battleships, her heavy guns could extend an additional 10,000 yd (9,100 m). Because battleships were then beginning to carry airplanes to spot long-range gunfire, Tennessee's ability to shoot "over the horizon" had a practical value. She survived the attack on Pearl Harbor and went on to serve with great distinction in World War II, earning 10 and a Navy Unit Commendation.

~1935 – On to Ottawa Trek: Almost a thousand unemployed Canadian workers boarded freight cars in Vancouver, British Columbia, beginning a protest trek to the nation's capital in Ottawa.

~1937 – The Duke of Windsor (formerly King Edward VIII of Great Britain) married Wallis Simpson at Château de Candé, near Tours, France. When the Church of England refused to sanction the union, a County Durham clergyman, the Reverend Robert Anderson Jardine (Vicar of St Paul's, Darlington), offered to perform the ceremony and the Duke accepted. The new king, George VI, forbade members of the Royal Family to attend. (Now, maybe it's just me...but if ANYONE, king or otherwise, forbade me to attend someone's wedding that I wanted to - I'd hafta tell them where to go, what they could do when they got there, and what family member they could do it to!)

~1940 – The Battle of Dunkirk ended with a German tactical victory but with the British Expeditionary Force and a large contingent of the French Army successfully evacuated to Britain.

~1941 – The occupying German forces razed the Greek village of Kandanos to the ground, murdering 180 of its inhabitants.

~1962 – An Air France Boeing 707 named Chateau de Sully crashed after an aborted takeoff from Paris' Orly Airport, killing 130 of the 132 aboard.

~1963 – The Buddhist Crisis: Soldiers of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam attacked protesting Buddhists in Huế, South Vietnam, by pouring liquid chemicals from tear gas grenades onto the heads of praying Buddhists. 67 people had to be hospitalised for blistering of the skin and respiratory ailments.

~1963 – Northwest Airlines Flt. 293, a Douglas DC-7, crashed into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of British Columbia near the border with Alaska. All 101 aboard were killed and no cause for the accident was ever determined.

~1963 – Died this day: Pope John XXIII (b. 1881).

~1965 – The launch of Gemini 4 took place, it was the first multi-day space mission by a NASA crew. Crew-member Ed White performed the first American spacewalk.

~1968 – Feminazi Valerie Solanas, the author of SCUM Manifesto, attempted to assassinate Andy Warhol by shooting at him 3 times. She hit him once.

~1969 – The Melbourne-Evans collision: Off the coast of South Vietnam, the Australian aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne cut the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Frank E. Evans in half. 74 of Evans’s crew were killed in the mishap.

~1973 – A Soviet supersonic Tupolev Tu-144 SST crashed near Goussainville, France during the Paris Airshow. 14 people died in this, the first crash of a supersonic passenger aircraft.

~1975 – Died this day: Ozzie Nelson, American band leader, producer, director, and actor - husband of Harriet (b. 1906).

~1979 – A blowout at the Ixtoc I oil well in the southern Gulf of Mexico resulted in at least 600,000 tons (176,400,000 gallons) of oil to be spilled into the waters, the 2nd worst oil spill to date.

~1982 – The Israeli ambassador to the United Kingdom, Shlomo Argov, was shot on a London street. He survived but was permanently paralysed.

~1984 – The Indian Army stormed the Golden Temple (Harmandir Sahib), the most sacred shrine of Sikhism, after it was occupied by a Sikh religious group.

~1989 - Chinese army troops positioned themselves to began a sweep of Beijing to crush student-led pro-democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square.

~1989 – The SkyDome, so named due to its retractable roof, was officially opened in Toronto, Ontario.

~1989 - Died this day: Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini of Iran (b. 1902). (I know it's not nice to smile about things like this but...)

~1991 – Mount Unzen in Kyūshū, Japan erupted violently. A pyroclastic flow reached 4.5 kilometres (2.8 mi) from the crater and claimed the lives of 43 scientists and journalists.

~1998 – The Eschede Train Disaster: An ICE high speed train derailed in Lower Saxony, Germany, killing 101 and injuring another 88 of the 287 aboard.

~2003 - Toys "R" Us, Inc. announced that it had signed a multi-year agreement with Albertson to become the exclusive toy provider for all of all of Albertson's food and drug stores.

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This post has been edited at member's request.Ron,

June 4th

(It's nice to be back in civilization again...!)



~781 BC – The first historic solar eclipse was recorded in China. (Yes, I know that the Wikipedia article gives a later date but I did the research, and they're wrong...as usual.)

~470 BC - Born this day: Socrates, Greek philosopher (d. 399 BC). (The date prevailing evidence most strongly suggests.)

~1039 - Died this day: Conrad II Holy Roman Emperor (b. 990).

~1039 – Henry III became Holy Roman Emperor upon the death of his father Conrad II.

~1135 – Died this day: Emperor Huizong of China's Song Dynasty (b. 1082).

~1663 – Died this day: William Juxon, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1582).

~1769 – A transit of Venus is followed 5 hours later by a total solar eclipse, the shortest such interval in history.

~1783 – In France, the Montgolfier brothers introduced their montgolfière (hot air balloon) as their first public demonstration at Annonay in front of a group of dignitaries from the Etats particulars. Its flight covered 2 km (1.2 mi), lasted 10 minutes, and had an estimated altitude of 1,600 - 2,000m (5,200 - 6,600 ft).

~1792 – Captain George Vancouver claimed Puget Sound for the Kingdom of Great Britain. (Alas, it was all to be in vain...)

~1794 – British troops captured Port-au-Prince in Haiti. (The bastards!)

~1798 – Died this day: Giacomo Casanova, Italian adventurer, author and womanizer (b. 1725).

~1802 – Grieving over the death of his wife, Marie Clotilde of France, King Charles Emmanuel IV of Sardinia abdicated the throne in favor of his brother, Victor Emmanuel.

~1812 – Following Louisiana's admittance as a U.S. state, the Louisiana Territory was renamed the Missouri Territory.

~1825 – French American Revolutionary War General Lafayette spoke at what would become Lafayette Square, Buffalo, during his United States visit.

~1859 – The Battle of Magenta: During the Second Italian War of Independence, a French force led by Napoleon III defeated an Austrian army twice its size commanded by Marshal Ferencz Gyulai.

~1862 – Confederate troops evacuated their positions at Fort Pillow on the Mississippi River. This opened the way for Union troops to take Memphis, Tennessee. (Although why the Union troops couldn't have just gone around Fort Pillow earlier and taken Memphis I don't know...)

~1876 – An express train called the Transcontinental Express arrived in San Francisco, California, via the First Transcontinental Railroad only 83 hours and 39 minutes after leaving New York City. (Damn! That's better than Amtrak can do it today!)

~1878 – The Cyprus Convention: A secret agreement was reached between the United Kingdom and the Ottoman Empire which granted control of Cyprus to Great Britain (while the Ottomans retained nominal title) in exchange for their support of the Ottoman position during the Congress of Berlin. This agreement was the result of secret negotiations which had taken place earlier in the year.

~1896 - Henry Ford test drove the first automobile he designed, the "Quadricycle". It was also the first automobile he ever drove. The 2 cylinder engine produced 4 horsepower that propelled the car via chain drive. The transmission only had two gears, the first for up to 10 mph (16 km/h) and the 2nd for up to 20 mph (32 km/h), it's maximum speed. The vehicle did not have a reverse gear. The little tiller-steered machine had wire wheels and a 3 gal (11.3 L) fuel tank under the seat.

~1912 - The British battlecruiser HMS Lion, lead ship of her class ("The Splendid Cats"), received her commission from the Royal Navy. She would werve with great distinction throughout World War I being present at every major naval engaement in the North Atlantic, specifically: The Battle of Heligoland Bight, the Battle of Dogger Bank and the Battle of Jutland.

~1913 – Emily Davison, a suffragette, ran out in front of King George V's racehorse, Anmer, at the Epsom Derby. She was trampled, never regained consciousness and died 4 days later.

~1913 - The German König class battleship SMS Markgraf was launched at the AG Weser shipyard in Bremen. She saw action during World War I including Jutland where she was damaged by gunfire from HMS Warspite. Interned after the end of the war at Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands, she was scuttled there by her crew on June 21st, 1919, together with the entire German High Seas Fleet. The wreck of SMS Markgraf still lies in Scapa Flow, near the island of Cava and today is a popular diving attraction.

~1917 - "The Order of the British Empire", an order of chivalry, was established by King George V of Britain.

~1917 – The first Pulitzer Prizes are awarded: Laura E. Richards, Maude H. Elliott, and Florence Hall receive the first Pulitzer for biography (for Julia Ward Howe). Jean Jules Jusserand receives the first Pulitzer for history for his work With Americans of Past and Present Days. Herbert B. Swope receives the first Pulitzer for journalism for his work for the New York World.

~1919 – The U.S. Congress approved the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which guarantees suffrage to women, and sent it to the U.S. states for ratification.

~1920 – Hungary lost 71% of its territory and 63% of its population when the Treaty of Trianon was signed at the Grand Trianon Palace in Versailles, France.

~1928 – Zhang Zuolin, the warlord of Manchuria, was killed by a bomb planted by a Japanese army officer. Although Zhang had been Japan's proxy in China, Japanese militarists were infuriated by his failure to stop the advance of the Nationalists.

~1934 - The USS Ranger, the first US warship to be built as an aircraft carrier from scratch, received her commission from the US Navy. She would see much action in World War II, receiving 2 Battle Stars and a Distinguished Service Commendation.

~1936 - Léon Blum became Prime Minister of France. (Aw, what the hell...it's worth a laugh!)

~1939 – The MS St. Louis, a ship carrying 901 Jewish refugees, was denied permission to land in Florida after already being turned away from Cuba. Forced to return to Europe, many of its passengers later died in Nazi concentration camps.

~1940 – The Dunkirk Evacuation ended when the last of over 300,000 evacuating troops were plucked off the docks at Dunkirk, France.

~1940 – German forces entered the city of Paris. They completed taking control of the entire city only 10 days later.

~1941 - Died this day: Kaiser Wilhelm II, last German emperor (b. 1859).

~1942 - The Battle of Midway began. Japanese Admiral Chuichi Nagumo led an invasion force against the US base on Midway Island in the central Pacific. The task force comprised of 4 heavy carriers and numerous support ships of the Imperial Japanese navy. But the US Navy had already learned of their plans through deciphering of the now broken Japanese code "J-25" and set up an ambush for the unsuspecting invaders. Generally regarded as the turning point in the Pacific war, the ensuing battle saw the Japanese lose all 4 carriers and their assault on Midway crushed.

~1942 - The Japanese aircraft carrier Kaga was seriously damaged at Midway by attack aircraft from the USS Enterprise. When it became obvious she could not be saved, she was scuttled by Japanese destroyers to prevent her from falling into American hands.

~1942 - The Japanese aircraft carrier Sōryū was attacked at Midway by a squadron of SBD Dauntless dive bombers from the carrier USS Yorktown. Sōryū received 3 direct hits from 454 kg (1000 lb) bombs: one penetrated to the lower hangar deck and the other two exploded in the upper hangar deck. The hangars contained armed and fueled planes in preparation for an upcoming strike, resulting in secondary explosions. Within a very short time the fires on the ship were out of control. At 10:40 she stopped and her crew were taken off by the destroyers Isokaze and Hamakaze. Sōryū sank at 7:13 PM. Losses were 711 crew of her nominal complement of 1103, including Captain Yanagimoto, who chose to remain on board. This was the highest mortality percentage of all the Japanese carriers lost at Midway, due largely to the devastation in both hangar decks. The official record implies that Sōryū sank of her own accord. Later research has revealed she was scuttled with torpedoes by Isokaze.

~1943 – A military coup in Argentina ousted President Ramón Castillo.

~1944 – A hunter-killer group of the US Navy captured the German submarine U-505. It was the first time a U.S. Navy vessel had captured an enemy vessel at sea since the 19th century.

~1946 - The Northrop YB-35 experimental heavy bomber made its maiden flight over Hawthorne, California. The ancestor of the B2 Stealth Bomber, the YB-35 flying wing was a dramatic advance in aero technology. But while the concept was innovative to the extreme the propeller drive system was obsolete and the engine exhaust design a nightmare. As such the project was cancelled in 1949 and shelved until technology caught up and made the concept feasible in the 1980's.

~1967 – The Stockport Air Disaster: A chartered British Midland Canadair C-4 Argonaut crashed in Hopes Carr, Stockport. 72 of the 84 aboard were killed in the accident and all 12 survivors were seriously injured.

~1970 – Tonga was granted its independence from Britain.

~1973 – A patent for the ATM was granted to Donald Wetzel, Tom Barnes and George Chastain.

~1974 - The Cleveland Indians hosted "Ten Cent Beer Night", but had to forfeit the game to the Texas Rangers due to drunken and unruly fans making it impossible to finish the game.

~1979 – Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings siezed power in Ghana after a military coup in which General Fred Akuffo was overthrown.

~1989 – Ali Khamenei was elected the new Supreme Leader of the Islamic republic of Iran by the Assembly of Experts after the death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. (Just in case anyone actually cares...)

~1989 – The Tiananmen Square Massacre: Student pro-democracy protests were violently crushed in Beijing by the People's Liberation Army.

~1989 – Solidarity's victory in the first (somewhat) free parliamentary elections in post-war Poland sparked a succession of peaceful anti-communist revolutions in Eastern Europe. This led to the creation of the so called Contract Sejm and began the Autumn of Nations.

~1989 – The Ufa Train Disaster: A natural gas explosion occurred on the Trans-Siberian Railway near Ufa, Russia. The blast happened as 2 trains (carrying mostly children) passing each other threw sparks near a leaky pipeline. At least 575 were killed and 623 injured in the mishap.

~1989 – The victims of a rapist/murderer were found floating in Tampa Bay, Florida. Their killer would not be cptured until 1992.

~1996 – The first test flight of the European Space Agency's new Ariane 5 rocket (Ariane 5 Flt. 501) failed, with the rocket self-destructing 37 seconds after launch because of a malfunction in the control software. This is arguably the most expensive computer bug in history.

~2001 - Died this day: King Dipendra of Nepal, 3 days after ascending the throne by murdering his family at a royal dinner (b. 1971). (Good riddance!)

~2001 – Gyanendra, the last King of Nepal, ascended the throne after the massacre in the Royal Palace.

~2003 - Martha Stewart and her broker were indicted on 9 criminal counts by a Manhatten federal grand jury for using privileged investment information and then obstructing a federal investigation. Stewart also resigned as chairperson and chief executive officer of "Martha Stewart Living".

...

This post has been edited at member's request.Ron,

June 5th



~535 – Died this day: Epiphanius of Constantinople, patriarch of Constantinople (b. circa 467).

~1017 – Died this day: Sanjō, 67th Emperor of Japan (b. 976).

~1257 – Kraków, Poland received its city rights.

~1305 – Raymond Bertrand de Got became Pope Clement V, succeeding Pope Benedict XI who had died a year earlier.

~1316 – Died this day: King Louis X of France (b. 1289).

~1798 – The Battle of New Ross was fought between insurgents called the United Irishmen and British Crown forces composed of regular soldiers, militia and yeomanry. The attempt to spread the United Irish Rebellion into Munster was defeated.

~1817 – The first Great Lakes paddle steamer, the Frontenac, was launched.

~1829 – The 5 gun schooner HMS Pickle captured the armed slave ship Voladora off the coast of Cuba.

~1832 – The June Rebellion, an unsuccessful anti-monarchist uprising of Parisian students, broke out in Paris. It was an attempt to overthrow the monarchy of Louis-Philippe.

~1837 – Houston, Texas was incorporated by the Republic of Texas.

~1849 – Denmark peacefully became a constitutional monarchy by the signing of a new constitution.

~1851 – Harriet Beecher Stowe's anti-slavery serial "Uncle Tom's Cabin" began a 40 week run National Era, an abolitionist periodical.

~1862 – As the (First) Treaty of Saigon was signed, ceding parts of southern Vietnam to France, the guerrilla leader Truong Dinh chose to defy Emperor Tu Duc of Vietnam and fight on against the Europeans.

~1864 – The Battle of Piedmont: Union forces under General David Hunter defeated a Confederate army at Piedmont, Virginia, taking nearly 1,000 prisoners.

~1888 – The Rio de la Plata Earthquake (a 5.5 on the Richter scale) took place on the Uruguay-Argentina border. Fortunately, injuries were few and damage was only light to moderate.

~1900 – During the Second Boer War, the city of Pretoria surrendered to British forces led by Frederick Roberts.

~1915 – Denmark amended its constitution to allow women the right to vote in Rigsdagen (parliamentary) elections.

~1933 – The U.S. Congress abrogated the United States' use of the gold standard by enacting a joint resolution (48 Stat. 112) nullifying the right of creditors to demand payment in gold.

~1934 – Born this day: Bill Moyers, noted American journalist.

~1941 – More than 4,000 Chongqing residents were asphyxiated while taking refuge in a tunnel during an air raid on the city.

~1942 – The United States declared war on Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania.

~1942 - The Japanese aircraft carrier Hiryū was scuttled by torpedoes fired from the Japanese destroyer Makigumo, when her fires proved unable to be extinguished. She had been struck by 4 or more 1,000 lb (454 kg) bombs from 13 attacking SBD Dauntless dive bombers of the USS Enterprise the day before at the Battle of Midway.

~1942 - The Japanese aircraft carrier Akagi was scuttled by torpedoes fired from Japanese destroyers when the fires burning on her flight decks proved impossible to extinguish or control. She had been struck by a 1,000 lb (454 kg) bomb dropped by an SBD Dauntless dive bomber of the USS Enterprise the day before at the Battle of Midway.

~1944 – More than 1000 British bombers dropped 5,000 tons of bombs on German gun batteries along the Normandy coast in preparation for the D-Day landings.

~1945 – With the signing of the Berlin Declaration of 1945, the Allied Control Council (the military occupation governing body of Germany) formally took power.

~1946 – A fire at the LaSalle Hotel in Chicago, killed 61 people.

~1947 – The Marshall Plan, developed at a meeting of the participating European states, was established.

~1954 - The last new episode of the comic variety program "Your Show of Shows" aired on NBC.

~1956 – Elvis Presley introduced his new single, "Hound Dog", on The Milton Berle Show. His swinging hips caused a national scandal and earned him the nickname "Elvis the Pelvis".

~1960 - The Lake Bodom murders occurred. 4 teenagers were camping on the shores of Lake Bodom in Finland. Sometime between the hours of 4AM and 6AM, an unknown person or persons murdered 3 of them with a knife and blunt instrument, wounding the 4th. The case is still active half a century later.

~1963 – British Secretary of State for War John Profumo resigned due to a sex scandal known as the Profumo Affair.

~1963 – Movement of 15 Khordad was founded in protest against the arrest of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini by order of the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. In several cities, masses of angry but peaceful demonstrators were confronted by tanks and paratroopers.

~1964 – The Deep Submergence Vehicle, DSV Alvin was commissioned by the US Navy. To date the submersible has taken 12,000 people on over 4,000 dives to observe the lifeforms that must cope with super-pressures and move about in total darkness. Research conducted by Alvin has been featured in nearly 2,000 scientific papers.

~1967 – The Six Day War began. The Israeli air force launched simultaneous pre-emptive attacks on the air forces of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria.

~1968 – U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy was shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California by a gunman. He died from his wounds the next day.

~1975 – After Egypt lifted its blockade, the Suez Canal opened for the first time since the Six Day War.

~1975 – The United Kingdom holds its first and (to date) only nationwide referendum, on remaining in the European Economic Community (EEC).

~1976 – In Idaho, the Teton Dam collapsed while filling for the first time. 11 people and 13,000 head of cattle died in the deluge. The dam was never rebuilt.

~1977 – The Apple II, one of the first personal computers, went on sale.

~1981 – AIDS was first reported by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC). They had recorded a cluster of Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (now still classified as PCP but known to be caused by Pneumocystis jirovecii) in 5 homosexual men in Los Angeles.

~1984 – The Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi, ordered an attack on the Golden Temple. It is the holiest site of the Sikh religion.

~1986 - A 52 year old man in Auburn, Washington died after taking an Excedrin capsule laced with cyanide by his wife; this was the first of 2 Excedrin deaths.

~1989 - As the world watched via satellite television link, "The Unknown Rebel" halted the progress of a column of advancing tanks for over half an hour following the Tiananmen Square Massacre.

~1992 - The blockbuster movie "Patriot Games", starring Harrison Ford opened in theaters.

~1998 – A strike began at the General Motors parts factory in Flint, Michigan. It quickly spread to 5 other assembly plants. The strike went on to last 7 weeks.

~2001 – Tropical Storm Allison made landfall on the upper Texas coastline as a strong tropical storm and dumped large amounts of rain over Houston. The storm caused 41 deaths and resulted in $5.5 billion in damages, making Allison the costliest tropical storm in U.S. history.

~2004 – Died this day: Ronald Reagan, 40th President of the United States (b. 1911).

~2006 – Serbia declared independence from the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro, ending the last remaining vestiges of the former Yugoslavia.

...

This post has been edited at member's request.Ron,

June 6th

1944 - This was D-Day, the day thousands of Allied troops invaded the beaches of Normandy, France. Their objective: to open a second major European front in the battle against the Nazis. General Dwight D. Eisenhower, commander of these united forces (and, who later became President of the United States) said, “This landing is but the opening phase of the campaign in Western Europe. Great battles lie ahead. I call upon all who love freedom to stand with us."

June 6th



~1393 – Died this day: Emperor Go-En'yu of Japan (b. 1359).

~1480 – Died this day: Vecchietta, master Italian artist and architect of the Renaissance (b. 1412).

~1508 - The army of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, was defeated in Friulia by Venetian forces; he was forced to sign a 3 year truce and cede several territories to Venice.

~1513 – The Battle of Novara was fought during the War of the League of Cambrai. Swiss troops defeated the French under Louis de la Tremoille, forcing the French to abandon Milan. Duke Massimiliano Sforza was restored to power following the battle.

~1523 – Gustav Vasa was elected King of Sweden, marking the end of the Kalmar Union.

~1644 – The Qing Dynasty Manchu forces, led by the Shunzhi Emperor, captured Beijing during the collapse of the Ming Dynasty. The Manchus would rule China until 1912 when the Republic of China was established.

~1654 - Queen Christina abdicated the throne of Sweden in order to practice openly her previously secret Catholicism.

~1654 – Charles X Gustav ascended the throne of Sweden upon the abdication of his cousin Queen Christina.

~1674 – Shivaji, founder of the Maratha kingdom, was coronated.

~1809 – Sweden promulgated a new Constitution, which restored political power to the Riksdag of the Estates after 20 years of Enlightened absolutism under King Gustav IV Adolph.

~1813 – The Battle of Stoney Creek: In Upper Canada, a British force of 700 under John Vincent defeated an American force twice its size led by William Winder and John Chandler.

~1832 – The June Rebellion of Paris was put down by the National Guard.

~1844 – The Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) was founded in London by George Williams.

~1857 – Sophia of Nassau married the future King Oscar II of Sweden-Norway.

~1859 – Queensland was established as a separate colony from New South Wales. The date is now celebrated state wide as Queensland Day.

~1862 – On the Mississippi river, the First Battle of Memphis was fought between Union and Confederate naval forces. The result was the total annihilation of the rebel fleet by the Federal Fleet under Commodore Davis.

~1882 – More than 100,000 inhabitants of Bombay were killed when a cyclone in the Arabian Sea pushed massive waves into the harbor.

~1882 – The Shewan forces of Menelik defeated the Gojjame army in the Battle of Embabo. The Shewans captured Tekle Haymanot of Gojjam, and their victory was a major step that led to Shewan supremacy over the rest of Ethiopia.

~1889 – The Great Seattle Fire destroyed all of downtown Seattle, Washington.

~1891 – Died this day: Sir John A. Macdonald, 1st Prime Minister of Canada (b. 1815).

~1892 – The first Chicago 'L', the Chicago and South Side Rapid Transit Railroad, began revenue service when a small steam locomotive pulling four wooden coaches carrying a total of 27 men and 3 women departed the 39th Street station and arrived at the Congress Street Terminal 14 minutes later; over tracks still used by the Green Line.

~1894 – Governor Davis H. Waite ordered the Colorado state militia to protect and support the miners engaged in the Cripple Creek miners' strike (for the 2nd time).

~1912 – The eruption of Novarupta in Alaska began. It would prove to be the largest volcanic eruption of the 20th century.

~1918 – The Battle of Belleau Wood: The U.S. Marine Corps suffered its worst single day's casualties at that point in their history, losing 1087 of their number while attempting to recapture the wood at Chateau-Thierry.

~1919 – The Republic of Prekmurje was incorporated in the newly established Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, later renamed to Yugoslavia in 1929.

~1921 – The Southwark Bridge in London, was opened for traffic by King George V and Queen Mary.

~1925 – The Chrysler Corporation was founded by Walter Percy Chrysler.

~1932 – The Revenue Act of 1932 was enacted. It raised US tax rates across the board, with the rate on top incomes rising from 25 percent to 63 percent. The estate tax was doubled and corporate taxes were raised by almost 15 percent. Also created was the first gas tax in the United States, at a rate of 1 cent per US gallon (1/4 ¢/L) sold.

~1933 – The first drive-in theater opened. It was owned and operated by Richard Hollingshead Jr. and located in Camden, New Jersey.

~1934 – Born this day: King Albert II of Belgium.

~1939 – German dictator Adolf Hitler gave an assembly of returning German volunteers, who fought as Legion Kondor during the Spanish Civil War, a personal address.

~1941 – Died this day: Louis Chevrolet, American automotive pioneer and racecar driver (b. 1878).

~1944 – D-Day: The Battle of Normandy began. In France, Operation Overlord commenced with the landing of 155,000 Allied troops on the beaches of Normandy. The allied forces quickly broke through the Atlantic Wall and pushed inland in the largest amphibious military operation in history.

~1946 – The Basketball Association of America was formed in New York City.

~1962 - The Beatles auditioned for EMI Records. The onhand producer stated, "They may have some potential."

~1966 – Civil rights activist James Meredith was shot while leading a march across Mississippi.

~1968 – US Senator Robert F. Kennedy died from his wounds after he was shot the previous night.

~1971 – Soyuz 11 was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in central Kazakh SSR. This was the first successful visit to the world's first space station, Salyut 1. However the mission ended in disaster when the crew capsule depressurised during preparations for re-entry, killing the 3 man crew.

~1971 – A midair collision occurred between a Hughes Airwest Douglas DC-9 jetliner and a United States Marine Corps McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II jet fighter near Duarte, California. All 49 on board the DC-9 and 1 of the 2 crewmembers from the F-4 died in the accident. The surviving US Air Force Lieutenant received only minor injuries after ejecting from the falling aircraft.

~1971 – In Vietnam, the Battle of Long Khanh between Australian and Vietnamese communist forces began. The Australian forces would achieve victory the next day but the majority of North Vietnamese troops managed to escape.

~1971 - After 23 years The Ed Sullivan Show aired for the last time.

~1972 - David Bowie released the classic album "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars" on RCA Records.

~1981 – A passenger train travelling between Mansi and Saharsa, India, derailed at a bridge crossing the Bagmati river. Indian government figures place the official death toll at 268 plus another 300 missing. It is generally believed, however, that the actual figure is closer to 1,000 killed.

~1982 – Forces under Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon invaded southern Lebanon in their "Operation Peace for the Galilee," eventually reaching as far north as the capital Beirut. The end result of the operation was the expulsion of the PLO from Lebanon.

~1984 – The Indian Army attacked the Golden Temple in Amritsar following an order from Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Official casualties were 576 combatants killed and 335 wounded. Independent observers estimated that thousands of unarmed Sikh civilians are also killed in the crossfire with a total death count adding up to almost 6,000.

~1985 – The grave of "Wolfgang Gerhard" was exhumed in Embu, Brazil. The remains found were later proven to be those of Josef Mengele, Auschwitz's "Angel of Death". Mengele is believed to have drowned while swimming in February, 1979.

~1990 - U.S. District court judge Jose Gonzales ruled that the rap album "As Nasty As They Wanna Be" by the 2 Live Crew violated Florida's obscenity law; he declared that the predominant subject matter of the record was "directed to the 'dirty' thoughts and the loins, not to the intellect and the mind." (Woohoo! Was he in a pissy mood or what!)

~1993 – Mongolia held its first direct presidential elections.

~1997 - New Jersey teenager Melissa Drexler gave birth to a healthy baby in a bathroom stall during her senior prom, then strangled the child with a plastic bag and stashed the corpse in the trash. (Hope ya' fry, COW!)

~1999 - At the Putim maximum security prison in Brazil, 345 prisoners ran from the main gate in the largest jailbreak in Brazilian history, marking the 10th escape for the 3 year old facility. In the ensuing manhunt, 2 fugitives were killed and 5 innocent bystanders were mistakenly jailed.

~2002 – The Eastern Mediterranean Event: A near Earth asteroid estimated at 10 m. (39 ft.) in diameter explodes over the Mediterranean Sea between Greece and Libya. The resulting explosion was estimated to have a force of 26 kilotons, slightly more powerful than the Nagasaki atomic bomb.

~2005 – In Gonzales v. Raich, The United States Supreme Court upheld a federal law banning cannabis even where states approve its use for medicinal purposes.

...

This post has been edited at member's request.Ron,

June 7th



~1099 – The Siege of Jerusalem began during the First Crusade. The Crusaders stormed and captured the city from Fatimid Egypt 7 weeks later.

~1329 – Died this day: Robert the Bruce, King of Scotland (b. 1274).

~1394 – Died this day: Good Queen Anne (Anne of Bohemia), wife of Richard II of England (b. 1366).

~1420 – After a long siege, forces of the Republic of Venice captured Udine, ending the independence of the Patriarchate of Aquileia.

~1494 – Spain and Portugal signed the Treaty of Tordesillas, which divided the newly discovered lands outside Europe between Spain and Portugal along a meridian 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde islands (off the west coast of Africa). This line of demarcation was about halfway between the Cape Verde Islands (already Portuguese) and the islands discovered by Christopher Columbus on his first voyage (claimed for Spain), named in the treaty as Cipangu and Antilia (Cuba and Hispaniola). The lands to the east would belong to Portugal and the lands to the west to Spain.

~1628 – The Petition of Right, a major English constitutional document, was granted Royal Assent by Charles I and became law. The Petition is most notable for its confirmation of the principles that taxes can be levied only by Parliament, that martial law may not be imposed in time of peace, and that prisoners must be able to challenge the legitimacy of their detentions through the writ of habeas corpus.

~1654 – Louis XIV was crowned King of France.

~1692 – Port Royal, Jamaica, was struck by a catastrophic magnitude 7.5 earthquake. In just 3 minutes most of the town sank below the sea and more than 2,000 people were killed, with at least 3,000 others seriously injured. During the shaking, the sand liquefied and the buildings, along with their occupants, appeared to flow into the sea. More than 20 ships moored in the harbour were capsized. One ship, the frigate Swan, was carried over the rooftops by a tsunami.

~1776 – Richard Henry Lee of Virginia presented the "Lee Resolution" to the Continental Congress. The motion was seconded by John Adams and led to the United States Declaration of Independence.

~1810 – The first issue of the newspaper Gazeta de Buenos Ayres was published in Argentina.

~1832 – The Second Cholera Pandemic: Asian cholera reached Quebec, brought by Irish immigrants, and killed more than about 6,000 people in Lower Canada.

~1840 – Died this day: King Frederick William III of Prussia (b. 1770).

~1863 – During the French intervention in Mexico, French troops entered the capital of Mexico City. The main army entered the city 3 days later led by General Forey.

~1866 – Died this day: Chief Seattle, prominent Native American leader and peace advocate (b. circa 1780).

~1866 – 1,800 Fenian raiders were repelled back to the United States after they looted and plundered around the area of Saint-Armand and Frelighsburg in Quebec.

~1880 – The Battle of Arica was fought. The assault and capture of Morro de Arica (Arica Cape) was completed by Chilean forces, that ended the Campaña del Desierto (Desert Campaign). More than half of the 1,900 Peruvian defenders were killed or wounded in the thrashing delivered by the Chileans who incurred less than 500 dead and wounded.

~1902 - The Formidable class battleship HMS London received her commission from the Royal Navy for service with the Mediterranean Fleet. She saw action many times during World War I, including during the Dardanelles Campaign and received several Naval Commendations prior to the 1918 armistice. She was placed in reserve in 1919.

~1905 – Norway's parliament dissolved its union with Sweden, a vote that was confirmed by a national plebiscite on August 13th of that year.

~1906 – The legendary RMS Lusitania of the Cunard Line was launched at the John Brown Shipyard, Glasgow (Clydebank), Scotland.

~1914 - The Giulio Cesare, an Italian Conte di Cavour class battleship that served in both World Wars before joining the Soviet Navy as the Novorossiysk, received her commission from the Regia Marina.

~1917 – The Battle of Messines: Allied ammonal mines underneath German trenches at Messines Ridge were detonated to mark the beginning of the attck. Over 10,000 German troops were killed in the blasts making them history's deadliest non nuclear manmade explosion of any kind (planned or accidental).

~1938 - The first flight of the long range flying boat the Boeing 314 Clipper. One of the largest aircraft of the time, it used the massive wing of Boeing’s earlier XB-15 bomber prototype to achieve the range necessary for flights across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Twelve Clippers were built for Pan Am, three of which were sold to BOAC in 1941 before delivery. Sadly, there are no examples of this grand old dame in existence today.

~1938 – The Douglas DC-4E took off on its maiden flight. Although relatively trouble free, the aircraft proved too complicated and expensive to maintain, with performance well below expectations. So the design was abandoned in favor of a smaller, less-complex 4 engined design. This newer design was designated DC-4, leading to the earlier design to be re-designated DC-4E (E for "experimental").

1940 – King Haakon VII of Norway, Crown Prince Olav and the Norwegian government leave Tromsø and go into exile in London.

~1942 – The aircraft carrier USS Yorkton (CV-5) capsized and sank after being struck by bombs from Japanese "Val" dive bombers on June 4th and torpedoes from the Japanese submarine I-168 on Jun 6th at the Battle of Midway.

~1942 - The Battle of Midway ended with a decisive American victory over the Japanese. The sea and air battle lasted 4 days. Japan lost four carriers, a cruiser, and 292 aircraft, and suffered 2,500 casualties. The U.S. lost the Yorktown, the destroyer USS Hammann, 145 aircraft, and suffered 307 casualties.

~1942 – Japanese troops landed on, and occupied, the American islands of Attu and Kiska, in the Aleutian Islands off Alaska.

~1944 - Off of the coast of Normandy, France, the transport ship USS Susan B. Anthony struck a mine and sank. All 2,689 people aboard were evacuated and survived, only 45 were injured. To date this is still the the largest rescue of people without loss of life.

~1944 – During the Battle of Normandy, at Abbey Ardennes, members of the 12th SS Division Hitlerjugend massacred 23 Canadian prisoners of war. The advancing Canadian troops would unknowingly get revenge over the next few days by decimating the ranks of the 12th in close combat. Once the truth about the massacre was known, the Canadians adopted a "no prisoners taken" policy with regards to the 12th SS.

~1945 – King Haakon VII of Norway returned with his family aboard the cruiser HMS Norfolk to Oslo exactly 5 years after they had been evacuated from Tromsø.

~1948 – Edvard Beneš resigned as President of Czechoslovakia rather than signing a Constitution making his nation a Communist state.

~1955 – Lux Radio Theater signed off the air permanently. The show was launched in New York in 1934 and featured radio adaptations of Broadway shows and popular films.

~1955 - "The $64,000 Question" premiered on CBS.

~1958 – Born this day: Prince (Prince Rogers Nelson), American purple musician.

~1965 – The Supreme Court of the United States decided on Griswold v. Connecticut, legalizing the use of contraception by married couples.

~1971 – In Cohen v. California, the United States Supreme Court overturned the conviction of Paul Cohen for disturbing the peace, setting the precedent that vulgar writing is protected under the First Amendment.

~1975 – After releasing it on May 10th, Sony began selling its new Betamax videocassette recorder to the public. (The smart money didn't invest in that one...)

~1981 – The Israeli Air Force destroyed Iraq's Osiraq nuclear reactor during Operation Opera. The facility could have been used to make nuclear weapons.

~1982 – Priscilla Presley opens Graceland to the public. The bathroom where Elvis Presley had died 5 years earlier was kept off limits.

~1989 – Surinam Airways Flt. 764, a Douglas DC-8, crashed near Paramaribo Airport, Suriname, killing 176 of the 187 aboard and seriously injuring all 11 survivors.

~1991 – Mount Pinatubo exploded generating an ash column 7 km (4.5 miles) high. The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) issued a warning indicating the possibility of a major eruption within 2 weeks. (The main show came only one week later.)

~1995 – The long range Boeing 777 entered into service, with United Airlines.

~1998 – James Byrd Jr., a 49 year old black man, was dragged to death behind a pickup truck by 3 white men outside of Jasper, Texas in a racially motivated hate crime.

~2006 – The British Houses of Parliament were temporarily shut down due to an anthrax alert.

...

This post has been edited at member's request.Ron,

June 8th


One year ago today, Word Distillery was born.

Happy Birthday old gal!!!!

June 8th



~68 – The Roman Senate proclaimed Galba as the 6th Roman Emperor (for 7 months until his murder). He was the first emperor of the Year of the Four Emperors.

~218 - Died this day: Macrinus, Roman Emperor (b. circa 165).

~536 - St. Silverius became Pope.

~632 - Died this day: Muhammad, prophet of Islam (b. circa 570).

~793 – Vikings raided the abbey at Lindisfarne in Northumbria. This is commonly accepted as the beginning of the Scandinavian invasion of England.

~1042 - Died this day: Harthacnut, King of Denmark and England (b. 1020).

~1191 – Richard I of England, Philip of France, Leopold of Austria and what was left of the German army, along with the rest of the crusader's army, arrived at Acre. They captured the city the following month.

~1405 – Richard le Scrope, Archbishop of York and Thomas Mowbray, Earl of Norfolk, were executed (without trial) for treason in York, upon direct orders of King Henry IV. This conspiracy is the main historical context for Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 2, and the execution is described with the words "so much for Lancaster".

~1505 – Died this day: Hongzhi, Emperor of China (b. 1470).

~1690 – Siddi general Yadi Sakat, ordered his army to raze the Mazagon Fort, a British Fort in Mumbai.

~1776 – The Battle of Trois-Rivières: British forces defeated the Continental Army during the last major battle fought on Quebec soil that was part of the American colonists' invasion of Quebec.

~1783 – In Iceland, the volcano Laki began an 8 month eruption which killed over 9,000 people. The eruption caused a massive fluorine poisoning and started a 7 year long famine.

~1795 - Died (murdered) this day: King Louis XVII of France, the "Boy King" (b. 1785).

~1809 - Died this day: Thomas Paine, American revolutionary and writer: "Common Sense" (b. 1737).

~1856 – The community of Pitcairn Islands and descendants of the mutineers of HMS Bounty, consisting of 194 people, arrived on the Morayshire at Norfolk Island starting the 3rd settlement of the island (the previous 2 attempts were penal colonies).

~1861 – Tennessee voters approved a 2nd referendum calling for secession. Tennessee was the last state to secede from the Union.

~1862 – Battle of Cross Keys: Confederate forces under General Stonewall Jackson saved the Army of Northern Virginia from a Union assault on the James Peninsula led by General George B. McClellan.

~1874 - Died this day: Cochise, Apache leader and war chief (b. 1805).

~1897 - The Majestic class pre-dreadnought battleship HMS Jupiter received her commission from the Royal Navy for service in the Channel Fleet. In 1915 Jupiter made history by becoming the first ship ever to get through the ice into the Russian port of Arkhangelsk during the winter, her February arrival was the earliest in history there.

~1906 – Theodore Roosevelt signed the Antiquities Act into law. It authorizes the President to restrict the use of certain parcels of public land with historical or conservation value.

~1912 – Carl Laemmle incorporated Universal Pictures.

~1928 – During the Second Northern Expedition, the National Revolutionary Army captured Peking, renaming the city Beijing.

~1940 - Thr British aircraft carrier HMS Glorious was sunk by gunfire from the German battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, while evacuating British troops from Norway. Her sinking resulted in the loss of over 1,200 lives.

~1941 – Allies troops invaded Syria and Lebanon, denying the German war machine access to the oilfields of the Middle East.

~1942 – The Japanese submarines I-21 and I-24 shelled the Australian cities of Sydney and Newcastle.

~1943 - The Japanese Nagato class battleship "Mutsu" exploded at her moorings in the Hashirajima fleet anchorage, killing 1,121 of the 1,474 aboard and injuring 39 of the survivors. The most likely cause of the blast was sabotage by a disgruntled crewman.

~1948 – Milton Berle hosted the debut of Texaco Star Theater on NBC television.

~1949 - The prophetic novel "Nineteen Eighty-Four " by George Orwell was published.

~1949 – Celebrities Helen Keller, Dorothy Parker, Danny Kaye, Fredric March, John Garfield, Paul Muni and Edward G. Robinson were named in an FBI report as Communist Party members. No proof of these allegations was ever supplied by the bureau. (Sometimes the FBI can't get ANYTHING right!)

~1950 – Sir Thomas Blamey became the first (and, to date, only) Australian born Field Marshal in Australian history.

~1953 – The Flint-Worcester tornado outbreak sequence: A tornado hit Flint, Michigan, and kills 115. This was the last tornado to claim more than 100 lives (as of June, 2010).

~1955 - Born this day: Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web.

~1959 – The USS Barbero and United States Postal Service attempted the delivery of mail via Missile Mail.

~1966 – One of the XB-70 Valkyrie prototypes was destroyed in a mid-air collision with a F-104 Starfighter chase plane during a photo shoot. NASA pilot Joseph A. Walker and United States Air Force test pilot Carl Cross were both killed.

~1966 – Topeka, Kansas was devastated by a tornado that registered as an "F5" on the Fujita Scale: the first to exceed US$100 million in damages. 16 people were killed, hundreds more injured, and thousands of homes damaged or destroyed.

~1967 – The USS Liberty incident: During the Six-Day War, the USS Liberty was attacked in international waters north of the Sinai Peninsula by Israeli Air Force jet fighter planes and motor torpedo boats. 34 crewmwn were killed and 171 more injured.

~1968 – The suspect in the murder of Martin Luther King, Jr. was arrested at London's Heathrow Airport while trying to leave the United Kingdom on a false Canadian passport.

~1968 – The body of assassinated U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery.

~1974 – An F4 tornado struck Emporia, Kansas, killing 6 people, injuring over 200 and causing $25 million in damage.

~1982 – During the Falklands War, as many as 50 British servicemen were killed in an Argentine air attack on 2 supply ships, RFA Sir Galahad and RFA Sir Tristram.

~1984 – An F5 tornado strikes Barneveld, Wisconsin, killing 9 and injuring 584. 90% of the homes, 17 out of the 18 businesses and the 3 churches are destroyed.

~1986 – Kurt Waldheim, former Secretary-General of the United Nations, was elected president of Austria.

~1987 – New Zealand's Labour government established a national nuclear free zone under the New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone, Disarmament, and Arms Control Act 1987.

~1995 – The first version of the PHP (Personal Home Page) programming language was released by its designer, Rasmus Lerdorf.

~2001 – The Osaka School Massacre: At Ikeda Elementary School, a 37 year old former janitor stabbed 8 elementary school pupils to death and wounded another 15 students and teachers.

~2007 – Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia, was hit by the State's worst storms and flooding in 30 years resulting in the death of 9 people and the grounding of trade ship, the MV Pasha Bulker.

~2008 – The Akihabara massacre took place in the Akihabara shopping quarter in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. A 25 year old nutcase drove his 2 ton truck into a crowded pedestrianised area before leaving the truck and attacking people with a knife, killing 7 and injuring 10.

...

This post has been edited at member's request.Ron,

June 9th



~53 – Roman Emperor Nero married his stepsister Claudia Octavia. (GIRL! You must have been a blond's blond...What in HELL were you thinking!)

~62 – Claudia Octavia was executed (murdered) upon Neros' orders. (I rest my case...oh, and happy anniversary to you Claudia.)

~68 – Roman Emperor Nero committed suicide, after he was deposed by the Senate. (Too bad the scumbag didn't do that before he became Emperor...)

~721 – The Battle of Toulouse: A Frankish army led by Duke Odo of Aquitaine defeated the Umayyad (Moors) forces besieging the city of Toulouse, led by the governor of Al-Andalus, Al-Samh ibn Malik al-Khawlani.

~1064 - Coimbra, Portugal fell to the forces of Ferdinand I of León and Castile.

~1310 – Duccio's Maestà altarpiece, a seminal artwork of the early Italian Renaissance, was unveiled and installed in the Siena Cathedral in Siena, Italy.

~1572 – Died this day: Jeanne d'Albret, Queen of Navarre (b. 1528).

~1650 – The Harvard Corporation, the more powerful of the 2 administrative boards of Harvard, was established. It was the first legal corporation in the Americas.

~1667 – The Raid on the Medway by the Dutch fleet began. It lasted for 6 days and resulted in a decisive victory by the Dutch over the English during the Second Anglo-Dutch War. The raid led to a quick end to the war and a favourable peace for the Dutch.

~1732 – James Oglethorpe and his fellow trustees were granted a Royal Charter for the Province of Georgia, between the Savannah and Altamira rivers.

~1772 – The Gaspée Affair: The British revenue schooner Gaspée, that had been enforcing unpopular trade regulations, ran aground in shallow water near what is now known as Gaspee Point in the city of Warwick, Rhode Island, while chasing the packet boat Hannah. In a notorious act of defiance, American patriots led by Abraham Whipple and John Brown, attacked, boarded, looted, and torched the ship.

~1798 – The Irish Rebellion of 1798: In Ireland, both the Battle of Saintfield and the Battle of Arklow were fought between the United Irishmen and the British army. While the United Irishmen were victorious at Saintfield, they were repulsed at Arklow.

~1856 – The Mormon Handcart Pioneers: 274 Mormons left Iowa City, Iowa and headed west for Salt Lake City. They carried all their worldly possessions in 2 wheeled handcarts.

~1863 – The Battle of Brandy Station: In Virginia, the largest predominantly cavalry engagement of the Civil War (as well as the largest to take place ever on American soil) was fought to an inconclusive end by Union cavalry under Major General Alfred Pleasonton and Confederate cavalry led by Major General J.E.B. Stuart.

~1873 – Alexandra Palace burnt down after being open for only 16 days, killing 3 members of staff. Only the outer walls survived and in this fire a loan Exhibition of a Collection of English Pottery and Porcelain, comprising some 4,700 items of historic and intrinsic value, was destroyed. (Hope they were insured...)

~1885 – The Treaty of Tientsin was signed to end the Sino-French War, with China eventually giving up Tonkin and Annam, most of present day Vietnam, to France.

~1909 – Alice Huyler Ramsey, a 22 year old housewife and mother from Hackensack, New Jersey, began her journey that would see her become the first woman to drive across the United States. With 3 female companions, none of whom could drive a car, in 59 days she drove a green Maxwell 30 the 3,800 miles from Manhattan, New York, to San Francisco, California. (When she got home her husband, John, spanked her and made her write lines for taking the family car without permission.)

~1915 – William Jennings Bryan resigned as Woodrow Wilson's Secretary of State over a disagreement regarding the United States' handling of the sinking of the RMS Lusitania.

~1922 – The 10 original bells of the Harkness Memorial Chime, at Yale University, were first rung by John Taylor of John Taylor Bellfounders.

~1923 – The June 9th coup d'état: In Bulgaria, General Ivan Valkov's Military Union overthrew the government of the Bulgarian Agrarian National Union headed by Aleksandar Stamboliyski and replaced it with one under Aleksandar Tsankov.

~1923 – Died this day: Princess Helena of the United Kingdom, daughter of Queen Victoria (b. 1846).

~1928 – Charles Kingsford Smith and his crew completed the first trans-Pacific flight in a Fokker Trimotor monoplane, the Southern Cross.

~1930 – Chicago Tribune reporter Jake Lingle was shot dead during rush hour at the Illinois Central train station, as dozens of people watched, in a gangland style murder. Lingle was initially lionized as a martyred journalist, but it was eventually revealed that he was involved in racketeering with the Capone organization, and that his death had more to do with his own criminal activities than his journalism.

~1934 – Donald Duck made his debut in the cartoon short "The Wise Little Hen".

~1944 – 99 civilians were hung from lampposts and balconies by German troops in Tulle, France, in reprisal for maquisards attacks.

~1945 - Japanese Premier Kantaro Suzuki declared that Japan would fight to the last rather than accept unconditional surrender. (Maybe not the time to be shooting off your mouth, Suzuki...)

~1946 - Died this day: Rama VIII, the 8th monarch of Thailand under the House of Chakri, under mysterious circumstances (b. 1925).

~1946 – Bhumibol Adulyadej (Rama IX) ascended the throne of Thailand upon the death of his brother King Rama VIII. He is currently the world's longest reigning monarch.

~1953 – Flint-Worcester tornado outbreak sequence: a tornado spawned from the same storm system as the Flint tornado hits in Worcester, Massachusetts killing 94.

~1954 – The Army-McCarthy Hearings: Joseph Welch, special counsel for the United States Army, lashed out at Senator Joseph McCarthy during hearings on whether Communism has infiltrated the Army. He gave McCarthy the famous rebuke; "You've done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?"

~1957 – The first ascent of Broad Peak (the world's 12th highest mountain) was made by Fritz Wintersteller, Marcus Schmuck, Kurt Diemberger and Hermann Buhl of an Austrian expedition led by Marcus Schmuck.

~1958 – Queen Elizabeth II officially opened London Gatwick Airport (LGW), in Crawley, West Sussex.

~1959 – The USS George Washington was launched at the General Dynamics Electric Boat yard in Groton, Connecticut. It was the first submarine to carry ballistic missiles.

~1967 – Six-Day War: Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria.

~1973 – Secretariat won the Triple Crown. The first horse to do so in a quarter century.

~1979 – The Ghost Train Fire at Luna Park, North Sydney occurred. Inadequate fire fighting measures and low staffing caused the fire to completely destroy the ride, which was first constructed in 1931, and had been transported from Glenelg, South Australia to Milsons Point, New South Wales during 1934 and 1935. The cause of the blaze that killed 6 children and one adult has never been determined.

~1985 – Thomas Sutherland, Dean of Agriculture at the American University of Beirut in Lebanon, was kidnapped by Islamic Jihad members near his Beirut home. He wasn't released until November 18, 1991; at the same time as Terry Waite.

~1986 – The Rogers Commission released its report on the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. It documented the technical and managerial factors that contributed to the incident.

~1998 - In Jasper, TX, 3 white men were charged in the dragging death (behind a pickup truck) of a black man, 49 year old James Byrd Jr.

~2000 - Canada and the United States signed a border security agreement. The agreement called for the establishment of a border enforcement team.

~2008 – In the village of Lake Delton, Wisconsin, the town's namesake (the 267 acre dammed artificial Lake Delton) drained as a result of the embankment over which the highway ran failing and eventually opening a breach of several hundred feet. The lake, which averaged about 12 feet in depth, drained out over a period of only a few hours.

...

This post has been edited at member's request.Ron,

June 10th



~323 BC – Died this day: Alexander the Great, Macedonian king (b. 356 BC).


~1190 – Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa drowned in the Saleph River as his army was approaching Antioch from Armenia. Arab historians report that his army had encamped before the river and the Emperor had gone to the river to bathe when he was carried away by the current and drowned in it.

~1619 – The Battle of Sablat was fought during the Bohemian period of the Thirty Years' War. The battle was fought near Budějovice, in present day Czech Republic, between the Roman Catholic army of Charles Bonaventure de Longueval, Count of Bucquoy and the Protestant troops of Ernst von Mansfeld. Mansfield's force was brought to battle and defeated by the Catholics. As a result, the Bohemians had to lift the siege of Budějovice.

~1624 – The Treaty of Compiègne was signed between France and the Netherlands. It allowed France to subsidize the Dutch war effort against Spain in the Dutch War of Independence (1568–1648) after the end of the Twelve Years' Truce. France offered an immediate loan of 480,000 thalers, to be followed by more instalments over a period of 3 years in which the Dutch would continue the fight against Spain. This move was part of the general effort of France to undermine the Habsburg Empire. It led to the revival of a Franco-Dutch alliance which had been enfeebled since the execution of Oldenbarnevelt in 1619.

~1692 – The Salem witch trials: Bridget Bishop was hanged at Gallows Hill near Salem, Massachusetts, for "certaine Detestable Arts called Witchcraft & Sorceries".

~1719 – The Battle of Glen Shiel was fought in the West Highlands of Scotland between British government troops and an alliance of Jacobites and Spaniards, resulting in a victory for the government forces. It was the last close engagement of British and foreign troops on mainland Great Britain.

~1786 – A landslide dam on the Dadu River created by an earthquake 10 days earlier collapsed, the resulting flood extended 1,400 km. (870 mi.) downstream, and killed over 100,000 people in the Sichuan province of China. It is the 2nd deadliest landslide disaster on record.

~1805 – The First Barbary War: Threatened with invasion by American ground forces following the Battle of Derna and the reinstatement of his deposed brother (Hamet Karamanli), Yussif Karamanli signed a treaty ending hostilities with the United States.

~1829 – The first Boat Race between the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge took place. (Cambridge won.)

~1838 – The Myall Creek Massacre occurred. It was an incident which involved the murders of 28 Wirrayaraay indigenous people by European settlers at the Myall Creek near Bingara in northern New South Wales. 7 of the 12 settlers involved in the killings were subsequently found guilty of murder and hanged.

~1854 – The first class of the United States Naval Academy students graduated.

~1864 – The Battle of Brice's Crossroads: In Mississippi, Confederate troops under Nathan Bedford Forrest defeated a Union force almost 3 times their number led by General Samuel D. Sturgis.

~1871 – Sinmiyangyo (The Korean Expedition in 1871): When Korean shore batteries fired upon 2 American warships on June 1, 1871, a punitive expedition was launched 10 days later after the commanding American admiral failed to receive an official apology from the Koreans. US forces landed and destroyed several forts in a matter of hours, with several hundred Koreans killed and 3 Americans.

~1886 – Mount Tarawera in New Zealand erupted, vents at Lake Rotomahana obliterated the Pink and White Terraces and produced a pyroclastic surge that destroyed several villages within a 6 kilometre radius.

~1895 - Born this day: Hattie McDaniel, American actress. For her role of Mammy, in the 1939 movie classic "Gone With the Wind," she became the first black to win an Academy Award (d. 1952).

~1896 - The Indiana-class battleship USS Massachusetts (BB-2) received her commission from the US Navy. She saw much action during the Spanish-American War and even served into World war I.

~1909 - The Cunard liner SS Slavonia sent the first ever SOS distress signal when it wrecked off the Azores. All 410 passengers and crew were rescued, but the ship was a total loss.

~1898 – During the Spanish-American War, U.S. Marines landed on the island of Cuba.

~1901 - The Kaiser Friedrich III class pre-dreadnought battleship SMS Kaiser Barbarossa received her commission from the German Navy. Like many of the other pre-dreadnought battleships of the Kaiserliche Marine, Kaiser Barbarossa started World War I serving in V Battle Squadron, but was quickly transferred into the auxiliary role of a torpedo training ship.

~1918 – The Austro-Hungarian battleship SMS Szent István sank after being torpedoed by an Italian MAS motorboat. 89 of her crew died in the sinking, the low death toll partly attributed to the fact that all sailors with the KuK Navy had to learn to swim before entering active service.
Szent István is the only battleship whose sinking was filmed during World War I:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nt8rJPsDOAc


~1921 – Born this day: Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, consort of Queen Elizabeth II.

~1924 – Fascists kidnapped and killed Italian socialist leader Giacomo Matteotti in Rome.

~1935 – Under the watch of Bill Wilson (Bill W.), Dr. Robert Smith drank his last beer and Alcoholics Anonymous was founded in Akron, Ohio, United States, by the pair.

~1940 – Italy (Mussolini) declared war on France and the United Kingdom.

~1940 – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt denounced Italy's actions with his "Stab in the Back" speech at the graduation ceremonies of the University of Virginia.

~1940 – German forces, under General Erwin Rommel, reached the English Channel near Dieppe, sending his "Am at coast" signal to the German Headquarters.

~1940 – Canada declared war on Italy. (The went on to kick the Italians' asses, too!)

~1940 – With the loss of British supplies and support following the fall of France, Norway surrendered to the invading German forces.

~1942 – On direct orders from Heinrich Himmler, the Czech village of Lidice was completely destroyed by German forces in reprisal for the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich. All 192 men over 16 years of age from the village were murdered on the spot by the Germans in a much publicised atrocity. The rest of the population were sent to Nazi concentration camps where many women and nearly all the children were killed.

~1943 - Hungarian journalist Laszlo Biro patented his ballpoint pen.

~1944 – The Oradour-sur-Glane Massacre: In the village of Oradour-sur-Glane, France 642 men, women and children were murdered by a German Waffen-SS company.

~1944 – Waffen-SS troops of the 4th SS Polizei Panzergrenadier Division under the command of SS-Hauptsturmführer Fritz Lautenbach went door to door in Distomo, Greece and massacred Greek civilians, reportedly in revenge for a partisan attack. A total of 218 men, women and children were killed. According to survivors, SS forces "bayoneted babies in their cribs, stabbed pregnant women, and beheaded the village priest."

~1944 – 15 year old Joe Nuxhall of the Cincinnati Reds became the youngest player ever in a major league game.

~1945 – Operation Oboe Six: Australian Imperial Forces landed on Brunei Bay and Labuan to seize them island from the occupying Japanese troops.

~1947 – Saab produced its first automobile, the Saab 92001 prototype.

~1957 – John Diefenbaker led the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada to a stunning upset over Louis St. Laurent and the Liberals in the Canadian federal election, ending 22 years of Liberal Party rule. (A classic case of replacing one traitor with another...)

~1965 – During the Vietnam War, the Battle of Dong Xoai began. It would end in late June with a Viet Cong victory.

~1967 - The MiG-23 fighter-bomber took to the skies over Russia on its maiden flight. Arguably the most advanced warbird of its day when first flown, the "swing-wing" MiG-23 is still in active service with several air forces around the world.

~1967 – The Six-Day War ended when Israel and Syria agreed to a ceasefire.

~1977 – The convicted murderer of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. escaped from Brushy Mountain State Prison in Petros, Tennessee, but was recaptured 3 days later.

~1988 - Died this day: Louis L'Amour, famed author of Western fiction (b. 1908).

~1996 – Peace talks beganin Northern Ireland without the participation of Sinn Féin.

~1997 – Before fleeing his northern stronghold Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot ordered the killing of his defense chief Son Sen and 13 of Sen's family members. Son Sen and his family were shot, after which trucks drove over their bodies. (Gosh Son...I guess your old buddy Pol wasn't as trustworthy as you thought, huh?)

~2001 – Pope John Paul II canonized Lebanon's first female saint, Saint Rafqa.

~2003 – The Spirit Rover was launched, beginning NASA's Mars Exploration Rover mission.

~2008 – War in Afghanistan: An airstrike by the United States resulted in the deaths of 11 paramilitary troops of the Pakistan Army Frontier Corps and 8 Taliban fighters in Pakistan's tribal areas.

...

This post has been edited at member's request.Ron,

June 11th



~1184 BC – The Trojan War: According to the calculations of Eratosthenes, this is the day that Troy was sacked and burned.

~1183 - Died this day: Henry Young King of the English. He was known in his own lifetime as "Henry the Young King" to distinguish him from his father Henry II of England. Because he predeceased his father, he is not counted in the numerical succession of kings of England. Nonetheless, he was an anointed king and his royal status was not disputed (b. 1155).

~1216 - Died this day: Henry of Flanders, second emperor of the Latin Empire of Constantinople (b. circa 1174).

~1345 – The megas doux Alexios Apokaukos, chief minister of the Byzantine Empire, was lynched by political prisoners when he decided to inspect the new prison, without being escorted by his bodyguards.

~1429 – In France, the 2 day long Battle of Jargeau took place, it was Joan of Arc's first offensive battle. Shortly after relieving the siege at Orléans, French forces recaptured the neighboring district along the Loire river. This campaign was the first sustained French offensive in a generation in the Hundred Years' War.

~1488 - James III of Scotland was killed in his defeat at the Battle of Sauchieburn, Stirling. He was succeeded by his son James IV.

~1509 – Henry VIII of England married Catherine of Aragon. (A good move for him...not so much for her.)

~1557 – Died this day: King John III of Portugal, 15th King of Portugal and the Algarves (b. 1502).

~1727 – Died this day: King George I of Great Britain (b. 1660).

~1727 - King George II ascended the throne of Great Britain upon the death of his father King George I.

~1770 - Captain James Cook and his crew discovered the Great Barrier Reef off of Australia when their ship, HMS Endeavor, ran aground. The ship was badly damaged and Cook's voyage was delayed almost 7 weeks while repairs were carried out on the beach (near the docks of modern Cooktown, at the mouth of the Endeavour River).

~1776 – The Continental Congress appointed Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston to the Committee of Five to draft a declaration of independence.

~1798 - Napoleon captured Malta on his way to Egypt during the French Revolutionary Wars. As a ruse, Napoleon asked for safe harbour to resupply his ships. Once safely inside Valletta's harbour he turned his guns against his hosts. Grand Master Ferdinand von Hompesch zu Bolheim capitulated and Napoleon stayed in Malta for a few days, during which time he systematically looted many movable assets of the island and established an administration controlled by his nominees. He then sailed for Egypt, leaving behind a substantial garrison.

~1805 – A huge fire destroyed nearly all of Detroit in the Michigan Territory.

~1825 – The first cornerstone wass laid for Fort Hamilton in New York City.

~1837 – The Broad Street Riot occurred in Boston, fueled by ethnic tensions between Yankees and the Irish.

~1847 - British naval officer and Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin died in Canada's extreme north while attempting to discover the Northwest Passage.

~1892 – The Salvation Army's "Limelight Department", one of the world's first film studios, was officially established in Melbourne, Australia.

~1895 - Charles E. Duryea received the first U.S. patent granted to an American inventor for a gasoline-driven automobile.

~1898 – During the Spanish-American War, U.S. war ships set sail for Cuba.

~1898 – The Hundred Days' Reform was started by Guangxu Emperor with a plan to change social, political and educational institutions in China, but was suspended by Empress Dowager Cixi after 104 days. The failed reform did, however, lead to the abolition of Imperial Examination in 1905.

~1903 - King Aleksandar and Queen Draga of Serbia were savagely murdered in a coup by members of the Serbian army. Their mutilated bodies were then thrown from a palace balcony onto piles of garden manure.

~1917 – King Alexander assumed the throne of Greece after his father Constantine I abdicated under pressure by allied armies occupying Athens.

~1919 – Sir Barton won the Belmont Stakes, becoming the first horse to win the Triple Crown.

~1920 – During the U.S. Republican National Convention in Chicago, U.S. Republican Party leaders gathered in a room at the Blackstone Hotel to come to a consensus on their candidate for the U.S. presidential election, leading the Associated Press to first coin the political phrase "smoke-filled room".

~1927 - In Washington, Charles A. Lindberg was presented the first Distinguished Flying Cross by US President Calvin Coolidge.

~1928 – Born this day: Fabiola de Mora y Aragón, Queen Fabiola of Belgium.

~1936 – The International Surrealist Exhibition opened in London, England. (All the big name acid-heads back in the day attended that gig.)

~1938 – During the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Battle of Wuhan began. By the time the Japanese achieved victory, the following October, well over half a million casualties had been incurred by both sides of the conflict.

~1938 – Second Sino-Japanese War: The 1938 Yellow River flood, to halt Japanese forces by destroying a dyke on the Yellow River, had been started 2 days earlier by the Chinese Nationalist government. But by June 11th the flow had reached massive proportions and more than 500,000 civilians were killed. To achieve full surprise on the invading Japanese force, the Chinese Nationalist government decided not to inform the mass public before destroying the dyke. The flood submerged millions of homes and since they were not informed beforehand, the majority of people did not have time to flee.

~1939 – Born this day: Sir Jackie Stewart, Scottish race car driver, 3 time Formula One world champion and former F1 team principal.

~1944 – The Iowa class battleship USS Missouri received her commission from the US Navy. She was nicknamed the "Mighty Mo" and known worldwide as "The Peace Ship", for the signing of the instrument of surrender by the Japanese upon her decks in Tokyo Harbor on September 2nd, 1945. The Missouri saw action in no less than 3 wars and received 11 Battle Stars during a career thaty spanned 6 decades. USS Missouri was the last U.S. battleship to be completed and today is a floating museum ship in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

~1955 – The 1955 24 Hours of Le Mans Disaster: An Austin-Healey and a Mercedes-Benz collided at the while entering the pits at approximately 150 mph, sending the disintegrating (and burning) Mercedes hurtling through the air and into the crowd of spectators. In total it is estimated that between 80 and 120 spectators were killed, either by flying parts and debris, or from the fire, with a further 100 injured. No official death toll, however, was ever published.

~1956 – The start of Gal Oya riots, the first reported ethnic riots that targeted the minority Sri Lankan Tamils in the Eastern Province. The total number of deaths in the melee was reported as 150.

~1962 – Frank Morris, John Anglin and Clarence Anglin allegedly became the only prisoners to escape from the prison on Alcatraz Island.

~1963 – Alabama Governor George Wallace stood at the door of Foster Auditorium at the University of Alabama in an attempt to block 2 black students, Vivian Malone and James Hood, from attending that school. Later in the day, accompanied by federalized National Guard troops, they were able to register.

~1963 – Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc burnt himself with gasoline in a busy Saigon intersection to protest the lack of religious freedom in South Vietnam.

~1964 – A mentally ill World War II veteran ran amok in an elementary school in Cologne, Germany, killing at 8 children, 2 teachers and seriously injuried several more with a home-made flamethrower and a lance.

~1970 – After being appointed on May 15, Anna Mae Hays and Elizabeth P. Hoisington officially received their ranks as U.S. Army Generals, becoming the first females to do so.

~1972 – The Eltham Well Hall rail crash occcurred. Caused mainly by an intoxicated train driver, 6 people were killed and a further 126 injured.

~1981 – A magnitude 6.9 on the Richter Scale earthquake at Golbaf, Iran, killed at least 3,000, injured another 9,500 and left upwards of 100,000 homeless.

~1982 - Steven Spielberg's blockbuster movie "E.T." opened.

~1985 - Karen Ann Quinlan died at age 31 while still in a comatose state after 10 years. Her case prompted a historic right to die court decision.

~1987 - Margaret Thatcher became the first British prime minister in 160 years to win a 3rd consecutive term of office.

~1993 - Yet another of Steven Spielberg's blockbuster movies "Jurassic Park" opened in theaters.

~2001 – The principal perpetrator in the Oklahoma City bombing was executed.

~2002 – Antonio Meucci was acknowledged as the first inventor of the telephone by the United States Congress.

~2004 – The NASA/ESA robotic spacecraft "Cassini-Huygens" made its flyby of the Saturn moon Phoebe.

~2008 – Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper makes an historic official apology to Canada's First Nations in regard to a residential school abuse in which children are isolated from their homes, families and cultures for a century. Harper apologized, on behalf of the sitting Cabinet and in front of an audience of Aboriginal delegates (and in an address that was broadcast nationally on the CBC) for the past governments' policies of assimilation. The Prime Minister apologized not only for the known excesses of the residential school system, but for the creation of the system itself.

...

This post has been edited at member's request.Ron,

June 12th



~816 - Died this day: Pope Saint Leo III (b. 750).

~918 – Died this day: Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians (b. 869).

~1020 – Died this day: Lyfing, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. circa 949).

~1381 – During the Peasants' Revolt in England, Kentish rebels arrived at Blackheath.

~1429 – The Hundred Years' War: Joan of Arc led the French army in their capture of the city and the English commander, William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk on the second day of the Battle of Jargeau.

~1560 – At the Battle of Okehazama, the forces of Oda Nobunaga defeated the army of Imagawa Yoshimoto, which was 14 times its size, with a surprise attack from the rear.

~1653 – On the first day of the Battle of the Gabbard (fought off the coast of Suffolk, England), the English fleet led by Admirals John Lawson and William Penn delivered a serious mauling to the Dutch fleet commanded by Lieutenant-Admiral Maarten Tromp.

~1758 – At the Siege of Louisbourg, during the French and Indian War, Brigadier General James Wolfe and 1,220 picked men were sent with around the harbor to seize Lighthouse Point, which dominated the harbor entrance.

~1775 – British general Thomas Gage declared martial law in Massachusetts. The British offered a pardon to all colonists who would lay down their arms. There would be only 2 exceptions to the amnesty: Samuel Adams and John Hancock were to be hanged if captured.

~1776 – The Virginia Declaration of Rights was adopted unanimously by the Virginia Convention of Delegates as a separate document from the Constitution of Virginia (adopted on June 29th, 1776). It was later incorporated within the Virginia State Constitution as Article I, and a slightly updated version may still be seen in Virginia's Constitution, making it legally in effect to this day.

~1798 – During the Irish rebellion of 1798, British forces led by Major-General George Nugent engaged the local United Irishmen led by Henry Munro. The decisive British victory ended the rebellion in Ulster.

~1860 – The State Bank of the Russian Empire was established on the base of the State Commercial Bank by ukaz of Emperor Alexander II. This ukaz also ratified the Statute of the bank. According the Statute, it was a state owned bank, intended for short term credit of trade and industry.

~1864 – At the Battle of Cold Harbor, US General Ulysses S. Grant gave the Confederate forces under Robert E. Lee a victory by default when he pulled his Union troops from their positions at Cold Harbor, Virginia and marched southeast towards Petersburg, a crucial rail junction south of Richmond.

~1889 – The Armagh Rail Disaster occurred near Armagh, (Northern) Ireland when a crowded Sunday school excursion train had to negotiate a steep incline, the steam locomotive was unable to complete the climb and the train stalled out. The train crew decided to divide the train and take forward the front portion, leaving the rear portion on the running line. The rear portion had inadequate brakes, though, ran back down the gradient, colliding with a following train. At the time it was the worst rail disaster in Europe, and it remains the 4th worst in British history. 78 people were killed and 260 injured, most of them children.

~1898 – The Philippine Declaration of Independence was made in Cavite II el Viejo, Cavite, Philippines. With the public reading of the Act of the Declaration of Independence, Filipino revolutionary forces under General Emilio Aguinaldo proclaimed the sovereignty and independence of the Philippine Islands from the colonial rule of Spain, which had been recently defeated at the Battle of Manila Bay during the Spanish-American War.

~1899 – The New Richmond Tornado: An F5 tornado destroyed the village of New Richmond, Wisconsin killing 117 people and injuring 125. It remains the 8th deadliest tornado in U.S. history.

~1924 - Born this day: George H. W. Bush, World War II airman and 41st President of the United States.

~1924 - During gunnery practice off the coast of San Pedro, 48 men aboard the USS Mississippi were asphyxiated as a result of an explosion in her #2 main battery turret.

~1929 Born this day: Anne Frank, German born Dutch Jewish diarist and famed victim of the Holocaust (d. 1945).

~1931 - In Chicago, Al Capone and 68 of his associates were indicted for violating U.S. Prohibition laws.

~1939 – The Baseball Hall of Fame opened in Cooperstown, New York.

~1940 – 13,000 British and French troops unable to reach Dunkirk in time for the evacuation surrendered to German forces under the command of Major General Erwin Rommel at Saint-Valery-en-Caux.

~1943 – The Berezhany Massacre: German SS troops liquidated the Jewish Ghetto in Berezhany, western Ukraine. 1,180 Jews were led to the city's old Jewish graveyard and machine gunned into oblivion.

~1948 - The delightful little Avro 701 Athena, a British advanced trainer aircraft, made its maiden flight. The incredibly agile little bird was described as a pleasure to fly and maintain by the personnel assigned to her. It was designed to replace the North American Harvard in the Royal Air Force, but was only brought in small numbers, the competing Boulton Paul Balliol being preferred solely due to its lower cost.

~1957 - Died this day: Jimmy Dorsey, brother of Tommy, prominent American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, trumpeter, composer, and big band leader (b. 1904).

~1963 – Civil rights leader Medgar Evers was shot from behind in the driveway of his home in Jackson, Mississippi by a Ku Klux Klan member. It would be more than 30 years before his murderer would be convicted of the crime.

~1963 - The movie "Cleopatra" starring Elizabeth Taylor, Rex Harrison, and Richard Burton premiered at the Rivoli Theatre in New York City.

~1964 – Anti-apartheid activist and ANC leader Nelson Mandela was sentenced to life in prison for sabotage in South Africa.

~1967 – In Loving v. Virginia, the United States Supreme Court declared all U.S. state laws which prohibited interracial marriage to be unconstitutional.

~1967 – The Venera program: Venera 4 was launched on its mission to Venus, it would become the first space probe to enter another planet's atmosphere and successfully return data to Earth.

~1978 – In New York City, the "Son of Sam" killer was sentenced to 365 years in prison for 6 murders.

~1979 – Bryan Allen won the second Kremer prize for a man powered flight across the English Channel in the Gossamer Albatross.

~1987 – The Central African Republic's former Emperor Jean-Bédel Bokassa was sentenced to death for crimes he had committed during his 13 year rule.

~1987 – At the Brandenburg Gate U.S. President Ronald Reagan publicly challenged Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall, as a symbol of Reagan's desire for increasing freedom in the Eastern Bloc.

~1990 – The First Congress of People's Deputies of the Russian Federation adopted the Declaration of State Sovereignty of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. (Now that's a mouthful.)

~1991 – Boris Yeltsin was elected president of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic with 57% of the vote, becoming the first popularly elected president. However, Yeltsin never recovered his popularity after a series of economic and political crises in Russia in the 1990s.

~1991 – The Kokkadichcholai Massacre: Members of the Sri Lankan Army slaughtered 152 minority Tamil civilians in the village Kokkadichcholai near the eastern province town of Batticaloa, Sri Lanka.

~1994 – Ronald Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson were murdered outside her home in Los Angeles, California. In one of the most sensational and controversial trials of the 20th century O.J. Simpson was later acquitted of the killings. Afterwards he was held liable in a wrongful death civil suit brought by the families of the 2 victims.

~1994 - The long-range, wide body Boeing 777 jet airliner took to the skies over western Washington on its maiden flight. Still in production as of this date there are more than 860 examples of the immensely popular Triple 7's plying the commercial air routes all over the globe.

~1996 - In Philadelphia a panel of federal judges blocked a law against indecency on the internet. The panel said that the 1996 Communications Decency Act would infringe upon the free speech rights of adults.

~1997 – In London, Queen Elizabeth II reopened the Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, some 355 years after the previous Globe Theatre was permanently closed.

~1998 - A jury in Hattiesburg, MS, convicted 17 year old Luke Woodham of killing 2 students and wounding 7 others at Pearl High School. He had also been convicted of murdering his mother at home before going to the school that day.

~1999 – Operation Joint Guardian began when a NATO-led United Nations peacekeeping force (KFOR) entered the province of Kosovo in Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

~2000 – In Rio de Janeiro a 21 year old gunman armed with a revolver boarded Bus #174 intending to rob the passengers. The incident quickly turned into a hostage taking event the highly publicized (and televised) standoff became a media circus and ended with the death of the gunman and a hostage.

~2003 - In Arkansas, Terry Wallis spoke for the first time in nearly 19 years. Wallis had been in a coma since July 13, 1984, after being injured in a car accident.

~2004 – A 1.3 kilogram chondrite type meteorite strick a house in Ellerslie, New Zealand causing serious damage but no injuries. (Try explaining that one to your insurance agent...)

~2009 – In Iran, the controversial 2009 Presidential Election were held. In its aftermath were large scale protests in Iran and around the world.

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This post has been edited at member's request.Ron,

June 13th



~1036 - Died this day: ˤAlī az-Zāhir, the Seventh Caliph of the Fātimids (b. 1005).

~1231 - Died this day: Fernando Martins de Bulhões, venerated as Saint Anthony of Padua (b. circa 1195).

~1249 – The coronation of Alexander III as King of Scots took place at Scone, he was 7 years old at the time.

~1525 – Martin Luther married Katharina von Bora, against the celibacy rule decreed by the Roman Catholic Church for priests and nuns. (EEEEEEHAWWWWW...Stir it up, Marty!)

~1625 – King Charles I of England married French princess Henrietta Maria de Bourbon, a Catholic. (And if ya' think THAT) didn't cause problems...)

~1665 - The naval Battle of Lowestoft took place 40 miles east of the port of Lowestoft in Suffolk, England during the Second Anglo-Dutch War. The English fleet delivered a crushing defeat to the Dutch but they failed to take advantage of it.

~1777 – The Marquis de Lafayette landed near Charleston, South Carolina, in order to help the Continental Congress train its army.

~1798 – Mission San Luis Rey de Francia was founded in coastal Las Californias, near the present day U.S. city of Oceanside in California.

~1805 – The Lewis and Clark Expedition: Scouting ahead of the expedition, Meriwether Lewis and 4 companions sighted the Great Falls of the Missouri River.

~1871 – In Labrador, an early season hurricane roared in off the Atlantic, killing 300 people.

~1881 – The USS Jeannette was crushed in an Arctic Ocean ice pack while on an expedition to the North Pole through the Bering Strait.

~1886 – The Great Vancouver Fire: In a matter of only hours, a fire devastated most of Vancouver, British Columbia. The blaze began as a brush fire to clear land between present day Main and Cambie Streets, it was spread out of control by a strong gale that came up without warning. Dozens of lives were claimed by the fire and the only structures not destroyed were a stone building in the West End, the Hastings Mill Store, and a few structures on the banks of False Creek. The city was soon rebuilt with modern water, electricity and streetcar systems.

~1886 – The bodies of King Ludwig II of Bavaria and Dr. Bernhard von Gudden were found floating in Lake Starnberg south of Munich. Ludwig is sometimes also referred to as "Mad King Ludwig", though the accuracy of that label has been disputed. Because Ludwig was deposed on grounds of mental illness without any medical examination, and died a day later under mysterious circumstances, questions about the medical "diagnosis" remain controversial.

~1898 – In Canada's north, the Yukon Territory was formed with Dawson chosen as its capital.

~1916 - The Italian Andrea Doria class battleship "Caio Duilio" received her commission from the Regia Marina.

~1917 – The deadliest German air raid on London during World War I was carried out by Gotha G bombers and resulted in 162 deaths, including 46 children, and 432 injuries.

~1920 - The United States Postal Service ruled that children may not be sent via parcel post. (WHOA! What sheer brilliance on their part!)

~1927 – Aviator Charles Lindbergh received a ticker-tape parade down 5th Avenue in New York City in honor of his milestone trans-Atlantic flight the month previous.

~1934 – Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini met in Venice, Italy. Mussolini later described the German dictator as "a silly little monkey". (Takes one to to know one, Benny...!)

~1935 – In one of the biggest upsets in championship boxing, the 10 to 1 underdog James J. Braddock defeated Max Baer in Long Island City, New York, and became the heavyweight champion of the world.

~1942 – The United States Office of War Information was established by Executive Order 9182 to consolidate the functions of the Office of Facts and Figures, OWI's direct predecessor; the Office of Government Reports and the division of information of the Office for Emergency Management. The Foreign Intelligence Service, Outpost, Publication and Pictorial Branches of the Office of the Coordinator of Information were also transferred to the OWI. (Nothing more than a center for the production of propoganda.)

~1942 – The US established the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). It was the wartime intelligence agency and was the predecessor of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The agency was formed in order to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines for the branches of the United States military.

~1944 – The Battle of Bloody Gulch took place near Hill 30, approximately one mile (1.6 km) southwest of Carentan in Normandy, France. The engagement was fought between elements of the German 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division and 6th Fallschirmjäger Regiment, against the American 501st, 502nd and 506th, Parachute Infantry Regiments (PIR) of the U.S. 101st Airborne Division, reinforced by elements of the U.S. 2nd Armored Division. This German couter-attack was successfully crushed.

~1944 – The Buzz Bomb: The first V-1 was launched at London, one week after (and prompted by) the successful Allied landing in Europe. At its peak, over a hundred V-1s a day were fired at southeast England, 9,521 in total, decreasing in number as sites were overrun until October 1944 when the last V-1 site in range of Britain was overrun by Allied forces.

~1952 – The Catalina Affair: 2 Swedish military Catalina flying boats went in search of a missing DC-3 north of Estonia. One of the planes was shot down by Soviet warplanes but the crew ditched near the West German freighter Münsterland and were rescued.

~1955 – Mir Mine, the first diamond mine in the USSR, was discovered by Soviet geologists Yuri Khabardin, Ekaterina Elagina and Viktor Avdeenko during the Amakinsky Expedition.

~1966 – The United States Supreme Court ruled in Miranda v. Arizona that police must inform suspects of their rights before questioning them.

~1967 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Solicitor-General Thurgood Marshall to become the first black justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.

~1971 – The New York Times began publication of the Pentagon Papers.

~1977 – The convicted assassin of Martin Luther King Jr. was recaptured after escaping from prison 3 days before.

~1981 – At the Trooping the Colour ceremony in London, a teenager fired 6 blank shots at Queen Elizabeth II.

~1982 - Died this day: King Khalid of Saudi Arabia (b. 1912).

~1982 – Crown Prince Fahd ascended the throne of Saudi Arabia upon the death of his brother, King Khalid.

~1983 – Pioneer 10 became the first man made object to leave the solar system.

~1986 - Benny Goodman, musician, big band era leader, composer and "King of Swing" (b. 1909).

~1995 – French president Jacques Chirac announced the resumption of nuclear tests in French Polynesia. (Can you say HYPOCRITE? Sure ya' can...I knew ya' could!)

~1996 – The Montana Freemen surrendered after an 81 day standoff with FBI agents.

~1997 – A jury sentenced the principal perpetrator of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing to death.

~1997 – The Uphaar Cinema Fire, in Green Park, Delhi, occurred during the premiere screening of Border, a patriotic Hindi movie. 59 people died and 103 were seriously injured in the subsequent stampede. Most of the victims were trapped on the balcony and were asphyxiated as they tried to reach dimly marked exits to escape the smoke and fire, only to find the doors locked.

~2000 – President Kim Dae Jung of South Korea met Kim Jong-il (leader of North Korea) for the beginning of the first ever inter-Korea summit, in the northern capital of Pyongyang.

~2000 – Italy pardoned Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turkish gunman who tried to kill Pope John Paul II in 1981.

~2002 – The United States withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

~2005 – A jury in Santa Maria, California acquitted Michael Jackson of molesting 13 year old Gavin Arvizo at his Neverland Ranch.

~2007 – The Al Askari Mosque in Samarra, Iraq was bombed for a 2nd time.

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This post has been edited at member's request.Ron,

June 14th



~1161 – Died this day: Emperor Qinzong of China (b. 1100)

~1276 – While taking exile in Fuzhou in southern China away from the advancing Mongol invaders the remnants of the Song Dynasty court held the coronation ceremony for the young prince Zhao Shi, making him Emperor Duanzong of Song.

~1381 - The Peasant’s Revolt, led by Wat Tyler, climaxed when rebels marched on London. They plundered, burned and captured the Tower of London, killing the Archbishop of Canterbury. This in spite of being granted a meeting with King Richard II of England. The revolt was in response to a statute intended to hold down wages during a labor shortage.

~1381 – Died this day: Simon Sudbury, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. circa 1330).

~1645 – The Battle of Naseby was fought near Market Harborough, Northamptonshire, it was the key battle of the First English Civil War. The main armed force of King Charles I was destroyed by the Parliamentarian New Model Army under Sir Thomas Fairfax and Oliver Cromwell.

~1666 - During the Second Anglo-Dutch War, The Four Days Battle (fought off the Flemish and English coast) ended with a Dutch victory. It remains one of the longest naval engagements in history.

~1775 - the Second Continental Congress decided to proceed with the establishment of a Continental Army for purposes of common defense, adopting the forces already in place outside Boston (22,000 troops) and New York (5,000). It also raised the first 10 companies of Continental troops on a 1 year enlistment, riflemen from Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia to be used as light infantry, who later became the 1st Continental Regiment in 1776.

~1777 - The Continental Congress in Philadelphia adopted the "Stars and Stripes" as the national flag of the United States.

~1789 – Mutiny survivors of HMS Bounty, including Lieutenent William Bligh and 18 others reached Timor after a journey of nearly 7,400 km (4,000 mi) in an open boat.

~1800 – The Battle of Marengo was fought between French forces under Napoleon Bonaparte and an Austrian army led by General Michael von Melas near the city of Alessandria, in Piedmont, Italy. The French defeated von Melas's surprise attack, driving the Austrians out of Italy and enhancing Napoleon's political position in Paris.

~1807 – Emperor Napoleon I's French Grande Armee decidevely defeated the Russian Army at the Battle of Friedland in Poland, ending the War of the Fourth Coalition.

~1821 – King Badi VII of Sennar, surrendered his throne and realm to Isma'il Pasha, general of the Ottoman Empire, ending the existence of that Sudanese kingdom.

~1830 - The French Invasion of Algeria: French General de Bourmont landed 27 kilometres (17 mi) west of Algiers, at Sidi Ferruch with 34,000 soldiers to begin the conquest of Algiers.

~1834 - Cyrus Hall McCormick received a patent for his reaping machine.

~1839 – Henley Royal Regatta: the village of Henley-on-Thames, on the River Thames in Oxfordshire, staged its first Regatta.

~1846 – The Bear Flag Revolt began. Anglo settlers in Sonoma, California, started a rebellion against Mexico and proclaimed the California Republic.

~1863 – At the Battle of Second Winchester, a Union Army garrison commanded by Major General Robert H. Milroy was totally defeated by the Army of Northern Virginia under Confederate Lieutenant General Richard S. Ewell in the Shenandoah Valley town of Winchester, Virginia.

~1863 – The second assault by Union Forces under Major General Nathaniel P. Banks on the Confederate works, during the Siege of Port Hudson, was successfully repelled.

~1905 - A gun explosion in the #1 main turret of the Royal Navy's Majestic class battleship HMS Magnificent resulted in 18 casualties.

~1907 – Norway adopted female suffrage.

~1917 - The French built Nieuport 28, a biplane fighter aircraft, flew for the first time. Designed by Gustave Delage, it was the first aircraft to see service with an American fighter squadron.

~1919 – John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown departed St. John's, Newfoundland in a modified World War I Vickers Vimy bomber on the first nonstop transatlantic flight.

~1926 – Brazil left the League of Nations.

~1932 - U.S. Representative Edward Eslick died on the floor of the House of Representatives while pleading for the passage of the bonus bill.

~1933 - The first Grumman FF biplane fighters to enter service were delivered to Fighter Squadron VF-5B of the USS Lexington. In service the FF-1 became familiarly known as the "Fifi". Although it was withdrawn from first-line duties after only 3 years, it would soldier on as a training aircraft well into the Second World War.

~1940 – Paris fell to German forces with Allied armies in full retreat.

~1940 – The Soviet Union presented an ultimatum to Lithuania resulting in the Lithuanian loss of independence.

~1940 – The first transport of 728 Polish prisoners, which included 20 Jews, arrived at the Auschwitz concentration camp.

~1941 – The June Deportation: The first major wave of Soviet mass deportations and murder of Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians, began.

~1942 – Anne Frank began to keep her diary.

~1951 – UNIVAC I was dedicated by the U.S. Census Bureau.

~1954 - Americans took part in the first nationwide civil defense test against atomic attack.

~1959 – A group of Dominican exiles with leftist tendencies departed from Cuba and landed in the Dominican Republic with the intent of deposing Generalissimo Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina. All but 4 of them were killed or executed by Trujillo's army.

~1962 – The New Mexico Supreme Court, in the case of Montoya v. Bolack, prohibited state and local governments from denying Indians the right to vote because they live on a reservation.

~1966 – The Vatican announced the abolition of the Index Librorum Prohibitorum (index of prohibited books), which was originally instituted in 1559.

~1967 – The Mariner Program: Mariner 5 was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Complex 12 on its mission to Venus.

~1976 – The trial of the killer known as the Black Panther, began at Oxford Crown Court.

~1982 – The Falklands War ended when the occupying Argentine troops in the capital of Stanley unconditionally surrendered to British forces.

~1985 – TWA Flt. 847, a Boeing 727, was hijacked by Lebanese Shia Extremists after originally taking off from Cairo, Egypt. The flight was en route from Athens, Greece to Rome, Italy, from where it was scheduled to travel on to London. The aircraft with its passengers and crew endured a 3 day intercontinental ordeal during which one passenger, a U.S. Navy diver, was murdered. Dozens of passengers were then held hostage over the next 2 weeks, until released by their captors.

~1989 - Former U.S. President Reagan received an honorary knighthood from Britain's Queen Elizabeth II.

~1989 - Zsa Zsa Gabor was arrested in Beverly Hills for slapping a motorcycle cop when he stopped her for a traffic violation. She was found guilty of the assault in a well publicized trial and sentenced to 3 days in the El Segundo jail. The judge also required her to pay $13,000 in court costs.

~1995 - Chechen rebels took over 2,000 people hostage in a hospital in Russia.

~2002 - A truck with a fertilizer bomb, driven by a suicide bomber, was detonated outside the US Consulate in Karachi, Pakistan. 12 people were killed and 51 injured in the blast. A group called al-Qanoon claimed responsibility for the attack. However, the incident is believed to have been connected with al-Qaeda and the US War on Terror although no conclusive links were proven.


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This post has been edited at member's request.Ron,

June 15th



~763 BC – The Assyrians recorded a solar eclipse that would later be used to fix the chronology of Mesopotamian history.

~923 – The Battle of Soissons: King Robert I of France was killed and King Charles the Simple was arrested by the supporters of Duke Rudolph of Burgundy who ascended the throne of France upon Robert's death.

~991 – Died this day: Empress Theophanu, Byzantine wife of Otto II, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 960).

~1073 – Died this day: Emperor Go-Sanjō of Japan (b. 1034).

~1184 – King Magnus V of Norway was killed and his fleet destroyed by the naval fleet of King Sverre at the Battle of Fimreite, fought off the coast of Norway near the hamlet of Fimreite in the long and narrow Sognefjord in Sogndal municipality.

~1215 – King John of England put his seal to the Magna Carta at Runnymede, England. Magna Carta required King John of England to proclaim certain rights pertaining to freemen, respect certain legal procedures and accept that his will could be bound by the law. It explicitly protected certain rights of the King's subjects, whether free or fettered and implicitly supported what became the writ of habeas corpus, allowing appeal against unlawful imprisonment. Magna Carta was arguably the most significant early influence on the extensive historical process that led to the rule of constitutional law today in the English speaking world. Magna Carta influenced the development of the common law and many constitutional documents, including the United States Constitution.

~1219 - The Battle of Lyndanisse was fought between the troops of King Valdemar II of Denmark and an Estonian force. Valdemar II defeated the Estonians at Lyndanisse, under the pretext of helping the Crusade in Palestine, by orders from the Pope. The victory helped establish the territory of Danish Estonia during the Northern Crusades.

~1246 – The Battle of the Leitha River was fough near the banks of the Leitha river between the forces of the King Béla IV of Hungary and Duke Frederick II of Austria. The battle resulted in a Hungarian victory, the death of Frederick II (ending the Babenburg dybasty in Hungary) and Austrian claims to the western counties of Hungary. Its exact location is unknown, according to the description delivered by contemporary minnesinger Ulrich von Liechtenstein the battlefield may have been between the towns of Ebenfurth and Neufeld.

~1341 – Died this day: Andronikos III Palaiologos, Byzantine Emperor (b. 1297).

~1381 – Died this day: Wat Tyler, English rebel and leader of the Peasant's Revolt (b. 1341).

~1383 – Died this day: John VI Cantacuzenus, Byzantine Emperor (b. c. 1292).

~1389 – At the Battle of Kosovo: The invading army of the Ottoman Empire under the leadership of Sultan Murad I (who was killed in the battle) defeated the combined Serbs and Bosnian defense forces. The battle took place in the Kosovo Field, about 5 kilometers northwest of modern day Pristina.

~1520 – Pope Leo X threatened to excommunicate Martin Luther in the papal bull Exsurge Domine.

~1580 – King Philip II of Spain declared William I, Prince of Orange (William the Silent) to be an outlaw.

~1667 – The first human blood transfusion was administered by Dr. Jean-Baptiste Denys, the personal physician to King Louis XIV. He transfused about 12 ounces of sheep blood into a 15year old boy, who had been bled with leeches 20 times. The boy survived the transfusion.

~1752 – Benjamin Franklin proved that lightning is electricity by conducting his famous kite experiment in Philadelphia; successfully extracted sparks from a cloud.

~1775 – George Washington was unanimously appointed commander-in-chief of the Continental Army.

~1785 – Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier, co-pilot of the first ever manned flight in 1783, and his companion Pierre Romain became the first ever casualties of an air crash when their hot air balloon exploded during their attempt to cross the English Channel.

~1804 – New Hampshire approved the Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which provides the procedure by which the President and Vice President are elected. This 13th vote in favor was enough to ratify the document.

~1836 – Arkansas s admitted as the 25th state of the Union.

~1844 – Charles Goodyear received a patent for vulcanization, a process to strengthen rubber.

~1846 – The Oregon Treaty, between Britain and the United States was signed in Washington, D.C. The treaty brought an end to the Oregon boundary dispute by settling competing American and British claims to the Oregon Country, which had been jointly occupied by both Britain and the U.S. since the Treaty of 1818. It established the 49th parallel as the border between the United States and Canada, from the Rocky Mountains to the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

~1859 – The Pig War: Ambiguity in the Oregon Treaty led to the "Northwestern Boundary Dispute" between U.S. and British/Canadian settlers. Lyman Cutlar, an American farmer who had moved onto San Juan Island claiming rights to live there under the United States' Donation Land Claim Act (1850), shot and killed a large black pig rooting in his garden. He had found the giant black boar eating his tubers. This was not the first occurrence. Cutlar was so upset that he took aim and shot the pig. It turned out that the pig was owned by an Irishman, Charles Griffin, who was employed by the Hudson's Bay Company to run the sheep ranch. He also owned several pigs which he allowed to roam freely. The pair had lived in peace until this incident. When British authorities threatened to arrest Cutlar, American settlers called for US military protection. The affair was settled and the only casualty in the Pig War was the original pig.

~1867 – The Atlantic Cable Quartz Lode gold mine, located in Deer Lodge County, Montana, was officially named. (Just in case there's someone out there who actually cares.)

~1877 – Henry Ossian Flipper became the first black cadet to graduate from the United States Military Academy at West Point.

~1885 - The Royal Navy Admiral class battleship HMS Benbow was launched at the Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Co. shipyards. She was one of the first warships to be fitted with the new Elswick BL 16.25 in. gun.

~1888 - Died this day: Frederick III, German Emperor (b. 1831).

~1888 – Crown Prince Wilhelm ascended the throne of Germany and Prussia as Kaiser Wilhelm II, upon the death of his father Emperor Frederick III; he will be the last Emperor of the German Empire.

~1896 – The Meiji-Sanriku Earthquake: The magnitude 7.2 shaker generated the most destructive tsunami in Japan's history, killing more than 22,000 people.

~1904 – The sidewheel steam passenger ship PS General Slocum caught fire and burned to the waterline in New York City's East River. 1,021 of the 1,342 people on board were killed.

~1905 – Princess Margaret of Connaught married Gustaf, Crown Prince of Sweden in St. George's Chapel, at Windsor Castle. (Gustaf definitely had an eye for the ladies...Margaret was drop dead gorgeous!)

~1911 – The Tabulating Computing Recording Corporation was incorporated in Endicott, New York. The company operates today as International Business Machines Co., Limited (IBM).

~1913 – The Battle of Bud Bagsak in the Philippines ended with a US victory. It was fought between defending Moro resistance fighters and American forces led by General John 'Black Jack' Pershing.

~1919 – John Alcock and Arthur Brown completed the first nonstop trans-atlantic flight when they reached (crash landed at) Clifden, County Galway in Ireland.

~1920 – The Duluth Lynchings: 3 black circus workers were attacked and lynched by a mob in Duluth, Minnesota. Rumors had circulated among the mob that 6 black had raped a teenage girl. A physician's examination of the girl subsequently found no evidence of rape or assault. The killings shocked the country, particularly for their having occurred in the northern United States. In 2003, the city of Duluth erected a memorial for the murdered workers.

~1920 – A new border treaty between Germany and Denmark gave northern Schleswig to Denmark.

~1932 - The Chaco War (1932–35) began. It was fought between Bolivia and Paraguay over control of the northern part of the Gran Chaco region (the Chaco Boreal) of South America, which was incorrectly thought to be rich in oil. It would prove to be the bloodiest military conflict fought in the Americas during the 20th century.

~1934 – The U.S. Great Smoky Mountains National Park was officially established.

~1936 - The Vickers Wellington, a British long range medium bomber made its first flight from Brooklands in Weybridge, Surrey, It was widely used as a night bomber in the early years of the Second World War, before being displaced as a bomber by the larger 4 engine "heavies" such as the Avro Lancaster. The Wellington continued to serve throughout the war in other duties, particularly as an anti-submarine aircraft. It was the only British bomber to be produced for the entire duration of the war. The Wellington was popularly known as the Wimpy by service personnel, after J. Wellington Wimpy from the Popeye cartoons.

~1937 – A German mountain climbing expedition of 16, led by Karl Wien, was wiped out in an avalanche on Nanga Parbat. It is still the worst single disaster to occur on an 8000m peak.

~1944 – The Battle of Saipan began. More than 8,000 US Marines landed on the island of Saipan in the Mariana Islands under the fire cover of US Navy warships.

~1944 – In the Saskatchewan provincial general election, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) led by Tommy Douglas was elected and formed the first socialist government in North America.

~1945 - The first flight of the North American F-82 Twin Mustang. It was the last American piston engine fighter ordered into production by the United States Air Force. Based on the P-51 Mustang, the F-82 was originally designed as a long range escort fighter in World War II, however the war ended well before the first production units were operational, so its postwar role changed to that of nightfighting. Radar equipped F-82s were used extensively by the Air Defense Command as replacements for the P-61 Black Widow night fighter. During the Korean War, Japanese based F-82s were among the first USAF aircraft to operate over Korea. The first 3 North Korean aircraft destroyed by U.S. forces were shot down by F-82s, the first being a North Korean Yak-11 downed over Gimpo by the USAF 68th Fighter Squadron.

~1954 – UEFA (Union des Associations Européennes de Football) was formed in Basel, Switzerland following discussions between the French, Italian and Belgian Football Associations.

~1969 - Hee Haw debuted on CBS television, quickly becoming an institution. (A sad institution but...)

~1978 – King Hussein of Jordan married American Lisa Halaby, who took the name Queen Noor.

~1985 – At the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Rembrandt's painting Danaë was attacked by a lunatic who threw sulfuric acid on the canvas and cut it twice with a knife.

~1992 - The United States Supreme Court ruled in United States vs. Alvarez-Machain that it is permissible for the US to abduct suspects in foreign countries and bring them to America for trial, without approval from those other countries. No reciprocal right was recognized for the reverse to happen in the US. (Ain't hypocrisy grand?)

~1996 – Died this day: Ella Fitzgerald, legendary American jazz singer (b. 1917).

~1996 – The Provisional Irish Republican Army detonated a large bomb in the middle of Manchester, England. Although no one was kileed by the blast, 212 people were injured.

~1999 - George Morber Senior and Carolyn Frederick were murdered by "The Railway Killer" in Gorham, Illinois. They were believed to be his 14th & 15th victims, in his 7th and final incident.

~2002 – The near-Earth asteroid 2002 MN missed the Earth by 75,000 miles (121,000 km), about 1/3 of the distance between the Earth and the Moon. According to NASA, it was the 2nd closest approach to Earth in recorded history. Its mass and relative velocity were in the same general range as the object ascribed to the Tunguska event of 1908, which levelled over 800 square miles (2,100 km2) of trees in Siberia.

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This post has been edited at member's request.Ron,

June 16th



~1487 - The decisive Lancastrian victory at the Battle of Stoke Field proved to be the last dying breath of the Wars of the Roses.

~1567 – Mary, Queen of Scots was imprisoned in Loch Leven Castle and forced to abdicate in favour of her one year old son, James VI. (2 out of 5 sources claim this as occurring on June 15th.)

~1745 – The Siege of Louisbourg: With British forces tightening their grip on Louisberg and the rest of Cape Breton Island the French commanders decide to surrender. They capitulated the next day.

~1746 – Austrian and Sardinian forces engaged a Franco-Spanish army at the Battle of Piacenza. The result was a victory for the Austrian forces, led by Prince Josef Wenzel. It formed part of later operations in the War of the Austrian Succession.

~1755 – French and Indian War: the French surrendered Fort Beauséjour to the British, leading to the expulsion of the Acadians. French priest Jean-Louis Le Loutre's last act of defiance was to burn the local Cathedral so that it would not fall into the hands of the British. For leading the resistance against the British occupation of Acadia, he was captured and imprisoned for 8 years.

~1774 – The city of Harrodsburg was founded. It is the oldest city in Kentucky.

~1779 – Spain declared war on Great Britain, the Great Siege of Gibraltar began shortly thereafter.

~1815 – The Battle of Ligny was fought in Belgium. It was the last victory of the military career of Napoleon Bonaparte. In this battle, French troops of the Armée du Nord under Napoleon's command, defeated a Prussian army under Field Marshal Blücher. The bulk of the Prussian army survived, however, and went on to play a pivotal role 2 days later at the Battle of Waterloo.

~1815 - The Battle of Quatre Bras, between the Duke of Wellington's Anglo-Dutch army and the left wing of the Armée du Nord under French Marshal Michel Ney, was fought near the strategic crossroads of Quatre Bras. It ended with a tactical draw.

~1846 – The Papal conclave of 1846 concluded. Pope Pius IX was elected Pope, beginning the longest reign in the history of the papacy aside from St. Peter.

~1858 – Abraham Lincoln delivered his House Divided speech in Springfield, Illinois, upon accepting the Illinois Republican Party's nomination as that state's United States senator. The speech became the launching point for his unsuccessful campaign for the Senate seat against Stephen A. Douglas, which included the Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858. The speech also created a lasting image of the danger of disunion because of slavery and it rallied Republicans across the North. Along with the Gettysburg Address and his second inaugural address, this became one of the best known speeches of his career.

~1871 – The University Test Act allowed students to enter the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge and Durham without religious tests, except for courses in theology.

~1883 – 183 children died during the Victoria Hall theatre panic in Sunderland, England when they were caught in a crowd crush at a partially blocked doorway.

~1884 - The first roller coaster in the United States, the "Switchback Railway" began operation at Coney Island, New York. (3 out of 7 sources list this as occurring on June 13th.)

~1891 – John Abbott became Canada's 3rd Prime Minister. He was made famous throughout the Western World with his political comment [i]"I hate politics"[i/]. The full quote was [i]"I hate politics and what are considered their appropriate measures. I hate notoriety, public meetings, public speeches, caucuses and everything that I know of which is apparently the necessary incident of politics; except doing public work to the best of my ability."[i/]

~1903 – The Ford Motor Company was incorporated by Henry Ford in Dearborn, Michigan. The company was launched in a converted factory with $28,000 in cash from 12 investors, most notably John and Horace Dodge. The Dodge brothers would later found their own car company.

~1904 – Eugen Schauman shot and killed Nikolai Bobrikov, the Governor General of Finland, before turning the gun on himself.

~1904 – Irish author James Joyce began his relationship with his future wife Nora Barnacle. He subsequently used the date to set the actions for his novel Ulysses; this date is now traditionally called "Bloomsday".

~1911 – A 772 gram stony meteorite impacted and seriously damaged a barn near Kilbourn, Columbia County, Wisconsin.

~1916 - The first Armstrong Whitworth F.K.8 reconnaissance/bomber was delivered to the Royal Flying Corps' Central Flying School at Upavon. The sturdily built aircraft was powered by a 160 hp (110 kW) Beardmore water-cooled engine. The type was unusual in having dual controls, enabling the observer to control the aircraft in the event of the pilot becoming incapacitated by enemy action. (Read: Made a one way trip to the happy hunting ground.)

~1924 – The Whampoa Military Academy was officially opened. It was a military academy in the Republic of China (ROC) that produced many prestigious commanders who fought in many of China's conflicts during the 20th century, notably the Northern Expedition, the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese Civil War.

~1925 – The most famous Young Pioneer camp of the USSR, Artek, was established near the Black Sea in the town of Gurzuf located on the Crimean peninsula.

~1938 - The US Navy placed its initial order for the Brewster Buffalo F2A-1 fighter plane. The initial order of 66 units was soon followed by orders for many more. But while the Buffalo was a delightful little plane to fly, even by the time it had made its first flight in December 1937 it was obsolete. Contempory fighters of the day such as the Mitsubishi A6M Zero, the Messerschmitt Bf 109, the Supermarine Spitfire, the Macchi C.200 Saetta and others were far superior in performance to the Buffalo.

~1940 – French Marshal Henri Philippe Pétain became Prime Minister of a defeated France. He held the position for 25 days before completing his traitorous sell out to Nazi Germany and becoming the puppet Premier of Vichy France.

~1958 – Imre Nagy, Pál Maléter and other leaders of the 1956 Hungarian Uprising were executed.

~1960 - Alfred Hitchcock's classic thriller "Psycho" opened in New York.

~1963 – The launch of Vostok 6 took place. Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space during this, the last flight of a Vostok 3KA spacecraft.

~1976 – The Soweto uprising: a non violent march by 15,000 students in Soweto, South Africa turned into days of rioting when police opened fire on the crowd. More than 500 were killed and another 1,000 plus injured in the ensuing violence.

~1977 – Oracle Corporation was incorporated in Redwood Shores, California, as Software Development Laboratories (SDL) by Larry Ellison, Bob Miner and Ed Oates.

~1980 - Former Canadian Ambassador to Iran, Ken Taylor, was honored for helping 6 Americans escape from Tehran during the Iranian hostage crisis in what became known as the "Canadian Caper".

~1983 - Yuri Andropov became Chairmen of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet.

~1997 – The Dairat Labguer massacre in Algeria left 50 people murdered by some 30 or more guerrillas, who also kidnapped women, killed the livestock and stole jewelry. (Another day, another Algerian massacre...)

~2000 – Died this day: Empress Kōjun of Japan (b. 1903).

~2002 - ABC Television cancelled "Politically Incorrect" (from sponsors dropping the show) after host Bill Maher made controversial comments on air regarding the September 11th Terrorist Attacks, including the integrity of US President George W. Bush.

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This post has been edited at member's request.Ron,