June 13
2000:
Historic meeting between North and South Korean leaders.
On this day in 2000, South Korean President Kim Dae Jung met North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in a summit that marked the first meeting between heads of the two countries, helping earn Kim Dae Jung the Nobel Peace Prize.
1971:
The New York Times began publishing the “Pentagon Papers”—a series of articles based on a study of the U.S. role in Indochina from World War II until May 1968.
1967:
Thurgood Marshall was nominated as justice to the U.S. Supreme Court by President Lyndon B. Johnson.
1966:
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favour of Ernesto Miranda in Miranda v. Arizona, affirming that constitutional guarantees against self-incrimination include restrictions on police interrogation of an arrested suspect.
1913:
Hudson Stuck and Harry Karstens led a mountaineering party to the south peak, the true summit of Mount McKinley, becoming the first people to ascend North America's highest peak (6,194 metres ).
1897: Finnish track athlete Paavo Nurmi—who dominated long-distance running in the 1920s, capturing nine gold medals in three Olympic Games (1920, 1924, 1928)—was born.
1878:
The Congress of Berlin met to sign the Treaty of Berlin to replace the Treaty of San Stefano, which had been signed by Russia and Turkey (March 3, 1878) at the conclusion of the last of the Russo-Turkish wars.
323:
The king of Macedonia, Alexander the Great, died in Babylon.
June14
1940:
First prisoners at Auschwitz.
On this day in 1940, the first transport of Polish political prisoners arrived at Auschwitz, which became Nazi Germany's largest concentration, extermination, and slave-labour camp, where more than one million people died.
1982:
The surrender of the large Argentine garrison at Port Stanley to the British military concluded the Falkland Islands War, which was fought for the control of the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) and its dependencies—territory long disputed by the warring nations.
1963:
The manned Soviet spacecraft Vostok 5 was launched, and two days later Vostok 6 was sent into orbit, carrying Valentina V. Tereshkova, the first woman cosmonaut.
1928:
Che Guevara—a theoretician and tactician of guerrilla warfare, a prominent communist figure in the Cuban Revolution (1956–59), and a guerrilla leader in South America—was born.
1807:
Napoleon won the Battle of Friedland, leading to a treaty with Alexander I of Russia.
1800: Napoleon and his troops defeated the Austrians in the Battle of Marengo, securing his military and civilian authority in Paris.
1777:
The Continental Congress approved the Stars and Stripes as the first national flag of the United States.
1658:
The French and English defeated Spanish forces near Dunkirk (then in the Spanish Netherlands) in the Battle of the Dunes.
1645:
The parliamentary New Model Army led by Oliver Cromwell defeated the royalists under Prince Rupert in the Battle of Naseby.
June 15
1215:
Magna Carta sealed by King John.
Magna Carta—a charter of English liberties that occupies a unique place in the popular imagination as a symbol and a battle cry against oppression—was sealed this day, under threat of civil war, by King John in 1215.
1944:
During World War II, U.S. Marines attacked Saipan in the Mariana Islands.
1903:
American automobile-racing driver Barney Oldfield accomplished the first mile-a-minute performance in a car at Indianapolis, Indiana.
1861:
Austrian contralto Ernestine Schumann-Heink, one of the principal interpreters of the operas of Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss before the outbreak of World War I, was born.
1846:
The United States and Britain signed the Oregon Treaty, establishing the border between Canada and the United States at latitude 49° N.
1844:
Charles Goodyear received a patent for the process of rubber vulcanization.
1775:
George Washington was named commander in chief of the colonies by the Continental Congress.
1752:
Benjamin Franklin flew a kite during a storm in Philadelphia to demonstrate the relationship between electricity and lightning.
1389:
The Battle of Kosovo, fought between the armies of the Serbian prince Lazar and the forces of the Ottoman sultan Murad I, concluded with an Ottoman victory.
June 16
1963:
First woman in space.
On this day in 1963, Soviet cosmonaut Valentina V. Tereshkova became the first woman to travel in space, having been launched into orbit aboard the spacecraft Vostok 6, which completed 48 orbits in 71 hours.
1976:
South African police fired on a group of Soweto students marching in protest against state plans to impose the Afrikaans language as a medium of instruction in black schools, igniting a massive popular uprising.
1933:
The Hundred Days period of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt came to a close, with the bulk of his New Deal legislation passed.
1933:
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) was created under authority of the Federal Reserve Act of 1933.
1932:
The Lausanne Conference, held to liquidate Germany's payment of reparations to the former Allied and Associated powers of World War I, opened.
1917:
American publisher Katharine Graham, owner and publisher of The Washington Post and Newsweek magazine, was born in New York City.
1903:
The Ford Motor Company was founded by Henry Ford and 11 associate investors.
1874:
Arthur Meighen, leader of the Conservative Party and prime minister of Canada (1920–21, 1926), was born.
July 17
1994:
Arrest of O.J. Simpson.
On this day in 1994, American gridiron football hero O.J. Simpson was charged with the murders of his ex-wife Nicole Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman, though after a sensational trial he was acquitted the following year.
1972:
The Watergate, an office-apartment-hotel complex in Washington, D.C., and the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee, was broken into by five men who were later arrested, prompting the Watergate Scandal that upended the administration of U.S. President Richard M. Nixon.
1944:
Iceland declared itself a republic.
1940:
The Soviet Red Army invaded Latvia, which led to the incorporation of the country into the U.S.S.R.
1930:
The United States imposed the protectionist Smoot-Hawley Tariff, raising the average tariff by some 20 percent and making worse an already beleaguered world economy.
1871:
James Weldon Johnson—a poet, diplomat, and anthologist of African American culture—was born.
1775:
In the Battle of Bunker Hill, American colonial revolutionaries clashed with British regulars during the Siege of Boston.
July 18
1812:
War of 1812 begun.
On this day U.S. President James Madison signed a declaration of war against Great Britain, initiating the War of 1812, which arose chiefly from U.S. grievances over oppressive maritime practices during the Napoleonic Wars.
1983:
The first American woman to fly into outer space, Sally Ride, was launched with four other astronauts aboard the space shuttle Challenger.
1979: The SALT (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks) II treaty was signed by U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Soviet leader Leonid Ilich Brezhnev.
1940:
Broadcasting from London after France fell to the Nazis, French General Charles de Gaulle appealed to his compatriots to continue World War II under his leadership.
1815:
Napoleon was defeated in the Battle of Waterloo, ending 23 years of recurrent warfare between France and the other powers of Europe.
1429:
Joan of Arc led the French army against the English at Patay, France.
June 19
1953:
Rosenbergs executed for espionage.
After the failure of court appeals and of a worldwide campaign for mercy, husband and wife Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were put to death this day in 1953, becoming the first American civilians to be executed for espionage.
1963:
Soviet cosmonaut Valentina V. Tereshkova, the first woman to travel in space, returned to Earth in the spacecraft Vostok 6.
1961:
Great Britain recognized Kuwait's independence.
1944:
During World War II the Japanese Combined Fleet and the U.S. Fifth Fleet engaged in a major air-and-sea battle, the Battle of the Philippine Sea, which ended the next day with a U.S. victory.
1934:
The Federal Communications Commission was organized in the United States.
1903:
Lou Gehrig (the “Iron Horse”), one of the most durable players in American professional baseball and one of its great hitters, was born.
1867:
The emperor of Mexico, Maximilian, was executed by a firing squad.
1846:
Alexander Joy Cartwright arranged a baseball game between the New York Knickerbockers and the New York Nine at Hoboken, New Jersey—the first baseball game to use the set of rules on which today's game is based.
June 20
1567:
Casket Letters found.
The Casket Letters—which directly implicated Mary, Queen of Scots, in a plot with James Hepburn, 4th earl of Bothwell, to murder Mary's husband, Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley—were said to have been discovered this day in 1567.
1992:
A new constitution went into effect in Paraguay, signaling the end of military rule established in the 1950s by Alfredo Stroessner.
1940:
A new government was announced in Latvia following the Soviet Red Army's invasion of the country.
1928:
American jazz musician Eric Dolphy was born in Los Angeles.
1905:
American playwright and screenwriter Lillian Hellman was born in New Orleans, Louisiana.
1887:
German Dada artist and poet Kurt Schwitters was born in Hannover.
1789:
Locked out of their meeting hall at Versailles, the deputies of the Third Estate in France congregated on a nearby tennis court and took an oath not to separate until a written constitution had been established—the Tennis Court Oath.
June 21
1945:
Japanese defenses crushed on Okinawa.
On April 1, 1945, during World War II, some 60,000 U.S. troops landed on the west coast of Okinawa, regarded as the last stepping stone to be taken before the assault on the main islands of Japan. Although the Japanese employed 355 kamikaze air raids and the Yamato, the greatest battleship in the world (sunk on April 7), in defense of the island, U.S. ground forces met little opposition on the beaches, because the Japanese commander, Lieutenant General Ushijima Mitsuru, had decided to offer his main resistance inland, out of range of the enemy's naval guns. In the southern half of the island this resistance was bitterest and lasted until this day. Ushijima killed himself the next day.
1982:
John Hinckley, Jr., was ruled to be innocent by reason of insanity in the shooting of U.S. President Ronald Reagan.
1963:
Paul VI was elected pope of the Roman Catholic church.
1919:
Italian American architect Paolo Soleri was born in Turin, Italy.
1870:
The Tianjin (Tientsin) Massacre—a violent outbreak of Chinese xenophobic sentiment toward Westerners—erupted in Tianjin, China.
1834:
Cyrus McCormick received a patent for his 1831 invention of a reaper.
1813: The Battle of Vitoria was fought during the Peninsular War, breaking Napoleon's power in Spain.
June 22
1940:
Franco-German armistice signed.
With an invading German force at its door in mid-June 1940, the French government under the leadership of Marshal Philippe Pétain signed an armistice with Germany on this day. The agreement provided for the maintenance of a quasi-sovereign French state and for the division of the country into an occupied zone (northern France plus the western coast) and an unoccupied southeastern zone. Vichy France (the “French State”) was made responsible for the German army's occupation costs. The French army was reduced to 100,000 men and the navy disarmed in its home ports.
1941:
Germany violated the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact of 1939 and attacked the Soviet Union during World War II.
1906:
Austrian-born American motion-picture director and producer Billy Wilder was born in Sucha, Austria (now in Poland).
1887:
English biologist and philosopher Sir Julian Huxley, who greatly influenced the modern development of embryology, was born in London.
1815:
French Emperor Napoleon I abdicated the second time.
1611:
English navigator and explorer Henry Hudson, his son, and seven crew members from the Discovery were set adrift in Hudson Bay by mutineers.
168:
The Romans defeated the Macedonians under King Perseus at the Battle of Pydna. The defeat marked the end of the Macedonian monarchy and Rome's annexation of Macedonia.
June 23
1314:
Battle of Bannockburn .
On this day in 1314 began the Battle of Bannockburn, a decisive engagement in Scottish history whereby the Scots defeated the English, regained their independence, and established Robert the Bruce as Robert I.
1961:
The Antarctic Treaty was enacted, reserving the entire continent for free and nonpolitical scientific investigation.
1940:
Sprinter Wilma Rudolph, the first American woman to win three track-and-field gold medals in a single Olympics, was born.
1925:
An expedition under A.H. MacCarthy and H.F. Lambert became the first to reach the summit of Mount Logan, the second highest mountain in North America.
1865:
The Cherokee chief and Confederate general Stand Watie surrendered at the close of the American Civil War—one of the last Confederate commanders to do so.
1817:
Popular English actor John Philip Kemble retired after his last performance, in which he played Coriolanus.
1298:
German King Adolf of Nassau was deposed in favour of Albert I.
June 24
1812:
Russia invaded by Napoleon and his Grand Army.
On this day in 1812, French Emperor Napoleon—who had massed his troops in Poland in the spring to intimidate Russian Tsar Alexander I—and 600,000 troops of his Grand Army launched an ill-fated invasion of Russia.
1948:
The Berlin blockade intensified when the Soviet Union announced that the Western Allied powers no longer had any rights in Berlin.
1932:
The Promoters Revolution, a bloodless coup, overthrew Prajadhipok, the king of Thailand, ending the absolute monarchy in that country and initiating the so-called Constitutional Era.
1859:
The Battle of Solferino, the last engagement of the second War of Italian Independence, was fought in Lombardy.
1821:
South American patriots under Simón Bolívar defeated Spanish royalists on the plains near Caracas, Venezuela, in the Battle of Carabobo.
1795:
William Smellie, the Scottish compiler of the first edition of Encyclop鎑ia Britannica, died in Edinburgh.
1519:
Theodore Beza, an author, translator, educator, and theologian who assisted and later succeeded John Calvin as a leader of the Protestant Reformation centred at Geneva, was born.
1497:
John Cabot became the first European to set foot in North America since the Vikings.
JUne 25
1950:
Korean War begun.
1943:
The Smith-Connally Anti-Strike Act was enacted by the U.S. Congress, giving the president power to seize and operate privately owned war plants when a strike or threat of a strike interfered with war production.
1910: The Firebird by Igor Stravinsky and Michel Fokine premiered at the Paris Opéra.
1876:
George Armstrong Custer made his last stand with the 7th Cavalry at the Battle of the Little Bighorn.
1870:
Robert Erskine Childers—writer, Sinn Féin deputy, member of the Irish Republican Army, and Irish nationalist agitator—was born in London.
1530:
The Augsburg Confession, 28 articles that constitute the basic confession of the Lutheran churches, was presented at the Diet of Augsburg to the emperor Charles V.
1447:
Casimir IV, the grand duke of Lithuania, was crowned king of Poland.
1243:
Cardinal Sinibaldo Fieschi was elected pope, taking the name Innocent IV.
June 26
1976:
Opening of CN Tower.
CN Tower, built by the Canadian National Railway Company at a cost of $63 million (Canadian) and opened to the public this day in 1976, is—at 1,815 feet (553 metres)—the world's tallest freestanding structure.
1979:
After almost 20 years of professional fights, heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali announced his retirement from boxing.
1977:
Elvis Presley performed in public for the last time.
1945:
The Charter of the United Nations was signed in San Francisco.
1819:
U.S. Army officer Abner Doubleday, once thought to be the inventor of baseball (a 1907 finding that was later discredited by evidence of baseball's connection with the older English game rounders), was born.
1721:
With the support of Puritan minister Cotton Mather, Zabdiel Boylston began the first smallpox vaccinations in the American colonies.
1483:
Richard Plantagenet, duke of Gloucester, began his reign as Richard III after usurping power from his nephew, Edward V.
June 27
1871:
Yen made official monetary unit of Japan.
First minted in 1869, the yen was adopted as Japan's official monetary unit this day in 1871, when the government suspended the exchange of clan notes, money issued by feudal lords that had circulated since the 16th century.
1977:
Djibouti gained its independence from France.
1930:
American businessman and philanthropist Ross Perot, who was an independent candidate for U.S. president in 1992 and 1996, was born.
1917:
During World War I, Greece declared war on the Central Powers.
1862:
During the first Battle of Cold Harbor in the American Civil War, Confederate General Robert E. Lee attacked Union troops, driving them back in disorder and forcing them to withdraw to the south side of the Chickahominy River.
1846:
Charles Stewart Parnell, Irish nationalist and leader in the struggle for Irish Home Rule, was born in Avondale, County Wicklow.
1844:
Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormon church, was murdered by an armed mob in Carthage, Illinois.
1787:
British historian Edward Gibbon completed The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
June 28
1914:
Assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand.
On this day in 1914, Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his consort, Sophie, were assassinated by Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo, Bosnia, precipitating the outbreak of World War I.
1919:
The Treaty of Versailles was signed at the Palace of Versailles in France, signifying the end of World War I.
1902:
Notorious American bank robber John Dillinger was born in Indianapolis, Indiana.
1894:
The U.S. Congress declared the first Monday of September as Labor Day, a holiday to honour the American worker.
1867:
Italian playwright, novelist, and short-story writer Luigi Pirandello, recipient of the 1934 Nobel Prize for Literature, was born.
1838:
Victoria was crowned queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
1778:
Molly Pitcher earned her nickname by carrying water to her husband's regiment during the Battle of Monmouth Court House.
1712:
French philosopher, writer, and political theorist Jean-Jacques Rousseau was born in Geneva.
June 29
1613:
London's Globe Theatre destroyed by fire.
During a performance of William Shakespeare's Henry VIII on this day, the thatch of the Globe Theatre was accidentally alighted by a cannon set off to mark the king's entrance onstage. The theatre, built by Cuthbert and Richard Burbage, was destroyed within the hour. The primary showcase for the plays of Shakespeare and his group of fellow actors, the Chamberlain's Men, it was rebuilt within a year of its destruction and continued to operate until 1642.
1913:
Following a year of war with the Ottoman Empire, members of the victorious Balkan League quarreled over the division of the conquered territories, resulting in the Second Balkan War when Bulgaria attacked Greek and Serbian forces in Macedonia.
1861:
English poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning, famous for her Sonnets from the Portuguese, died at age 55 from a severe chill.
1767:
The Townshend Revenue Act, an import tax on tea and other goods, was imposed on the American colonists by British Chancellor Charles Townshend, bringing the Americans one step closer to revolution.
1534:
French mariner Jacques Cartier discovered Prince Edward Island off the coast of modern-day Canada.
June 30
1934:
Night of the Long Knives.
On this date in 1934, in the “Night of the Long Knives,” Adolf Hitler had summarily executed many leading officials of the SA, a Nazi paramilitary group that marched in rallies and carried out violence against opponents.
1974:
Soviet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov defected from the U.S.S.R. while on tour in Canada.
1960:
Zaire, formerly Belgian Congo and now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, declared its independence from Belgium.
1908:
An enormous aerial explosion, presumably caused by a comet fragment colliding with Earth, flattened approximately 2,000 square km (500,000 acres) of pine forest near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in central Siberia.
1893:
The Excelsior diamond—which, weighing 995 carats, was the largest uncut diamond ever found to that time—was discovered in the De Beers mine at Jagersfontein, Orange Free State.
1859:
Jean-Fran鏾is Gravelet, known as Blondin, crossed Niagara Falls on a tightrope that was 335 metres (1,100 feet) long and 49 metres (160 feet) above the water.
July 1
1867:
Dominion of Canada established.
The Dominion of Canada was formed this day in 1867, an event subsequently celebrated as an annual Canadian holiday (its current name, Canada Day, was adopted in 1982) marked by parades, fireworks, and the display of flags.
2004:
Iconic American motion-picture and stage actor Marlon Brando died in Los Angeles.
1997:
The crown colony of Hong Kong officially reverted to Chinese sovereignty, ending 156 years of British rule.
1968:
The United States, the United Kingdom, the U.S.S.R., and 59 other states signed the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty in an attempt to halt the spread of nuclear weapons.
1963:
The U.S. Postal Service instituted the Zone Improvement Plan Code, commonly known as the ZIP Code.
1916:
Coca-Cola introduced its famous contoured bottle, which was not registered until 1960, to distinguish the soft drink now known as Coca-Cola classic from imitators.
1903:
The first Tour de France bicycle race began.
1863: The Battle of Gettysburg, one of the most important battles of the American Civil War, began.
1535:
Sir Thomas More went on trial for treason for refusing to accept King Henry VIII as head of the Church of England.
July 2
1839:
Revolt aboard the slave ship Amistad.
On this day in 1839, a slave rebellion occurred on the ship Amistad, and the subsequent acquittal of the mutineers, who were deemed to be kidnap victims rather than merchandise, was a victory for American abolitionism.
1979:
The United States first issued the Susan B. Anthony dollar coin.
1932:
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt coined the term “New Deal” in his acceptance speech for the Democratic presidential nomination.
1925:
Medgar Evers, an African American activist whose murder in 1963 received national attention and made him a martyr to the cause of the civil rights movement, was born in Decatur, Mississippi.
1925:
Patrice Lumumba, the first prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (1960), was born in Onalua, Belgian Congo.
1881:
Shot on this day, U.S. President James A. Garfield died several weeks later on September 19.
1865:
In London's East End, William Booth founded the ministry later called the Salvation Army.
1776:
After a dramatic all-night ride, Delaware delegate Caesar Rodney arrived just in time to cast the decisive vote approving the Declaration of Independence.
1644:
At the Battle of Marston Moor, Parliamentary forces handed the Royalists their first major defeat in the English Civil Wars.