This Week in History

This Week in History

June 9
1534 Jacques Cartier sails into the mouth of the St. Lawrence River in Canada. 1863 At the Battle of Brandy Station in Virginia, Union and Confederate cavalries clash in the largest cavalry battle of the Civil War. 1931 Robert H. Goddard patents a rocket-fueled aircraft design. 1934 Donald Duck made his screen debut in The Wise Little Hen. 1945 Japanese Premier Kantaro Suzuki declares that Japan will fight to the last rather than accept unconditional surrender. 1959 The first ballistic missile-carrying submarine, the USS George Washington, is launched. 1986 NASA publishes a report on the Challenger accident. 1978 After 148 years, the leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints finally allowed black men to become priests. 1993 Japan's Crown Prince Naruhito married commoner Masako Owada.

June 10
1190 Frederick Barbarossa drowns in a river while leading an army of the Third Crusade. 1692 Bridget Bishop is hanged in Salem, Mass., for witchcraft. 1776 The Continental Congress appoints a committee to write a Declaration of Independence. 1854 The U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, holds its first graduation. 1925 Tennessee adopts a new biology text book denying the theory of evolution. 1944 The U.S. VII and V corps, advancing from Normandy’s beaches, link up and begin moving inland. 1948 The news that the sound barrier has been broken is finally released to the public by the U.S. Air Force. Chuck Yeager, piloting the rocket airplane X-1, exceeded the speed of sound on October 14, 1947. 1970 A 15-man group of special forces troops begin training for Operation Kingpin, a POW rescue mission in North Vietnam. 2003 Ontario, Canada issued the first full same-sex marriage licenses in North America.

June 11
1509 Henry VIII of England marries Catherine of Aragon. 1770 Captain James Cook runs aground on the Great Barrier Reef. 1865 Major General Henry W. Halleck finds documents and archives of the Confederate government in Richmond, Virginia. This discovery will lead to the publication of the official war records. 1895 Charles E. Duryea receives the first U.S. patent granted to an American inventor for a gasoline-driven automobile. 1903 King Alexander and Queen Draga of Belgrade are assassinated by members of the Serbia army. 1963 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is arrested in Florida for trying to integrate restaurants. 1987 Margaret Thatcher wins her third consecutive term as Prime Minister. 2001Timothy McVeigh, the 1995 Oklahoma City bomber, was executed.

June 12
1901 Cuba agrees to become an American protectorate by accepting the Platt Amendment. 1918 The first airplane bombing raid by an American unit occurs in France. 1920 Republicans nominate Warren G. Harding for president and Calvin Coolidge for vice president. 1931 Gangster Al Capone and 68 of his henchmen are indicted for violating Prohibition laws. 1963 Black civil rights leader Medgar Evers is assassinated by a gunman outside his home in Jackson, Mississippi. 1977 David Berkowitz gets 25 years to life for the Son of Sam murders in New York. 1991 Mount Pinatubo in the Phillipines begins erupting for the first time in 600 years. 1997 Interleague play began in baseball, ending a 126-year tradition of separating the major leagues until the World Series.

June 13
1777 The Marquis de Lafayette arrives in the American colonies to help in their rebellion against Britain. 1920 The U.S. Post Office Department rules that children may not be sent by parcel post. 1927 Charles Lindbergh receives the Flying Cross and is treated to a ticker tape parade to celebrate his successful crossing of the Atlantic. 1940 Paris is evacuated as the Germans advance on the city. 1943 German spies land on Long Island, New York, and are soon captured. 1967 Thurgood Marshall was nominated to become the first African American on the U.S. Supreme Court. 1979 Sioux Indians are awarded $105 million in compensation for the 1877 U.S. seizure of the Black Hills in South Dakota. 1983 Pioneer 10, already in space for 11 years, leaves the solar system.

June 14
1642 Massachusetts passes the first compulsory education law in the colonies. 1775 The U.S. Army is founded when the Continental Congress authorizes the muster of troops. 1777 The Continental Congress authorizes the "stars and stripes" flag for the new United States. 1789 Captain William Bligh of the HMS Bounty arrives in Timor in a small boat. He had been forced to leave his ship when his crew mutinied. 1942 The Supreme Court rules that requiring students to salute the American flag is unconstitutional. 1944 Boeing B-29 bombers conduct their first raid against mainland Japan. 1951 UNIVAC, the first computer built for commercial purposes, is demonstrated in Philadelphia by Dr. John W. Mauchly and J. Prosper Eckert, Jr. 1982 Argentina surrenders to the United Kingdom ending the Falkland Islands War.

June 15
1215 King John signs the Magna Carta. 1607 Colonists in North America complete James Fort in Jamestown. 1752 Benjamin Franklin and his son test the relationship between electricity and lightning by flying a kite in a thunder storm. 1775 George Washington is named Commander in Chief by Congress. 1849 James K. Polk, the 11th president of the United States, dies. 1877 Henry O. Flipper becomes the first African American to graduate from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. 1916 President Woodrow Wilson signs a bill incorporating the Boy Scouts of America. 1992 Vice President Dan Quayle's "potatoe" spelling incident. 2002 Rolling Stone Mick Jagger was knighted by Queen Elizabeth.

Famous Birthdays

June 9
1640 Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor. 1672 Peter I, Russian Czar (1682-1725). 1781 George Stephenson, English engineer, inventor of the steam locomotive. 1891 Cole Porter, American composer and lyricist. 1915 Les Paul, American guitarist and electric guitar innovator. 1916 Robert S. McNamara, U.S. Secretary of Defense under presidents Kennedy and Johnson. 1961 Michael J. Fox, actor 1963 Johnny Depp (actor) 1981 Natalie Portman (actress)

June 10
1735 John Morgan, physician-in-chief of the American Continental Army. 1895 Hattie McDaniel, African-American actress. 1901 Frederick Loewe, songwriter. 1922 Judy Garland (Frances Ethel Gumm), American actress and singer (The Wizard of Oz, Easter Parade).1928 Maurice Sendak, children’s author and illustrator (Where the Wild Things Are). 1933 F. Lee Bailey, American defense attorney. 1982 Tara Lipinski (ice skater)

June 11
1880 Jeannette Rankin, U.S. Representative from Montana, the first woman in Congress. 1910 Jacques-Yves Cousteau, French oceanic explorer, filmaker, author and inventor of the aqualung. 1913 Vince Lombardi, American football coach.1935 Gene Wilder (Jerome Silberman) (actor) 1986 Shia LaBeouf (actor)

June 12
1806 John Roebling, civil engineer, pioneer in designing suspension bridges. 1897 Anthony Eden, British Prime Minister (1955-1957). 1915 David Rockefeller, international banker. 1924 George Bush, 41st President of the United States (1989-1993). 1929 Anne Frank, German diarist, victim of the Holocaust. 1932 Jim Nabors (actor)

June 13
1865 William Butler Yeats, Irish poet and dramatist. 1893 Dorothy Leigh Sayers, English detective writer, creator of Lord Peter Wimsey.1926 Paul Lynde (comedian)1954 Tim Allen (actor) 1985 Raz-B (rapper) 1986 Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen (actress, music, fashion)

June 14
1811 Harriet Beecher Stowe, American author (Uncle Tom’s Cabin). 1820 John Bartlett, editor, compiler of Barlett’s Familiar Quotations. 1925 Pierre Salinger, press secretary for John F. Kennedy. 1946 Donald Trump, New York real estate mogul. 1968 Yasmine Bleeth (actress)1969 Steffi Graf (tennis)

June 15
1330 Edward the Black Prince, the eldest son of Edward III. 1767 Rachel Robards Jackson, first lady to President Andrew Jackson. 1902 Erik H. Erikson, psychologist (Childhood and Society). 1937 Waylon Jennings (Country Music singer)1954 Jim Belushi (actor) 1964 Courteney Cox (actress) 1973 Neil Patrick Harris (actor)