Today in History

14th June 1968
23 year old Rod Stewart got his first major exposure in the US when he opened a tour with The Jeff Beck Group at The Fillmore East in New York. Stewart had a bad case of stage fright and partially hid behind a speaker cabinet through the first song.
 
This Day In History, June 15th

1991 Mount Pinatubo explodes
The stratovolcano's eruption was one of the most violent of the 20th century. About 800 people died, but the event had also global consequences. For example, it caused a global temperature drop of 0.5 °C (0.9 °F).


1977 Spain holds the first free elections since 1936
The transition to democracy followed nearly four decades of right-wing dictatorship under Francisco Franco. Adolfo Suárez became Spain's first democratically elected Prime Minister.

1954 The Union of European Football Associations is founded
The UEFA is the umbrella organization for association football in Europe. It comprises 54 member countries in Europe and Asia.

1844 Charles Goodyear patents vulcanization
The American inventor is credited with developing the basic concept of strengthening rubber by adding sulfur or similar materials. Vulcanized rubber is today used for a wide array of products, such as tyres and shoe soles.

1667 The first human blood transfusion is administered
Jean-Baptiste Denys, physician to King Louis XIV of France, transfused sheep blood into a 15-year-old boy. He survived, most likely due to the relatively small amount of blood used.
 

Births On This Day, June 15th 🎂

1984 Tim Lincecum
American baseball player

1969 Oliver Kahn
German footballer

1964 Michael Laudrup
Danish footballer

1941 Neal Adams
American artist

1941 Harry Nilsson
American singer-songwriter, musician

Deaths On This Day, June 15th 🪦

1996 Ella Fitzgerald
American singer

1993 James Hunt
English Grand Prix driver, 1976 World Drivers' Champion

1941 Evelyn Underhill
English poet

1888 Frederick III, German Emperor

1849 James K. Polk
American politician, 11th President of the United States
 
15th June

1215 King John agreed to put his royal seal on the Magna Carta, or Great Charter of English liberties, at Runnymede, near Windsor. The document was the first to be forced onto an English King by a group of his subjects. It was essentially a peace treaty between John and his barons, guaranteed the nobles their feudal privileges and promised to maintain the nation's laws.

1381 Wat Tyler - leader of the Peasants' Revolt, was killed at Smithfield in London. Richard II had agreed to meet the leaders of the revolt, and listen to their demands. What was said between Tyler and the king is largely conjecture but by all accounts the unarmed Tyler was suddenly attacked without warning and killed by the Lord Mayor of London, Sir William Walworth, and John Cavendish, a member of the king's group.

1860 British nurse Florence Nightingale, famous for tending British wounded during the Crimean War, opened a school for nurses at St Thomas's Hospital in London.

1996 An IRA bomb, the biggest ever to go off on the British mainland, devastated the centre of Manchester. Miraculously no-one was killed but 200 people were taken to hospital. The explosion caused £100 million worth of damage.
 
1869
world's 1st plastic celluloid is patented by inventor, John Wesley Hyatt in Albany, NY
1911
Computer- Tabulating- Recording Company later known as IBM is incorporated in Endicott, NY
1924
J. Edgar Hoover becomes FBI's 1st director, he remains in the role until his death in May 1972
1959
Galapagos Islands are made Ecuador's 1st National Park banning capture of species
1974
Washington Post's investigative reporters, Bob Woodward&Carl Bernstein's book'All The President's Men' detailing the Watergate scandal is published. The book would win a Pulitzer Prize. The movie version was released in April '76, starring Robert Redford{Woodward} Dustin Hoffman{Bernstein}, Jason Robards as editor,Ben Bradlee{he won best supp actor Oscar}
2019
a baseball jersey belonging to Babe Ruth becomes the most expensive sports memorabilia sold at NYC auction for $5.64 million


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16th June

1487 Henry VII defeats pretender Lambert Simnel at Stoke, in the final battle of the Wars of the Roses.

1880 The distinctive Salvation Army ladies' bonnets were worn for the first time when they marched in procession in London.

1930 Mixed bathing was permitted for the first time in Hyde Park, London. Kathleen Murphy, aged 21, had been the first to join the queue that day in 1930, arriving at the lido gates at 5am. And the roars and cheers that greeted all were at their loudest when the first mixed bathing session at the Serpentine lido, instituted by George Lansbury, First Commissioner of Works was inaugurated at 4.30pm on 16 June 1930.

1958 Imre Nagy, Hungary's prime minister during the 1956 uprising, is secretly executed by the Soviets.

1963 Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space, aboard Vostok VI.

1989 Hungary reburied fallen hero Imre Nagy. Former Communist prime minister Imre Nagy, the man who symbolised the 1956 Hungarian uprising, was given a formal public funeral 31 years after he was executed.
 
On This Day In History, June 18th

1979 Leonid Brezhnev and Jimmy Carter sign SALT II
The second “Strategic Arms Limitation Talks” (SALT) agreement was a ground-breaking arms reduction treaty between the Soviet Union and the United States.

1972 118 died in the Staines Air Disaster
The Hawker Siddeley Trident aircraft entered a deep stall and plummeted to the ground shortly after takeoff from London Heathrow Airport.

1948 The LP record is introduced
The 33⅓ rpm microgroove vinyl Long Playing record developed by Columbia Records soon became the music industry's standard medium. It allowed for a total playing time of 20 minutes per side.

1940 A speech by Charles de Gaulle sparks the French Resistance to German occupation
The Appeal of June 18, transmitted by radio from de Gaulle's exile in the United Kingdom, was pivotal in mobilizing the French after Germany had declared more than half of the country an occupied zone. On August 25, French and Allied troops liberated Paris.

1815 Napoleon suffers a shattering defeat at the Battle of Waterloo
The battle was Napoleon's last. The French Emperor was exiled to Saint Helena where he died six years later. “To meet one's Waterloo” is still a figure of speech today indicating total defeat.
 
Births On This Day, June 18th 🎂

1986 Richard Gasquet
French tennis player

1942 Paul McCartney
English singer-songwriter, musician, producer

1942 Thabo Mbeki
South African politician, 23rd President of South Africa

1942 Roger Ebert
American journalist, critic, screenwriter

1929 Jürgen Habermas
German sociologist, philosopher

Deaths On This Day, June 18th 🪦

2010 José Saramago
Portuguese author, Nobel Prize laureate

2003 Larry Doby
American baseball player

1989 I. F. Stone
American journalist, author

1974 Georgy Zhukov
Russian general

1928 Roald Amundsen
Norwegian explorer
 
18th June

1633 Charles I was crowned King of Scotland, at Holyrood, Edinburgh.

1815 Wellington decisively defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo, ending 25 years of war in Europe.

1817 Waterloo Bridge across the River Thames was opened. Originally it was called Strand Bridge but was re-named in honour of the British victory at Waterloo in 1815.

1900 Empress Dowager Cixi ordered the killing of all foreigners in China, in support of the 'Boxer' rebellion.

1972 UK's worst air crash killed 118. All 118 people on board a flight from London Heathrow to Brussels died when the airliner crashed minutes after take-off.

1984 The 'Battle of Orgreave'. It was the most violent day of the year-long miners' strike and one of the most violent clashes in British industrial history.

2016 Tim Peake, the first British ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut and the seventh UK-born person in space, returned to earth after his 186 day Principia mission working on the International Space Station.
 
June 18th:
  • 618 Coronation of the Chinese governor Li Yuan as Emperor Gaozu of Tang, the new Emperor of China, initiating three centuries of the Tang Dynasty's rule over China
  • 860 Rus Vikings attack Constantinople
  • 1155 Pope Adrian IV crowns Frederick I Barbarossa Holy Roman Emperor at St Peter's Basilica, Rome
  • 1178 Five monks at Canterbury report something exploding on the moon shortly after sunset (only known observation)
  • 1264 The Parliament of Ireland meets at Castledermot in County Kildare, the first definitively known meeting of this Irish legislature
  • 1316 Peace of Fexhe signed by Prince-Bishop Adolph II of Mark, limiting his powers
  • 1538 Truce of Nice signed between Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and French King Francis I ending the Italian War of 1536-38
  • 1542 Crown of Ireland Act 1542 passed by the Parliament of Ireland, gives English King Henry VIII the title "King of Ireland"

MORE EVENTS ON JUNE 18​

  • 1994​

    Millions of Americans watch former football player O.J. Simpson–facing murder charges–drive his Ford Bronco through Los Angeles, followed by police.

  • 1983​

    Sally Ride becomes the first American woman in space.

  • 1979​

    President Jimmy Carter and Leonid Brezhnev sign the Salt II pact to limit nuclear arms.

  • 1972​

    Five men are arrested for burglarizing Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C.

  • 1970​

    North Vietnamese troops cut the last operating rail line in Cambodia.

  • 1966​

    Samuel Nabrit becomes the first African American to serve on the Atomic Energy Commission.

  • 1965​

    27 B-52s hit Viet Cong outposts, but lose two planes in South Vietnam.

  • 1963​

    The U.S. Supreme Court bans the required reading of the Lord’s prayer and Bible in public schools.

  • 1959​

    A Federal Court annuls the Arkansas law allowing school closings to prevent integration.

  • 1953​

    South Korean President Syngman Rhee releases Korean non-repatriate POWs against the will of the United Nations.

    Soviet tanks fight thousands of Berlin workers rioting against the East German government.

    1951​

    General Vo Nguyen Giap ends his Red River Campaign against the French in Indochina.

  • 1950​

    Surgeon Richard Lawler performs the first kidney transplant operation in Chicago.
 
On This Day In History, June 19th

2002 Steve Fossett takes off on his record-breaking balloon flight
The American adventurer lifted off from Northam in Western Australia to commence history's first solo flight around the world in any aircraft. On July 3, after having travelled 33,195 km (20,626 mi), he touched down again in Queensland, Australia.

1987 An ETA car bomb kills 21 in Barcelona
The 1987 Hipercor bombing was one of the bloodiest attacks by the Basque separatist organization, Euskadi Ta Askatasuna or ETA.

1978 Garfield, the Lazy Cat makes his debut
The first Garfield comic strip by Jim Davis appeared in 41 newspapers on that day. It currently holds the Guinness World Record for the world's most widely syndicated comic strip.

1964 The U.S. Senate passes the Civil Rights Act of 1964
18 Senators unsuccessfully launched a filibuster to prevent the passage of the law against discrimination based on race, colour, religion, sex, or national origin. Richard Russel stated, “We will resist to the bitter end any measure or any movement which would tend to bring about social equality and intermingling and amalgamation of the races in our (Southern) states.” The bill was signed into law on July 2, 1964.

1913 South Africa implements the Natives Land Act
The law limited the areas of land that could be owned by black people to “native reserve” areas, which comprised less than 10 percent of the country's total area. It was in force until Apartheid was dismantled in the 1990s.
 
Births On This Day, June 19th 🎂

1978 Dirk Nowitzki
German basketball player

1964 Boris Johnson
British politician

1947 Salman Rushdie
Indian author

1945 Aung San Suu Kyi
Burmese politician, Nobel Prize laureate

1861 José Rizal
Filipino polymath

Deaths On This Day, June 19th 🪦

2013 James Gandolfini
American actor

1993 William Golding
English author, poet, playwright, Nobel Prize laureate

1991 Jean Arthur
American actress

1937 J. M. Barrie
Scottish author, playwright

1312 Piers Gaveston, 1st Earl of Cornwall
English nobleman
 
Today is World Sauntering Day
Slow down. In fact, try moseying around on June 19 because it's World Sauntering Day. The day counters the attention given to jogging and encourages people to stroll, ramble, and wander.
Sauntering is a style of walking. A saunter is a slow walk which carries a cheerful attitude. Those who saunter don't hurry. They absorb the wonders of nature and contemplate the weather.
 
20th June

1214 The University of Oxford received its charter. Oxford is the second-oldest surviving university in the world (Bologna in Italy is the oldest) and the oldest in the English-speaking world.

1497 The consecration of St. Mary's Church, Fairford (Cotswolds), one of the finest 'wool churches' in England. Successful wool merchants lavished money on their parish churches and John Tame a wealthy wool merchant completely rebuilt the church at his own expense. Unusually, the churchyard includes a stone memorial to Tiddles, the church cat who 'guarded' the church and its precincts from 1963 to 1980.

1756 In India, the night of the infamous 'Black Hole of Calcutta', where more than 140 British soldiers and civilians were placed in a small prison cell - 18 feet by 14 feet - by the Nawab of Bengal. The following morning only 23 emerged alive.

1819 The U.S. vessel SS Savannah arrived at Liverpool. She was the first steam-propelled vessel to cross the Atlantic, although most of the journey was made under sail.

1837 On the death of William IV, Queen Victoria, aged 18, acceded to the throne.

1887 On Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee, Buffalo Bill Cody staged a Royal Command performance of his famous Wild West Show.

1996 English cricket umpire Harold 'Dickie' Bird received a standing ovation by players and spectators at Lords when he took the field to officiate in his final Test Match. 🏏
 
On This Day In History, June 21st

2009 Greenland assumes self-rule
The island had been administered by Denmark (earlier Denmark-Norway) for centuries. The Self-Government Act grants Greenland full responsibility for its inner affairs, while Denmark retains control of foreign policy.

2004 SpaceShipOne completes the world's first manned private spaceflight
The privately funded spaceplane reached an altitude of just over 100 kilometres (62 miles). Mike Melvill was the pilot and only occupant.

1985 The body of Josef Mengele is identified
An international team of scientists confirmed that the skeletal remains found in a cemetery in Embu, Brazil are those of the Nazi war criminal. Mengele was a physician in the Auschwitz concentration camp and conducted horrific experiments on some of the inmates.

1963 Cardinal Giovanni Battista Montini becomes Pope Paul VI
The Italian pontiff is known for completing the Second Vatican Council, addressing the Roman Catholic Church's relationship with the modern world.

1895 The Kiel Canal is opened by German Emperor Wilhelm II
The 98 km (61 mi) long canal in Northern Germany is one of the world's busiest artificial waterways. It connects the North Sea with the Baltic Sea.
 
Births On This Day, June 21st 🎂

1986 Lana Del Rey
American singer-songwriter, model

1982 Prince William, Duke of Cambridge
1964 David Morrissey
English actor

1953 Benazir Bhutto
Pakistani politician, first female Prime Minister of Pakistan

1905 Jean-Paul Sartre
French philosopher, writer

Deaths On This Day, June 21st 🪦

Donald Sutherland:cry:
2024 Canadian Actor

1970 Sukarno
Indonesian politician, 1st President of Indonesia

1940 Smedley Butler
American marine general

1908 Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Russian composer

1527 Niccolò Machiavelli
Italian historian, philosopher

1377 Edward III of England
 
On This Day In History, June 22nd

1990 Checkpoint Charlie is dismantled
The crossing point on the sector border between East Berlin and West Berlin had become obsolete with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Today, the former checkpoint, including the famous sign stating “You are leaving the American sector”, is a tourist attraction.

1986 Diego Maradona coins the phrase “Hand of God”
The Argentinian football star had scored a goal with his hand during the FIFA World Cup quarter-final against England. The referee allowed the goal, the Argentinian team were later crowned world champions. After the game, Maradona said that the goal was scored “a little with the head of Maradona and a little with the hand of God”.

1945 Okinawa falls to U.S. troops
The Battle of Okinawa marked a decisive defeat for Japan during World War II as the archipelago represented the last line of defence for mainland Japan. The country surrendered two months after the end of the battle when two atomic bombs were dropped on the mainland.

1941 Germany invades the Soviet Union
The initially successful attack soon proved a disaster for the Germans as wintry conditions and fierce Soviet resistance caused massive losses and ultimately forced them to retreat.

1633 The Catholic Church forces Galileo Galilei to renounce his heliocentric worldview
The Holy Office concluded that the Italian scientist, by stating that the Sun, not the Earth, is the centre of the Universe, was “vehemently suspect of heresy”. Galileo spent the rest of his life under house arrest.
 

Births On This Day, June 22nd 🎂

1953 Cyndi Lauper
American singer-songwriter, producer, actress

1949 Meryl Streep
American actress

1940 Abbas Kiarostami
Iranian filmmaker, poet

1909 Katherine Dunham
American dancer

1887 Julian Huxley
English biologist

Deaths On This Day, June 22nd 🪦

2008 George Carlin
American comedian, actor, author

1993 Pat Nixon
American educator, 39th First Lady of the United States

1987 Fred Astaire
American actor, singer, dancer

1969 Judy Garland
American actress, singer

1874 Howard Staunton
English chess player
 
On This Day In History, June 23rd

2016 The UK votes to leave the European Union
Just over half of the electorate voted for “Brexit”, Britain's exit from the EU. The UK has been part of the union since 1973.

1992 Yitzhak Rabin's Labor Party wins the election in Israel
Rabin became the country's fifth Prime Minister. For his engagement in a peaceful solution to the Middle East conflict, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994 (together with Shimon Peres and Yasir Arafat). A year later, Rabin was assassinated by a Jewish extremist.

1961 The Antarctic Treaty comes into force
The treaty was the first arms control agreement signed during the Cold War. It sets Antarctica aside as a scientific preserve and prohibits military activities on the continent.

1931 Wiley Post and Harold Gatty start their record-breaking flight around the world
The American-Australian team was the first to circumnavigate the planet in a single-engine plane. After several stops, they returned to Roosevelt Field eight days later. They took nearly two weeks less than the previous record holder, the German airship Graf Zeppelin.

1894 The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is founded
The IOC is responsible for organizing the Olympic Games and similar events. The committee was established at the initiative of French educator, Pierre de Coubertin.
 

Births On This Day, June 23rd 🎂

1972 Selma Blair
American actress

1964 Joss Whedon
American director, producer, screenwriter

1951 Michèle Mouton
French Rally driver, the female to win a World Rally Championship event

1916 Len Hutton
English cricketer

1912 Alan Turing
English mathematician

Deaths On This Day, June 23rd 🪦

2011 Peter Falk
American actor

1996 Ray Lindwall
Australian cricketer

1996 Andreas Papandreou
Greek economist, politician, and Prime Minister of Greece

1995 Jonas Salk
American biologist, physician

1981 Zarah Leander
Swedish actress, singer
 
On This Day In History, June 24th

2002 Africa's worst-ever train disaster kills 281
The crash occurred near Msagali, Tanzania when a passenger train with some 1200 passengers rolled back down Igandu hill after its brakes had failed.

1982 A British Airways jumbo jet experiences a sudden total engine failure
At the same time, the crew observed a mysterious glow in the darkness. The Boeing 747's pilots had unwittingly flown into a cloud of volcanic ash caused by the eruption of Mount Galunggung, causing all four engines to flame out. The crew eventually succeeded in restarting the engines and landing safely in Jakarta.

1948 The Berlin Blockade begins
In reaction to the currency reform in West Germany, the Soviet Union blocked all access to West Berlin. It was one of the first major international crises of the Cold War. Western Allies launched the Berlin airlift to transport supplies to the blocked area. In Germany, the planes became known as “raisin bombers” or “candy bombers”.

1901 Pablo Picasso opens his first exhibition
The 18-year-old Spanish artist was featured for the first time in Ambroise Vollard's gallery at 6 Rue Laffite in Paris. Neither of the two art critics who visited the show thought much about the works. Picasso went on to become one of the most influential artists of all time.

1717 The world's first Masonic Grand Lodge is established
Freemasonry is a fraternal organization that has counted among its members a large number of known intellectuals. Due to its secretive nature, many myths about their underground activities have emerged through the ages. A Grand Lodge is the governing body for a certain geographic area.
 

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