TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON: JUNE 15
763 BC Assyrians record a solar eclipse that will be used to fix the chronology of Mesopotamian history
1184 King Magnus of Norway is defeated by his rival, Sverre.
1215 King John signs the Magna Carta.
1607 Colonists in North America complete James Fort in Jamestown.
1667 Jean-Baptiste Denys administered the first fully-documented human blood transfusion. He successfully transfused the blood of a sheep to a 15-year old boy.
1775 George Washington is named Commander-in-Chief by Congress.
1836 Arkansas is admitted into the Union as the 25th state.
1844 Charles Goodyear patents vulcanization of rubber
1846 Great Britain and the United States agree on a joint occupation of Oregon Territory.
1851 Jacob Fussell, Baltimore dairyman, sets up 1st ice-cream factory
1864 An order to establish a military burial ground was signed by Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. The location later became known as Arlington National Cemetery.
1877 Henry O. Flipper becomes the first African American to graduate from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
1898 The U.S. House of representatives approves the annexation of Hawaii.
1920 Three African Americans are lynched in Duluth, Minnesota, by a white mob of 5,000.
1924 Native Americans are proclaimed US citizens
1932 Gaston Means is sentenced to 15 years for fraud in the Lindbergh baby kidnapping.
1934 Great Smokey Mountains National Park dedicated
1962 South Africa passes a bill setting death penalty for many crimes
1977 Spain holds the first free elections since 1936
1981 The U.S. agreed to provide Pakistan with $3 billion in military and economic aid from October 1982 to October 1987.
1983 Supreme Court struck down state & local restrictions on abortion
1985 En route to Halley’s Comet, USSR’s Vega 2 drops lander on Venus
1991 Climactic eruption of the Mount Pinatubo volcano in the Philippines, the second-largest volcanic eruption on Earth of the 20th century
1992 U.S. Vice President Dan Quayle instructed a student to spell “potato” with an “e” on the end during a spelling bee. He had relied on a faulty flash card that had been written by the student’s teacher.
1992 It was ruled by the U.S. Supreme Court that the government could kidnap criminal suspects from foreign countries for prosecution.
1999 South Korean naval forces sank a North Korean torpedo boat during an exchange in the disputed Yellow Sea.
REFERENCE: HISTORY.NET, ONTHISDAY.COM, TIMEANDDATE.COM, INFOPLEASE.COM, FACTMONSTER.COM, SCOPESYS.COM, ON-THIS-DAY.COM, THEPEOPLEHISTORY.COM
