TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON: JUNE 6
1523 Gustav Vasa is elected King of Sweden, marking the end of the Kalmar Union
1641 Spain loses Portugal.
1716 French transport the 1st African slaves to Louisiana
1813 The United States invasion of Canada is halted at Stony Creek, Ontario.
1816 10″ snowfall in New England, the “year without a summer”
1882 The first electric iron was patented by H.W. Seely.
1924 The German Reichstag accepts the Dawes Plan, an American plan to help Germany pay off its war debts.
1930 Frozen foods are sold commercially for the first time.
1932 In the U.S., the first federal tax on gasoline went into effect. It was a penny per gallon.
1933 The first drive-in movie theater opened in Camden, New Jersey.
1934 President Franklin Roosevelt signs the Securities Exchange Act, establishing the Securities and Exchange Commission.
1941 The U.S. government authorizes the seizure of foreign ships in U.S. ports.
1944 On D-Day, 160,000 Allied soldiers land in Normandy, France
The World War II invasion of Normandy established a new major front against the Germans in the west and helped Soviet forces facing the bulk of German troops in the east. Germany capitulated on May 7, 1945.
1946 The National Basketball Association (NBA) is founded
1966 African American James Meredith is shot and wounded while on a solo march in Mississippi to promote voter registration among blacks.
1967 6 day war between Israel & Arab neighbors begin
1968 U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy died at 1:44am in Los Angeles after being shot by Sirhan Sirhan. Kennedy was was shot the evening before while campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination.
1982 30,000 Israeli troops invade Lebanon to drive out the PLO
1984 The video game Tetris is published. Russian computer engineer, Alexey Pajitnov, created the puzzle game.
1985 The body of Nazi war criminal Dr. Josef Mengele is located and exhumed near Sao Paolo, Brazil.
2002 President Bush proposed a new Cabinet department: The Department of Homeland Security.
2005 The United States Supreme Court ruled that federal authorities could prosecute sick people who smoke marijuana on doctor’s orders. The ruling concluded that state medical marijuana laws did not protect uses from the federal ban on the drug.
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
