1885 – The Statue of Liberty arrives in New York, Hundreds of thousands of spectators welcomed the emblematic statue, which was a gift to the United States from the people of France and has become one of the country’s most recognized symbols
0362 – Emperor Julian issued an edict banning Christians from teaching in Syria.
0956 – Hugh the Great dies 2 months after becoming effective master of Burgundy
1462 – Vlad III the Impaler attempts to assassinate Mehmed II in The Night Attack, and the latter is forced to retreat from Wallachia
1527 – Pánfilo de Narváez departs Spain to explore Florida with 5 ships and 600 men, by 1536 only 4 are still alive
1535 – Trial of English Catholic Cardinal John Fischer for treason (declaring King Henry VIII not the Supreme Head of the Church in England) at Westminster Hall – found guilty and later hanged
1565 – Matsunaga Hisahide assassinates the 13th Ashikaga shogun, Ashikaga Yoshiteru
1579 – Sir Francis Drake claimed San Francisco Bay for England. (California)
1631 – Mumtaz Mahal died during childbirth. Her husband, Mughal emperor Shah Jahan I, then spent more than 20 years to build her tomb, the Taj Mahal.
1700 – Massachusetts orders priest to leave the colony
1775 – The British took Bunker Hill outside of Boston. (actually it was Breed’s Hill)
1789 – The Third Estate in France declared itself a national assembly, and began to frame a constitution.
1799 – Napoleon Bonaparte incorporated Italy into his empire.
1839 – In the Kingdom of Hawaii, Kamehameha III issues the Edict of toleration which gives Roman Catholics the freedom to worship in the Hawaiian Islands. The Hawaii Catholic Church and the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace is later established as a result
1848 – Austrian General Alfred Windischgratz crushed a Czech uprising in Prague.
1854 – The Red Turban revolt broke out in Guangdong, China.
1861 – U.S. President Abraham Lincoln witnessed Dr. Thaddeus Lowe demonstrate the use of a hydrogen balloon.
1872 – George M. Hoover began selling whiskey in Dodge City, Kansas. The town had been dry up until this point.
1876 – General George Crook’s command was attacked and defeated on the Rosebud River by 1,500 Sioux and Cheyenne under the leadership of Crazy Horse
1877 – Indian Wars: Battle of White Bird Canyon – the Nez Perce defeat the US Cavalry at White Bird Canyon in the Idaho Territory
1885 – The Statue of Liberty arrives in New York, Hundreds of thousands of spectators welcomed the emblematic statue, which was a gift to the United States from the people of France and has become one of the country’s most recognized symbols. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/statue-of-liberty-arrives-in-new-york-harbor
1901 – The College Board introduces its first standardized test, the forerunner to the SAT
1902 – US Congress pass the New Lands Reclamation Act, which establishes a fund from sale of public lands to build irrigation dams for arid Western lands
1913 – U.S. Marines set sail from San Diego to protect American interests in Mexico.
1917 – The Russian Duma met in a secret session in Petrograd and voted for an immediate Russian offensive against the German Army. (World War I)
1924 – The Fascist militia marched into Rome.
1926 – Spain threatened to quit the League of Nations if Germany was allowed to join.
1928 – Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly across the Atlantic, Wilmer Stultz piloted the Fokker F.VII aircraft, Earhart kept the flight log. They arrived at Burry Port in Wales, the United Kingdom, 20 hours and 40 minutes later.
1930 – The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Bill became law. It placed the highest tariff on imports to the U.S.
1931 – British authorities in China arrested Indochinese Communist leader Ho Chi Minh.
1932 – The U.S. Senate defeated the bonus bill as 10,000 veterans massed around the Capitol.
1932 – Bonus Army: Around a thousand World War I veterans amass at the United States Capitol as the U.S. Senate considers a bill that would give them certain benefits.
1933 – Union Station Massacre: In Kansas City, Missouri, four FBI agents and captured fugitive Frank Nash were gunned down by gangsters attempting to free Nash
1939 – Last public guillotining in France. Eugen Weidmann, a convicted murderer, is guillotined in Versailles outside the prison Saint-Pierre.
1940 – The three Baltic states fall under Soviet occupation, While the world’s attention was focused on the recent German invasion of Paris, the Soviet Union annexed Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.
1940 – France asked Germany for terms of surrender in World War II.
1942 – Yank, a weekly magazine for the U.S. armed services, began publication. The term “G.I. Joe” was first used in a comic strip by Dave Breger.
1944 – French troops landed on the island of Elba in the Mediterranean.
1944 – The republic of Iceland was established. The Nordic island country had previously been included in the Norwegian and Danish monarchies. The republic’s first President was Sveinn Björnsson.
1950 – Dr. Richard H. Lawler performed the first kidney transplant in a 45-minute operation in Chicago, IL.
1953 – East Berlin workers rise up to protest low wages and bad conditions. Soviet tanks mow down the strikers with machine gun fire, ending illusions that communism is a workers’ paradise
1953 – Sup Court Justice Wm O Douglas stays executions of spies Julius & Ethel Rosenberg scheduled for the next day their 14th anniversary
1954 – CIA exile army lands in Guatemala. Organised by John Foster Dulles and United Fruit Co.
1957 – Tuskegee boycott begins (Blacks boycotted city stores)
1958 – Radio Moscow reports execution of Hungarian ex-premier Imre Nagy
1963 – The U.S. Supreme Court banned the required reading of the Lord’s prayer and Bible in public schools.
1967 – China becomes world’s 4th thermonuclear (H-bomb) power
1970 – North Vietnamese troops cut the last operating rail line in Cambodia.
1971 – Representatives of Japan and the United States sign the Okinawa Reversion Agreement, setting out a plan where the U.S. would return control of Okinawa.
1972 – Watergate scandal: Five White House operatives are arrested for burglarizing the offices of the Democratic National Committee, in an attempt by some members of the Republican party to illegally wiretap the opposition https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/watergate-burglars-arrested-2
1974 – The Provisional Irish Republican Army bombs the Houses of Parliament in London, injuring 11 people and causing extensive damage
1982 – President of Argentina Leopoldo Galtieri resigns as commander in chief of the army and as president after leading Argentina to a disastrous defeat against the British in the Falkland Islands War
1982 – Pres Reagan first UN Gen Assembly address (“”evil empire”” speech)
1982 – The body of “”God’s Banker””, Roberto Calvi is found hanging beneath Blackfriars Bridge in London.
1983 – Ed Warren and Lorraine Warren exorcise a “werewolf demon” from Bill Ramsey, although lack of photo or video evidence has called this claim into question
1985 – Judy Norton-Taylor (The Waltons TV Show) was photographed for “Playboy” magazine.
1987 – With the death of the last individual, the Dusky Seaside Sparrow becomes extinct
1991 – The body of the 12th US President, Zachary Taylor, is exhumed to test how he died; rumors had persisted since his death in 1850 of arsenic poisoning – no evidence of this was found
1991 – The Parliament of South Africa repealed the Population Registration Act. The act had required that all South Africans for classified by race at birth.
1992 – A ‘Joint Understanding’ agreement on arms reduction is signed by U.S. President George H. W. Bush and Russian President Boris Yeltsin (this would be later codified in START II)
1994 – Following a televised low-speed highway chase and a failed attempt at suicide, O.J. Simpson is arrested for the murders of his wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman.
1996 – The Fifteenth Amendment to the Irish Constitution, which removes the prohibition on divorce, is signed into law following a vote the previous year
2012 – France’s Socialist Party wins a majority in the legislative election
2012 – Greek voters return to the polls after the failed May 6 election
2015 – 9 people are shot and killed inside Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, by a 21 year old gunman
2017 – Collision at sea between U.S.S. Fitzgerald and ACX Crystal, a Philippine cargo ship kills 7 US sailors in Japanese waters
2017 – Forest fires in Pedrógão Grande, Portugal begin, kill 62 people, more than 1,600 firefighters fight 156 fires
2019 – Activist Joshua Wong calls on Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam to resign after leaving prison amid street protests the day before of over 2 million people.
2019 – Mayor of Phoenix, Arizona, Kate Gallego apologies for local police threatening to shoot African American family after their four-year shoplifted a doll
2020 – Former police officer who shot Rayshard Brooks in Atlanta charged with his murder and aggravated assault
2021 – China launches its Shenzhou-12 spacecraft with three astronauts arriving at its new space station Tiangong six and a half hours later
2021 – US President Joe Biden signs into law the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act making June 19th a federal holiday commemorating emancipation
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
