TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – JUNE 19
0240 Eratosthenes estimates the circumference of Earth using two sticks.
1778 General George Washington’s troops finally leave Valley Forge after a winter of training.
1829 Sir Robert Peel introduces the Metropolitan Police Act 1829 into Parliament to establish a unified police force for London
1861 Virginians, in what will soon be West Virginia, elect Francis Pierpont as their provisional governor.
1862 President Abraham Lincoln outlines his Emancipation Proclamation. News of the document reaches the South.
1864 CSS “Alabama” sunk by USS “Kearsarge” off Cherbourg, France
1873 Eadweard Muybridge successfully photographed a horse named “Sallie Gardner” in fast motion using a series of 24 stereoscopic cameras. This is considered the first step toward motion pictures.
1911 In Pennsylvania, the first motion-picture censorship board was established.
1917 After WW I King George V ordered members of British royal family to dispense with German titles & surnames, they take the name Windsor
1933 France grants Leon Trotsky political asylum.
1934 The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was created.
1942 British Prime Minister Winston Churchill arrived in Washington, DC, to discuss the invasion of North Africa with U.S. President Roosevelt.
1951 President Harry S. Truman signs the Universal Military Training and Service Act, which extends Selective Service until July 1, 1955 and lowers the draft age to 18.
1958 Nine entertainers refuse to answer a congressional committee’s questions on communism.
1961 US Supreme Court struck down a provision in Md’s constitution requiring state office holders to believe in God
1968 Over 50,000 people march on Washington, D.C. to support the Poor People’s Campaign.
1977 Pope Paul VI proclaimed John Neumann, the first male saint from the United States.
1978 Garfield, the lazy cat makes his debut
1987 The Supreme Court struck down a Louisiana law requiring any public school teaching the theory of evolution to teach creationism as well.
1987 An ETA car bomb kills 21 in Barcelona The 1987 Hipercor bombing was one of the bloodiest attacks by Basque separatist organization, Euskadi Ta Askatasuna or ETA.
1991 Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar surrenders to police
1998 Gateway was fined more than $400,000 for illegally shipping personal computers to 16 countries subject to U.S. export controls.
1998 Switzerland’s three largest banks offered $600 million to settle claims they’d stolen the assets of Holocaust victims during World War II. Jewish leaders called the offer insultingly low.
2000 The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a group prayer led by students at public-school football games violated the 1st Amendment’s principle that called for the separation of church and state.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
