TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON: JUNE 19
0240 BC – Eratosthenes estimated the circumference of the Earth using two sticks.
1306 The Earl of Pembroke’s army defeats Robert the Bruce’s Scottish army at the Battle of Methven
1586 English colonists sailed away from Roanoke Island, NC, after failing to establish England’s first permanent settlement in America.
1754 Albany Congress held by 7 British colonies & Iroquois indians
1829 Sir Robert Peel introduces the Metropolitan Police Act 1829 into Parliament to establish a unified police force for London
1862 Congress abolished slavery in the U.S. territories.
1864 CSS “Alabama” sunk by USS “Kearsarge” off Cherbourg, France
1865 Gen. Gordon Granger informed the citizens of Galveston, Tex., that the slaves were freed. The celebration of the day became known as Juneteenth.
1903 The young school teacher, Benito Mussolini, was placed under investigation by police in Bern, Switzerland.
1911 In Pennsylvania, the first motion-picture censorship board was established.
1912 The U.S. government established the 8-hour work day.
1913 South Africa implements the Natives Land Act
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 granted Leon Trotsky political asylum.
1934 The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was created.
1944 World War II: First day of the 2 day Battle of the Philippine Sea, US naval forces defeat Japanese fleet
1951 U.S. President Harry S. Truman signed the Universal Military Training and Service Act, which extended Selective Service until July 1, 1955 and lowered the draft age to 18.
1958 In Washington, DC, nine entertainers refused 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
1964 The U.S. Senate passes the Civil Rights Act of 1964
1968 50,000 participate in Solidarity Day March of Poor People’s Campaign
1976 US Viking 1 goes into Martian orbit after 10-month flight from Earth
1978 Garfield, the lazy cat makes his debut
1987 An ETA (Basque separatist organization, Euskadi Ta Askatasuna) car bomb kills 21 in Barcelona
1987 The Supreme Court struck down a Louisiana law requiring any public school teaching the theory of evolution to teach creationism as well.
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.
REFERENCE: HISTORY.NET, ONTHISDAY.COM, TIMEANDDATE.COM, INFOPLEASE.COM, FACTMONSTER.COM, SCOPESYS.COM, ON-THIS-DAY.COM, THEPEOPLEHISTORY.COM
