TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON: JUNE 20
0451 Roman and barbarian warriors halt Attila’s army at the Catalaunian Plains in eastern France.
1397 The Union of Kalmar unites Denmark, Sweden, and Norway under one monarch.
1756 Nearly 150 British soldiers are imprisoned in the ‘Black Hole’ cell of Calcutta. Most die.
1782 The Great Seal of the United States was adopted.
1791 King Louis XVI of France was captured while attempting to flee the country in the so-called Flight to Varennes.
1837 18-year-old Victoria is crowned Queen of England.
1863 President Abraham Lincoln admits West Virginia into the Union as the 35th state.
1871 Ku Klux Klan trials began in federal court in Oxford Miss
1893 Lizzie Borden, accused of murdering her parents, was found innocent by a jury in New Bedford, Mass.
1920 Race riots in Chicago, Illinois leave two dead and many wounded.
1923 France announces it will seize the Rhineland to assist Germany in paying her war debts.
1942 Kazimierz Piechowski and three others escape from Auschwitz concentration camp
1943 Race-related rioting erupted in Detroit. Federal troops were sent in two days later to end the violence that left more than 30 dead.
1947 Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel was murdered in Beverly Hills, CA, at the order of mob associates angered over the soaring costs of his project, the Flamingo resort in Las Vegas, NV.
1963 The United States and the Soviet Union agree to establish a hot line between Washington and Moscow. Contrary to popular belief, communications between the two superpowers occurred via teletype or fax, and today, via email.
1967 Boxing champion Muhammad Ali is convicted of refusing induction into the American armed services.
1975 “Jaws”, based on the book by Peter Benchley, directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Roy Scheider is released
1977 Oil enters Trans-Alaska pipeline exits 38 days later at Valdez
1979 ABC News correspondent Bill Stewart was shot to death in Managua, Nicaragua, by a member of President Anastasio Somoza’s national guard.
1983 The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that employers must treat male and female workers equally in providing health benefits for their spouses.
1991 The German parliament moves to Berlin. Bonn had been the capital of West Germany until the country’s reunification in 1990.
1999 NATO declares an official end to its bombing campaign of Yugoslavia.
2002 The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the execution of mentally retarded murderers was unconstitutionally cruel. The vote was 6 in favor and 3 against.
2020 Highest-ever temperature recorded in the Arctic circle, 38C (100F) in Verkhoyansk, Siberia
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
