TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – JUNE 22
1377 Richard II, who is still a child, begins his reign, following the death of his grandfather, Edward III. His coronation takes place July 16.
1611 English explorer Henry Hudson, his son and several other people were set adrift in present-day Hudson Bay by mutineers.
1633 The Catholic Church forces Galileo Galilei to renounce his heliocentric world view The Holy Office concluded that the Italian scientist, by stating that the Sun, not the Earth, is the center of the Universe, was “vehemently suspect of heresy”. Galileo spent the rest of his life under house arrest.
1772 Slavery is outlawed in England.
1807 British seamen board the USS Chesapeake, a provocation leading to the War of 1812.
1868 Arkansas was re-admitted to the Union.
1876 General Alfred Terry sends Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer to the Rosebud and Little Bighorn rivers to search for Indian villages.
1910 German bacteriologist Paul Ehrlich announces a definitive cure for syphilis.
1911 King George V of England is crowned.
1933 Adolf Hitler bans political parties in Germany other than the Nazis.
1934 The work on first prototypes of The Peoples Car what became the (Volkswagen Beetle) was started by Ferdinand Porsche but it would take until 1936 before the first prototype was completed.
1942 A Japanese submarine shells Fort Stevens at the mouth of the Columbia River.
1944 President Franklin Roosevelt signs the “GI Bill of Rights” to provide broad benefits for veterans of the war.
1945 Okinawa falls to U.S. troops The Battle of Okinawa marked a decisive defeat for Japan during World War II as the archipelago represented the last line of defense for mainland Japan. The country surrendered two months after the end of the battle when two atomic bombs were dropped on the mainland.
1970 President Richard Nixon signs the 26th amendment, lowering the voting age to 18.
1976 Parliament votes to abolish capital punishment in Canada.
1980 The Soviet Union announces a partial withdrawal of its forces from Afghanistan.
1981 Mark David Chapman pleads guilty to killing John Lennon.
1990 Checkpoint Charlie is dismantled The crossing point on the sector border between East Berlin and West Berlin had become obsolete with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Today, the former checkpoint, including the famous sign stating “You are leaving the American sector”, is a tourist attraction.
1992 The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that hate-crime laws that ban cross-burning and similar expressions of racial bias violated free-speech rights.
1998 The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that evidence illegally obtained by authorities could be used at revocation hearings for a convicted criminal’s parole.
1999 The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that persons with remediable handicaps cannot claim discrimination in employment under the Americans with Disability Act.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
