TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – JUNE 24
1314 Scottish forces, led by Robert the Bruce, win an overwhelming victory against English King Edward II at the Battle of Bannockburn.
1497 Explorer John Cabot lands in North America in present-day Canada.
1509 Henry VIII is crowned King of England.
1540 Henry VIII divorces his 4th wife, Anne of Cleves
1664 The colony of New Jersey, named after the Isle of Jersey, is founded.
1717 The world’s first Masonic Grand Lodge is established
1817 1st coffee planted in Hawaii on Kona coast
1853 US President Franklin Pierce signs the Gadsden Purchase, buying 29,670 square-miles (76,800 square km) from Mexico for $10 million (now southern Arizona and New Mexico)
1862 U.S. intervention saves the British and French at the Dagu Forts in China.
1931 The Soviet Union and Afghanistan sign a treaty of neutrality.
1941 President Franklin Roosevelt pledges all possible support to the Soviet Union.
1947 Flying saucers sighted over Mount Rainier by pilot Ken Arnold
1955 Soviet MIGs down a U.S. Navy patrol plane over the Bering Strait.
1957 The United States Supreme Court ruled that obscenity is not protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution, which guarantees free speech and freedom of the press.
1964 The Federal Trade Commission announces that, starting in 1965, cigarette makers must include warning labels about the harmful effects of smoking.
1970 Senate votes overwhelmingly to repeal Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
1977 IRS reveals Jimmy Carter paid no taxes in 1976
1993 Unabomber – A Yale University computer science professor David Gelernter is seriously injured and later dies while opening his mail when a padded envelope explodes in his hands.
2002 Africa’s worst ever train disaster kills 281
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
