1944 – D-Day was the name given to the June 6, 1944, invasion of the beaches at Normandy in northern France by troops from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and other countries during World War II. France at the time was occupied by the armies of Nazi Germany, and the amphibious assault—codenamed Operation Overlord—landed some 156,000 Allied soldiers on the beaches of Normandy by the end of the day.
0640 – Arab Muslim army sent by Caliph Omar begins siege of Heliopolis, city succumbs mid to late July, paving way for Muslim conquest of Byzantine Egypt
1242 – 24 wagonloads of Talmudic books burned in Paris
1391 – Inhabitants of Seville, Spain, massacre 5,000 Jews
1508 – Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, is defeated in Friulia by Venetian forces; he is forced to sign a three-year truce and cede several territories to Venice
1513 – Italian Wars: Battle of Novara. Swiss troops defeat the French under Louis de la Tremoille, forcing the French to abandon Milan. Duke Massimiliano Sforza is restored
1639 – Massachusetts grants 500 acres of land to erect a gunpowder mill
1644 – The Qing Dynasty Manchu forces led by the Shunzhi Emperor capture Beijing during the collapse of the Ming Dynasty. The Manchus would rule China until 1912 when the Republic of China was established.
1654 – Charles X succeeds his abdicated cousin Queen Christina to the Swedish throne.
1674 – Sivaji crowned himself King of India.
1752 – A devastating fire destroys one-third of Moscow, including 18,000 homes
1808 – Napoleon’s brother, Joseph Bonaparte is crowned King of Spain.
1813 – The U.S. invasion of Canada was halted at Stony Creek, Ontario.
1822 – Alexis St. Martin shot in the stomach and treated by physician William Beaumont on Mackinac Island. Leads Beaumont to conduct digestion experiments through hole in St. Martin’s stomach.
1833 – Andrew Jackson became the first U.S. president to ride in a train. It was a B&O passenger train.
1844 – The Young Men’s Christian Association was founded in London.
1857 – Sophia of Nassau marries the future King Oscar II of Sweden-Norway.
1882 – More than 100,000 inhabitants of Bombay are killed as a cyclone in the Arabian Sea pushes huge waves into the harbour.
1894 – Governor Davis H. Waite orders the Colorado state militia to protect and support the miners engaged in the Cripple Creek miners’ strike.
1900 – US Congress pass an act authorizing a civil code and government for the territory of Alaska after gold discoveries bring lawlessness and disorder to the area
1916 – The death of Yuan Shikai, ruler of much of China since 1912, causes central government to virtually collapse in the face of pressure from warlords, and from political reformers including Sun Yat-sen
1923 – Gangster Albert Anastasia is convicted of illegal possession of a firearm and sentenced to two years in prison
1924 – The German Reichtag accepted the Dawes Plan. It was an American plan to help Germany pay off its war debts.
1925 – Chrysler Corporation was founded by Walter Percy Chrysler.
1930 – Frozen food is sold in retail stores for the first time, 18 stores in Springfield, Massachusetts took part in a trial to test consumer acceptance. Clarence Birdseye, the founder of the Birds Eye Frozen Food Company, is considered to be the father of the modern frozen food industry.
1932 – In the U.S., the first federal tax on gasoline went into effect. It was a penny per gallon.
1933 – In Camden, NJ, the first drive-in movie theater opened.
1934 – U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Securities Exchange Act, which established the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
1936 – The first helicopter was tested in a building in Berlin, Germany.
1941 – The U.S. government authorized the seizure of foreign ships in U.S. ports.
1942 – The first nylon parachute jump was made by Adeline Gray in Hartford, CT.
1942 – Japanese forces retreated in the World War II Battle of Midway. The battle had begun on June 4.
1944 – D-Day was the name given to the June 6, 1944, invasion of the beaches at Normandy in northern France by troops from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and other countries during World War II. France at the time was occupied by the armies of Nazi Germany, and the amphibious assault—codenamed Operation Overlord—landed some 156,000 Allied soldiers on the beaches of Normandy by the end of the day. https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/d-day
1966 – James Meredith, civil rights activist, is shot while trying to march across Mississippi
1968 – U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy died at 1:44am in Los Angeles after being shot by Sirhan Sirhan. Kennedy was was shot the evening before while campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination.
1969 – The first Internet connection was created when network control protocol packets were sent from the data port of one IMP to another
1971 – “The Ed Sullivan Show” aired for the last time. It was canceled after 23 years on the air. Gladys Knight and the Pips were the musical guests on show.
1972 – Explosion at world’s largest coal mine kills 427 (Wankie Rhodesia)
1973 – Canada bans US oil tankers from Canadian waters to reach planned oil refinery at Eastport, Maine.
1978 – California voters overwhelmingly approve Proposition 13, an initiative calling for major property tax cuts, 57%.
1978 – “20/20” debuted on ABC.
1982 – Lebanon War begins: Forces under Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon invade southern Lebanon in their “”Operation Peace for the Galilee,”” eventually reaching as far north as the capital Beirut.
1984 – The Indian Army attacks the Golden Temple in Amritsar in an effort to flush out terrorists, following an order from Indira Gandhi. Official casualties are 576 combatants killed and 335 wounded; independent observers estimate that thousands of unarmed Sikh civilians are also killed in the crossfire
1984 – The video game Tetris is published, Russian computer engineer, Alexey Pajitnov, created the puzzle game. With over 100 million copies sold, it is one of the most successful video games in history.
1985 – The grave of “”Wolfgang Gerhard”” is exhumed in Embu, Brazil; the remains found are later proven to be those of Josef Mengele, Auschwitz’s “”Angel of Death””. Mengele is thought to have drowned while swimming in February 1979
1985 – The U.S. Senate authorized nonmilitary aid to the Contras. The vote authorized $38 million over two years.
1988 – George Bush makes campaign promise to support reparations for WW II Japanese-American internees (promise broken, May 1989)
1990 – U.S. District court judge Jose Gonzales rules that the rap album As Nasty As They Wanna Be by the 2 Live Crew violates Florida’s obscenity law; he declares that the predominant subject matter of the record is “”directed to the ‘dirty’ thoughts and the loins, not to the intellect and the mind.
1991 – The Canadian Supreme Court rules 6-1 that public servants can work on election campaigns; except for top bureaucrats, who must remain neutral.”
1993 – Mongolia held its first direct presidential elections.
1999 – At the Putim maximum security prison in Brazil, 345 prisoners run from the main gate in the largest jailbreak in Brazilian history, marking the 10th escape for the three-year-old facility. In the ensuing manhunt, two fugitives are killed and five innocent bystanders are accidentally jailed.
2005 – The United States Supreme Court ruled that federal authorities could prosecute sick people who smoke marijuana on doctor’s orders. The ruling concluded that state medical marijuana laws did not protect uses from the federal ban on the drug.
2005 – The United States Supreme Court votes to ban medical marijuana in Gonzales v. Raich.
2012 – Transit of Venus (between Earth & Sun) occurs – last transit of 21st century
2017 – Syrian Democratic Forces backed by the US launch offensive to take Raqqa from Islamic State in Syria
2018 – Convicted drug trafficker, Alice Johnson, granted clemency by US President Donald Trump after Kim Kardashian highlights case
2018 – Iraqi parliament orders manual recount of legislative elections in May after Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi claims evidence of irregularities
2018 – Special pedestrian lane introduced just for “phubbers” slow-walking smartphone users in Xi’an, China
2019 – German serial killer nurse Niels Hoegel jailed for a second life sentence for the murder of 85 more people (previously convicted for six). Germany’s worst post-war serial killer.
2021 – Four members of a London, Ontario, family killed when they are struck by a truck in an anti-Muslim attack
2022 – Former chairman of far-right group the Proud Boys Enrique Tarrio and four others, indicted for seditious conspiracy for their role in Jan 6 attack on the US Capitol
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
