TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON: JUNE 8
0452 Attila the Hun invades Italy.
0793 Vikings in long ships from modern-day Norway plunder St Cuthbert’s monastery on Lindisfarne Island, off the northeast coast of England
1191 King Richard I of England arrives at Acre in modern day Israel to join the Siege of Acre during the Third Crusade
1783 Laki volcano in southern Iceland begins 8-month eruption, killing 10,000 and causing widespread famines throughout Asia and Europe
1786 1st commercially-made ice cream sold (NY)
1790 The first loan for the U.S. was repaid. The Temporary Loan of 1789 was negotiated and secured on September 18, 1789 by Alexander Hamilton.
1861 Tennessee votes to secede from the Union and join the Confederacy.
1863 Residents of Vicksburg flee into caves as General Ulysses S. Grant’s army begins shelling the town.
1904 U.S. Marines land in Tangiers, Morocco, to protect U.S. citizens.
1915 U.S. Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan resigned in a disagreement over U.S. handling of the sinking of the Lusitania.
1940 Discovery of element 93, neptunium, announced
1949 George Orwell publishes Nineteen Eighty-Four
1953 The Supreme Court forbids segregated lunch counters in Washington, D.C.
1967 Israeli airplanes attacked the USS Liberty in the Mediterranean during the 6-Day War between Israel and its Arab neighbors. 34 U.S. Navy crewmen were killed. Israel later called the incident a tragic mistake due to the mis-identification of the ship. The U.S. has never publicly investigated the incident.
1968 James Earl Ray, the alleged assassin of Martin Luther King, Jr., is captured at the London Airport.
1982 President Reagan became the first American president to address a joint session of Britain’s Parliament.
1987 New Zealand’s Labour government legislates against nuclear weapons and nuclear powered vessels in NZ. Only nation to legislate against nuclear power.
1987 Fawn Hill began testifying in the Iran-Contra hearings. She said that she had helped to shred some documents.
1991 A victory parade was held in Washington, DC, to honor veterans of the Persian Gulf War.
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
