On This Day

May 19, 2014

1535 - French explorer Jacques Cartier set sail for North America.

1536 - Anne Boleyn, the second wife of England's King Henry VIII, was beheaded after she was convicted of adultery.

1568 - After being defeated by the Protestants, Mary the Queen of Scots, fled to England where she was imprisoned by Queen Elizabeth.

1588 - The Spanish Armada set sail from Lisbon, bound for England.

1608 - The Protestant states formed the Evangelical Union of Lutherans and Calvinists.

1643 - Delegates from four New England colonies met in Boston to form a confederation.

1643 - The French army defeated a Spanish army at Rocroi, France.

1796 - The first U.S. game law was approved. The measure called for penalties for hunting or destroying game within Indian territory.

1847 - The first English-style railroad coach was placed in service on the Fall River Line in Massachusetts.

1856 - U.S. Senator Charles Sumner spoke out against slavery.

1857 - The electric fire alarm system was patented by William F. Channing and Moses G. Farmer.

1858 - A pro-slavery band led by Charles Hameton executed unarmed Free State men near Marais des Cygnes on the Kansas-Missouri border.

1864 - The Union and Confederate armies launched their last attacks against each other at Spotsylvania in Virginia.

1906 - The Federated Boys' Clubs, forerunner of the Boys' Clubs of America, were organized.

1911 - The first American criminal conviction that was based on fingerprint evidence occurred in New York City.

1912 - The Associated Advertising Clubs of America held its first convention in Dallas, TX.

1921 - The U.S. Congress passed the Emergency Quota Act, which established national quotas for immigrants.

1926 - Thomas Edison spoke on the radio for the first time.

1926 - Benito Mussolini announced that democracy was deceased. Rome became a fascist state.

1926 - In Damascus, Syria, French shells killed 600 people.

1928 - The first frog-jumping jubilee held in Calaveras County, CA.

1935 - T.E. Lawrence "Lawrence of Arabia" died from injuries in a motorcycle crash in England.

1935 - The National Football League (NFL) adopted an annual college draft to begin in 1936.

1943 - Winston Churchill told the U.S. Congress that his country was pledging their full support in the war against Japan.

1958 - Canada and the U.S. formally established the North American Air Defense Command.

1962 - Marilyn Monroe performed a sultry rendition of "Happy Birthday" for U.S. President John F. Kennedy. The event was a fund-raiser at New York's Madison Square Garden.

1964 - The U.S. State Department reported that diplomats had found about 40 microphones planted in the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.

1967 - The Soviet Union ratified a treaty with the United States and Britain that banned nuclear weapons from outer space.

1967 - U.S. planes bombed Hanoi for the first time.

1988 - In Jacksonville, FL, Carlos Lehder Rivas was convicted of smuggling more than three tons of cocaine into the United States. Rivas was the co-founder of Colombia's Medellin drug cartel.

1989 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average passed 2,500 for the first time. The close for the day was 2,501.1.

1992 - U.S. Vice President Dan Quayle criticized the CBS sitcom "Murphy Brown" for having its title character decide to bear a child out of wedlock.

1992 - In Massapequa, NY, Mary Jo Buttafuoco was shot and seriously wounded by Amy Fisher. Fisher was her husband Joey's teen-age lover.

1992 - The 27th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution went into effect. The amendment prohibits Congress from giving itself midterm pay raises.

1993 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed about 3,500 (3,500.03) for the first time.

1998 - In Russia, strikes broke out over unpaid wages.

1998 - Bandits stole three of Rome's most important paintings from the National Gallery of Modern Art.

1999 - "Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace" was released in the U.S. It set a new record for opening day sales at 28.5 million.

1999 - Rosie O'Donnell and Tom Selleck got into an uncomfortable verbal issue concerning gun control on O'Donnell's talk show.

2000 - The bones of the most complete and best-preserved Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton went on display in Chicago.

2000 - Disney released the movie "Dinosaur."

Disney movies, music and books

2003 - It was announced that Worldcom Inc. would pay investors $500 million to settle civil fraud charges over its $11 billion accounting scandal.

2003 - Hundreds of Albert Einstein's scientific papers, personal letters and humanist essays were make available on the Internet. Einstein had given the papers to the Hebrew Universtiy of Jerusalem in his will.

2005 - "Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith" brought in 50.0 million in its opening day.

May 20, 2014

0325 - The Ecumenical council was inaugurated by Emperor Constantine in Nicea, Asia Minor.

1303 - A peace treaty was signed between England and France over the town of Gascony.

1347 - Cola di Rienzo took the title of tribune in Rome.

1506 - In Spain, Christopher Columbus died in poverty.

1520 - Hernando Cortez defeated Spanish troops that had been sent to punish him in Mexico.

1690 - England passed the Act of Grace, forgiving followers of James II.

1674 - John Sobieski became Poland’s first King.

1774 - Britain's Parliament passed the Coercive Acts to punish the American colonists for their increasingly anti-British behavior

1775 - North Carolina became the first colony to declare its independence. This is the date that is on the George state flag even though the date of this event has been questioned.

1784 - The Peace of Versailles ended a war between France, England, and Holland.

1830 - The fountain pen was patented by H.D. Hyde.

1861 - North Carolina became the eleventh state to secede from the Union.

1861 - During the American Civil War, the capital of the Confederacy was moved from Montgomery, AL, to Richmond, VA.

1874 - Levi Strauss began marketing blue jeans with copper rivets.

1875 - The International Bureau of Weights and Measures was established.

1899 - Jacob German of New York City became the first driver to be arrested for speeding. The posted speed limit was 12 miles per hour.

1902 - The U.S. military occupation of Cuba ended.

1902 - Cuba gained its independence from Spain.

1916 - Norman Rockwell’s first cover on "The Saturday Evening Post" appeared.

1926 - The U.S. Congress passed the Air Commerce Act. The act gave the Department of Commerce the right to license pilots and planes.

1927 - Charles Lindbergh took off from New York to cross the Atlantic for Paris aboard his airplane the "Spirit of St. Louis." The trip took 33 1/2 hours.

1930 - The first airplane was catapulted from a dirigible.

1932 - Amelia Earhart took off to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She became the first woman to achieve the feat.

1933 - "Charlie Chan" was heard for the final time on the NBC Blue radio network, after only six months on the air.

1939 - The first telecast over telephone wires was sent from Madison Square Garden to the NBC-TV studios at 30 Rockefeller Center in Manhattan. The event was a bicycle race.

1939 - The first regular air-passenger service across the Atlantic Ocean began with the take-off of the "Yankee Clipper" from Port Washington, New York.

1941 - Germany invaded Crete by air.

1942 - Japan completed the conquest of Burma.

1961 - A white mob attacked the Freedom Riders in Montgomery, AL. The event prompted the federal government to send U.S. marshals.

1969 - U.S. and South Vietnamese forces captured Apbia Mountain, which was referred to as Hamburger Hill.

1970 - 100,000 people marched in New York supporting U.S. policies in Vietnam.

1978 - Mavis Hutchinson, at age 53, became the first woman to run across America. It took Hutchinson 69 days to run the 3,000 miles.

1980 - The submarine Nautilus was designated as a National Historic Landmark by the U.S. Secretary of the Interior.

1982 - TV’s "Barney Miller" was seen for the last time on ABC-TV.

1985 - The Dow Jones industrial average broke the 1300 mark for the first time. The Dow closed at 1304.88.

1985 - The FBI arrested U.S. Navy Chief Petty Officer John Walker. Walker had begun spying for the Soviet Union in 1968.

1985 - Radio Marti was launched.

1990 - The Hubble Space Telescope sent back its first photographs.

1993 - The final episode of "Cheers" was aired on NBC-TV.

1996 - The U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Colorado measure banning laws that would protect homosexuals from discrimination.

1999 - At Heritage High School in Conyers, GA, a 15-year-old student shot and injured six students. He then surrendered to an assistant principal at the school.

2010 - Scientists announced that they had created a functional synthetic genome.

2010 - Five paintings worth 100 million Euro were stolen from the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris.

May 20, 2014

0996 - Sixteen year old Otto III was crowned the Roman Emperor.

1471 - King Henry VI was killed in the tower of London. Edward IV took the throne.

1536 - The Reformation was officially adopted in Geneva, Switzerland.

1542 - Hernando de Soto died along the Mississippi River while searching for gold.

1602 - Martha's Vineyard was first sighted by Captain Bartholomew Gosnold.

1688 - The English poet Alexander Pope was born.

1790 - Paris was divided into 48 zones.

1819 - Bicycles were first seen in the U.S. in New York City. They were originally known as "swift walkers."

1832 - In the U.S., the Democratic Party held its first national convention.

1840 - New Zealand was declared a British colony.

1856 - Lawrence, Kansas was captured by pro-slavery forces.

1863 - The siege of the Confederate Port Hudson, LA, began.

1881 - The American branch of the Red Cross was founded by Clara Barton.

1881 - The United States Lawn Tennis Association was formed in New York City.

1891 - Peter Jackson and Jim Corbett fought for 61 rounds only to end in a draw.

1906 - Louis H. Perlman received his patent for the demountable tire-carrying rim.

1922 - The cartoon, "On the Road to Moscow," by Rollin Kirby won a Pulitzer Prize. It was the first cartoon awarded the Pulitzer.

1924 - Fourteen-year-old Bobby Franks was murdered in a "thrill killing" committed by Nathan Leopold Jr. and Richard Loeb. The killers were students at the University of Chicago.

1927 - Charles A. Lindberg completed the first solo nonstop airplane flight across the Atlantic Ocean. The trip began May 20.

1929 - The first automatic electric stock quotation board was used by Sutro and Company of New York City.

1934 - Oskaloosa, IA, became the first city in the U.S. to fingerprint all of its citizens.

1947 - Joe DiMaggio and five of his New York Yankee teammates were fined $100 because they had not fulfilled contract requirements to do promotional duties for the team.

1956 - The U.S. exploded the first airborne hydrogen bomb in the Pacific Ocean over Bikini Atoll.

1961 - Governor Patterson declared martial law in Montgomery, AL.

1968 - The nuclear-powered U.S. submarine Scorpion, with 99 men aboard, was last heard from. The remains of the sub were later found on the ocean floor 400 miles southwest of the Azores.

1970 - The National Guard was mobilized to quell disturbances at Ohio State University.

1980 - The movie "The Empire Strikes Back" was released.

1982 - The British landed in the Falkland Islands and fighting began.

1991 - In Madras, India, the former prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi was killed by a bouquet of flowers that contained a bomb.

1998 - An expelled student, Kipland Kinkel, in Springfield, OR, killed 2 people and wounded 25 others with a semi-automatic rifle. Police also discovered that the boy had killed his parents before the rampage.

1998 - Microsoft and Sega announced that they are collaborating on a home video game system.

1998 - In Miami, FL, five abortion clinics were hit by an butyric acid-attacker.

May 22, 2014

1246 - Henry Raspe was elected anti-king by the Rhenish prelates in France.

1455 - King Henry VI was taken prisoner by the Yorkists at the Battle of St. Albans, during the War of the Roses.

1570 - Abraham Ortelius published the first modern atlas in Belgium.

1761 - In Philadelphia, the first life insurance policy was issued in the U.S.

1819 - The steamship Savannah became the first to cross the Atlantic Ocean.

1841 - Henry Kennedy received a patent for the first reclining chair.

1849 - Abraham Lincoln received a patent for the floating dry dock.

1859 - The creator of "Sherlock Holmes," Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was born.

1868 - Near Marshfield, IN, The "Great Train Robbery" took place. The robbery was worth $96,000 in cash, gold and bonds to the seven members of the Reno gang.

1872 - The Amnesty Act restored civil rights to Southerners.

1882 - The U.S. formally recognized Korea.

1891 - The first public motion picture was given in Thomas Edison's lab.

1892 - Dr. Washington Sheffield invented the toothpaste tube.

1900 - The Associated Press was incorporated as a non-profit news cooperative in New York.

1900 - A. DeVilbiss, Jr. patented his pendulum-type computing scale.

1900 - Edwin S. Votey received a patent for the pianola (a pneumatic piano player). It could be attached to any piano.

1906 - The Wright brothers received a patent their flying machine.

1939 - Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini signed a military alliance between Germany and Italy known as the "Pact of Steel."

1947 - The Truman Doctrine was enacted by the U.S. Congress to appropriate military and economic aid Turkey and Greece.

1955 - A scheduled dance to be headlined by Fats Domino was canceled by police in Bridgeport, Connecticut because "rock and roll dances might be featured."

1955 - jack Benny did his last live network radio broadcast after a run of 23 years. He devoted his time fully to TV.

1967 - "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" premiered on PBS.

1967 - The final "To Tell the Truth" program was seen on CBS-TV.

1969 - A lunar module of Apollo 10 flew within nine miles of the moon's surface. The event was a rehearsal for the first lunar landing.

1972 - U.S. President Nixon became the first U.S. president to visit Russia. He met with Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev.

1972 - The island Ceylon adopted a new constitution and became the republic of Sri Lanka.

1977 - Janet Guthrie set the fastest time of the second weekend of qualifying, becoming the first woman to earn a starting spot in the Indianapolis 500 since its inception in 1911.

1985 - Pete Rose passed Hank Aaron as National League run scoring leader with 2,108.

1986 - Sylvester Stallone agreed to a 10-picture, six-year deal with United Artists. He signed for a reported $15 million for each film.

1990 - In the Middle East, North and South Yemen merged to become a single state known as the Republic of Yemen.

1990 - Microsoft released Windows 3.0.

1992 - Johnny Carson hosted NBC's "Tonight Show" for the last time. He had been host for 30 years.

1997 - Kelly Flinn, the U.S. Air Force's first female bomber pilot certified for combat, accepted a general discharge. She thereby avoided court-martial on charges of adultery, lying and disobeying an order.

1998 - Bolivia was hit with a series of powerful earthquakes. At least 18 were killed. The quakes ranged in magnitude from 5.9 to 6.8.

1998 - New information came to light about the June 1996 bombing that killed 19 American airmen. The information indicated that Saudi citizens had been responsible and not Iranians as once believed.

1998 - A federal judge said that Secret Service agents could be compelled to testify before a grand jury in Monica Lewinsky investigation concerning U.S. President Clinton.

1998 - Voters in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland turned out to cast ballots giving approval to a Northern Ireland peace accord.

2002 - Chandra Levy's remains were found in Washington, DC's Rock Creek Park. She was last seen on April 30, 2001. California Congressman Gary Condit was questioned in the case due to his relationship with Levy.

2002 - In Birmingham, AL, a jury convicted former Ku Klux Klansman Bobby Frank Cherry of murder in the 1963 church bombing that killed four girls.

2002 - Barry Bonds (San Francisco Giants) hit his 583rd career home run. He tied Mark McGwire for fifth on the all-time list.

2003 - At the Colonial in Fort Worth, TX, Annika Sorenstam became the first woman to play on the PGA tour in 58 years. She ended the day at 1-over par.

May 23, 2014

1430 - Joan of Arc was captured by Burgundians. She was then sold to the English.

1533 - Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon was declared null and void.

1618 - The Thirty Years War began when three opponents of the Reformation were thrown through a window.

1701 - In London, Captain William Kidd was hanged after being convicted of murder and piracy.

1785 - Benjamin Franklin wrote in a letter that he had invented bifocals.

1788 - South Carolina became the eighth state to ratify U.S. Constitution.

1827 - The first nursery school in the U.S. was established in New York City.

1846 - Arabella Mansfield (Belle Aurelia Babb) was born. She was the first woman in the U.S. to pass the bar exam, though she never used her law degree.

1873 - Canada's North West Mounted Police force was established. The organization's name was changed to Royal Canadian Mounted Police in 1920.

1876 - Boston’s Joe Borden pitched the very first no-hitter in the history of the National League.

1879 - The first U.S. veterinary school was established by Iowa State University.

1895 - The New York Public Library was created with an agreement that combined the city's existing Astor and Lenox libraries.

1900 - Civil War hero Sgt. William H. Carney became the first African American to receive the Medal of Honor, 37 years after the Battle of Fort Wagner.

1901 - American forces captured Filipino rebel leader Emilio Aguinaldo.

1908 - Part of the Great White Fleet arrived in Puget Sound, WA.

1915 - During World War I, Italy joined the Allies as they declared war on Austria-Hungary.

1922 - The play "Abie's Irish Rose" opened in New York City.

1922 - "Daylight Saving Time" was debated in the first debate ever to be heard on radio in Washington, DC.

1926 - The French captured the Moroccan Rif capital.

1934 - In Bienville Parish, LA, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were ambushed and killed by Texas Rangers. The bank robbers were riding in a stolen Ford Deluxe.

1937 - Industrialist John D. Rockefeller died.

1938 - "LIFE" magazine’s cover pictured Errol Flynn as a glamour boy.

1945 - In Luneburg Germany, Heinrich Himmler, the head of the Nazi Gestapo, committed suicide while imprisoned by the Allied forces.

1949 - The Republic of West Germany was established.

1960 - Israel announced the capture of Nazi Adolf Eichmann in Argentina.

1962 - The National Basketball Association (NBA) agreed to transfer the Philadelphia Warriors to San Francisco, CA. The team became the San Francisco Warriors (and later the Golden State Warriors).

1962 - Joe Pepitone of the New York Yankees set a major league baseball record by hitting two home runs in one inning.

1981 - In Barcelona, Spain, gunmen seized control of the Central Bank and took 200 hostages.

1985 - Thomas Patrick Cavanagh was sentenced to life in prison for trying to sell Stealth bomber secrets to the Soviet Union.

1992 - In Lisbon, Portugal , the U.S. and four former Soviet republics signed an agreement to implement the START missile reduction treaty that had been agreed to by the Soviet Union before it was dissolved.

1994 - "Pulp Fiction" won the "Golden Palm" for best film at the 47th Cannes Film Festival.

1995 - The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City was demolished.

1998 - British Protestants and Irish Catholics of Northern Ireland approved a peace accord.

1999 - In Kansas City, MO, Owen Hart (Blue Blazer) died when he fell 90 feet while being lowered into a WWF wrestling ring. He was 33 years old.

1999 - Gerry Bloch, at age 81, became the oldest climber to scale El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. He broke his own record that he set in 1986 when he was 68 years old.

May 24, 2014

1610 - Sir Thomas Gates institutes "laws divine moral and marshal," a harsh civil code for Jamestown.

1624 - After years of unprofitable operation Virginias charter was revoked and it became a royal colony.

1689 - The English Parliament passed Act of Toleration, protecting Protestants. Roman Catholics were specifically excluded from exemption.

1738 - The Methodist Church was established.

1764 - Bostonian lawyer James Otis denounced "taxation without representation" and called for the colonies to unite in demonstrating their opposition to Britains new tax measures.

1798 - Believing that a French invasion of Ireland was imminent, Irish nationalists rose up against the British occupation.

1816 - Emamual Leutze was born in Germany. He was most famous for his paintings "Washington Crossing the Delaware" and "Columbus Before the Queen".

1822 - At the Battle of Pichincha, Bolivar secured independence of the Quito.

1830 - The first passenger railroad service in the U.S. began service.

1844 - Samuel F.B. Morse formally opened America's first telegraph line. The first message was sent from Washington, DC, to Baltimore, MD. The message was "What hath God wrought?"

1859 - Charles Gounod's "Ave Maria" was performed by Madame Caroline Miolan-Carvalho for the first time in public.

1863 - Bushwackers led by Captain William Marchbanks attacked a U.S. Federal militia party in Nevada, Missouri.

1878 - The first American bicycle race was held in Boston.

1881 - About 200 people died when the Canadian ferry Princess Victoria sank near London, Ontario.

1883 - After 14 years of construction the Brooklyn Bridge was opened to traffic.

1899 - The first public garage was opened by W.T. McCullough.

1913 - The U.S. Department of Labor entered into its first strike mediation. The dispute was between the Railroad Clerks of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad.

1930 - Amy Johnson became the first woman to fly from England to Australia.

1931 - B&O Railroad began service with the first passenger train to have air conditioning throughout. The run was between New York City and Washington, DC.

1935 - The Cincinnati Reds played the Philadelphia Phillies in the first major league baseball game at night. The switch for the floodlights was thrown by U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt.

1941 - The HMS Hood was sunk by the German battleship Bismarck in the North Atlantic. Only three people survived.

1950 - Sweetwater (Nat) Cliftons contract was purchased by the New York Knicks. Sweetwater played for the Harlem Globetrotters and became the first black player in the NBA.

1954 - The first moving sidewalk in a railroad station was opened in Jersey City, NJ.

1958 - United Press International was formed through a merger of the United Press and the International News Service.

1961 - The Freedom Riders were arrested in Jackson, Mississippi.

1962 - The officials of the National Football League ruled that halftime of regular season games would be cut to 15 minutes.

1967 - California Governor Ronald Reagan greeted Charles M. Schulz at the state capitol in observance of the legislature-proclaimed "Charles Schulz Day."

1974 - The last "Dean Martin Show" was seen on NBC. The show had been aired for 9 years.

1976 - Britain and France opened trans-Atlantic Concorde service to Washington.

1980 - The International Court of Justice issued a final decision calling for the release of the hostages taken at the U.S. embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979.

1983 - The Brooklyn Bridge's 100th birthday was celebrated.

1983 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the federal government had the right to deny tax breaks to schools that racially discriminate.

1986 - Montreal won its 23rd National Hockey League (NHL) Stanley Cup championship.

1990 - The Edmonton Oilers won their fifth National Hockey League (NHL) Stanley Cup.

1993 - Roman Catholic Cardinal Juan Jesus Posada Ocampo and six other people were killed at the Guadalajara, Mexico, airport in a shootout that involved drug gangs.

1993 - The Ethiopian province of Eritrea declared itself an independent nation.

1994 - The four men convicted of bombing the New York's World Trade Center were each sentenced to 240 years in prison.

1999 - 39 miners were killed in an underground gas explosion in the Ukraine.

2000 - Five people were killed and two others wounded when two gunmen entered a Wendy's restaurant in Flushing, Queens, New York. The gunmen tied up the victims in the basement and then shot them.

2000 - The U.S. House of Representatives approved permanent normal trade relations with China. China was not happy about some of the human rights conditions that had been attached by the U.S. lawmakers.

2000 - A Democratic Party event for Al Gore in Washington brought in $26.5 million. The amount set a new record, which had just been set the previous month by Republicans for Texas Gov. George W. Bush.

2001 - Temba Tsheri, 15, became the youngest person to reach the summit of Mount Everest.

May 25, 2014

585 BC - The first known prediction of a solar eclipse was made in Greece.

1085 - Alfonso VI took Toledo, Spain from the Moslems.

1787 - The Constitutional convention opened in Philadelphia with George Washington presiding.

1810 - Argentina declared independence from Napoleonic Spain.

1844 - The gasoline engine was patented by Stuart Perry.

1844 - The first telegraphed news dispatch, sent from Washington, DC, to Baltimore, MD, appeared in the Baltimore "Patriot."

1895 - Oscar Wilde, a playwright, poet and novelist, was convicted of a morals charge and sentenced to prison in London.

1895 - James P. Lee first published "Gold in America -- A Practical Manual."

1911 - President of Mexico, Porfolio Diaz, resigned his office.

1925 - John Scopes was indicted for teaching the Darwinian theory in school.

1927 - Ford Motor Company announced that the Model A would replace the Model T.

1927 - The "Movietone News" was shown for the first time at the Sam Harris Theatre in New York City.

1935 - Babe Ruth hit his final homerun, his 714th, and set a record that would stand for 39 years.

1935 - Jesse Owens tied the world record for the 100-yard dash. He ran it in 9.4 seconds. He also broke three other world track records.

1946 - Jordan gained independence from Britain.

1953 - In Nevada, the first atomic cannon was fired.

1961 - America was asked by U.S. President Kennedy to work toward putting a man on the moon before the end of the decade.

1963 - The Organization of African Unity was founded, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

1968 - The Gateway Arch, part of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial in St. Louis, MO, was dedicated.

1970 - Boeing Computer Services was founded.

1977 - "Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope" opened and became the largest grossing film to date.

1977 - An opinion piece by Vietnam verteran Jan Scruggs appeared in "The Washington Post." The article called for a national memorial to "remind an ungrateful nation of what it has done to its sons" that had served in the Vietnam War.

1979 - An American Airlines DC-10 crashed during takeoff at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. 275 people were killed.

1981 - Daredevil Daniel Goodwin scaled Chicago's Sears Tower, while wearing a "Spiderman" costume, in 7 1/2 hours.

1983 - "The Return of the Jedi" opened nationwide. It set a new record in opening day box office sales. The gross was $6,219,629.

1985 - Bangladesh was hit with a hurricane and tidal wave that killed more than 11,000 people.

1986 - Approximately 7 million Americans participated in "Hands Across America."

1989 - The Calgary Flames won their first NHL Stanley Cup by defeating the Montreal Canadiens.

1992 - Jay Leno debuted as the new permanent host of NBC's "Tonight Show."

1996 - In Nimes, France, Christina Sanchez became the first woman to achieve the rank of matadore in Europe.

1997 - In Sierra Leone a military coup overthrew the popularly elected President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah. He was replaced with Major Johnny Paul Koromah.

1997 - U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond became the longest-serving senator in U.S.history (41 years and 10 months).

1997 - Poland adopted a constitution that removed all traces of communism.

1999 - A report by the U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on U.S. National Security and Military/Commercial Concerns with the People's Republic of China concluded that China had "stolen design information on the U.S. most-advanced thermonuclear weapons" and that China's penetration of U.S. weapons laboratories "spans at least the past several decades and almost certainly continues today."

May 25, 2014

0017 - Germanicus of Rome celebrated his victory over the Germans.

1328 - William of Ockham was forced to flee from Avignon by Pope John XXII.

1521 - Martin Luther was banned by the Edict of Worms because of his religious beliefs and writings.

1647 - A new law banned Catholic priests from the colony of Massachusetts. The penalty was banishment or death for a second offense.

1660 - King Charles II of England landed at Dover after being exiled for nine years.

1670 - A treaty was signed in secret in Dover, England, between Charles II and Louis XIV ending the hostilities between them.

1691 - Jacob Leiser, leader of the popular uprising in support of William and Mary’s accession to the English throne, was executed for treason.

1736 - The British and Chickasaw Indians defeated the French at the Battle of Ackia.

1791 - The French Assembly forced King Louis XVI to hand over the crown and state assets.

1805 - Napoleon Bonaparte was crowned King of Italy in Milan Cathedral.

1831 - Russians defeated the Poles at battle of Ostrolenska.

1835 - A resolution was passed in the U.S. Congress stating that Congress has no authority over state slavery laws.

1836 - The U.S. House of Representatives adopted what has been called the Gag Rule.

1864 - The Territory of Montana was organized.

1865 - Arrangements were made in New Orleans for the surrender of Confederate forces west of the Mississippi.

1868 - U.S. President Andrew Johnson was acquitted, by one vote, of all charges in his impeachment trial.

1896 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average appeared for the first time in the "Wall Street Journal."

1896 - The last czar of Russia, Nicholas II, was crowned.

1908 - In Persia, the first oil strike was made in the Middle East.

1913 - Actors’ Equity Association was organized in New York City.

1926 - In Morocco, rebel leader Abd el Krim surrendered.

1938 - The House Committee on Un-American Activities began its work of searching for subversives in the United States.

1940 - The evacuation of Allied troops from Dunkirk, France, began during World War II.

1946 - A patent was filed in the United States for an H-bomb.

1946 - British Prime Minister Winston Churchill signed a military pact with Russian leader Joseph Stalin. Stalin promised a "close collaboration after the war."

1948 - The U.S. Congress passed Public Law 557 which permanently established the Civil Air Patrol as the Auxiliary of the new U.S. Air Force.

1956 - The first trailer bank opened for business in Locust Grove, Long Island, NY. The 46-foot-long trailer took in $100,000 in deposits its first day.

1958 - Union Square, San Francisco became a state historical landmark.

1959 - The word "Frisbee" became a registered trademark of Wham-O.

1961 - Civil rights activist group Freedom Ride Coordinating Committee was established in Atlanta, GA.

1961 - A U.S. Air Force bomber flew across the Atlantic in a record time of just over three hours.

1969 - The Apollo 10 astronauts returned to Earth after a successful eight-day dress rehearsal for the first manned moon landing.

1972 - The Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT I) was signed by the U.S. and USSR. The short-term agreement put a freeze on the testing and deployment of intercontinental and submarine-launched ballistic missiles for a 5-year period.

1973 - Kathy Schmidt set an American women’s javelin record with a throw of 207 feet, 10 inches.

1975 - American stuntman Evel Knievel suffered severe spinal injuries in Britain when he crashed while attempting to jump 13 buses in his car.

1977 - George H. Willig was arrested after he scaled the South Tower of New York's World Trade Center. It took him 3 1/2 hours.

1978 - The first legal casino in the Eastern U.S. opened in Atlantic City, NJ.

1987 - Sri Lanka launched Operation Liberation. It was an offensive against the Tamil rebellion in Jaffra.

1988 - The Edmonton Oilers won their fourth NHL Stanley Cup in five seasons. They swept the series 4 games to 0 against the Boston Bruins.

1991 - A Lauda Air Boeing 767 crashed in Thailand, killing all 223 people aboard.

1994 - U.S. President Clinton renewed trade privileges for China, and announced that his administration would no longer link China's trade status with its human rights record.

1998 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Ellis Island was mainly in New Jersey, not New York.

1998 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that police officers in high-speed chases are liable for bystander injuries only if their "actions shock the conscience."

1998 - The Grand Princess cruise ship made its inaugural cruise. The ship measured 109,000 tons and cost approximately $450 million, making it the largest and most expensive cruise ship ever built.

May 26, 2014

1647 - Achsah Young, a resident of Windsor, CT, was executed for being a "witch." It was the first recorded American execution of a "witch."

1668 - Three colonists were expelled from Massachusetts for being Baptists.

1813 - Americans captured Fort George, Canada.

1896 - 255 people were killed in St. Louis, MO, when a tornado struck.

1901 - The Edison Storage Battery Company was organized.

1907 - The Bubonic Plague broke out in San Francisco.

1919 - A U.S. Navy seaplane completed the first transatlantic flight.

1926 - Bronze figures of Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer were erected in Hannibal, MO.

1929 - Colonel Charles Lindbergh and Anne Spencer Murrow were married.

1931 - Piccard and Knipfer made the first flight into the stratosphere, by balloon.

1933 - Walt Disney's "Three Little Pigs" was first released.

Disney movies, music and books

1933 - In the U.S., the Federal Securities Act was signed. The act required the registration of securities with the Federal Trade Commission.

1935 - The U.S. Supreme Court declared that President Franklin Roosevelt's National Industrial Recovery Act was unconstitutional.

1937 - In California, the Golden Gate Bridge was opened to pedestrian traffic. The bridge connected San Francisco and Marin County.

1941 - U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt proclaimed an "unlimited national emergency" amid rising world tensions.

1941 - The German battleship Bismarck was sunk by British naval and air forces. 2,300 people were killed.

1942 - German General Erwin Rommel began a major offensive in Libya with his Afrika Korps.

1944 - U.S. General MacArthur landed on Biak Island in New Guinea.

1960 - A military coup overthrew the democratic government of Turkey.

1964 - Indian Prime Minister Jawaharla Nehru died.

1968 - After 48 years as coach of the Chicago Bears, George Halas retired.

1969 - Construction of Walt Disney World began in Florida.

1977 - George H. Willig was fined for scaling the World Trade Center in New York on May 26. He was fined $1.10.

1982 - Japan announced the elimination of tariffs on 96 industrial goods.

1985 - In Beijing, representatives of Britain and China exchanged instruments of ratification on the pact returning Hong Kong to the Chinese in 1997.

1986 - Mel Fisher recovered a jar that contained 2,300 emeralds from the Spanish ship Atocha. The ship sank in the 17th century.

1988 - The U.S. Senate ratified the INF treaty. The INF pact was the first arms-control agreement since the 1972 Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT I) to receive Senate approval.

1994 - Nobel Prize-winning author Alexander Solzhenitsyn returned to Russia. He had been in exile for two decades.

1995 - In Charlottesville, VA, Christopher Reeve was paralyzed after being thrown from his horse during a jumping event.

1996 - Russian President Boris Yeltsin negotiated a cease-fire to the war in Chechnya in his first meeting with the leader of the rebels.

1997 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the sexual harassment suit filed by Paula Jones could continue while President Clinton was in office.

1998 - Charlie Sheen was admitted to a hospital in Los Angeles for a drug overdose.

1998 - Michael Fortier was sentenced to 12 years in prison for not warning anyone about the plot to bomb an Oklahoma City federal building.

1999 - In The Hague, Netherlands, a war crimes tribunal indicted Slobodan Milosevic and four others for atrocities in Kosovo. It was the first time that a sitting head of state had been charged with such a crime.

2010 - Universal Studios reopened its backlot. The area had been destroyed by a fire two years before.

May 27, 2014

585 BC - Thales Miletus predicted a solar eclipse.

585BC - The Persian-Lydian battle ended.

1533 - England's Archbishop declared the marriage of King Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn valid.

1774 - The First Continental Congress convened in Virginia.

1805 - Napoleon was crowned in Milan, Italy.

1863 - The first black regiment left Boston to fight in the U.S. Civil War.

1892 - The Sierra club was organized in San Francisco, CA.

1900 - Britain annexed the Orange Free State.

1918 - Azerbaijan declared independence.

1928 - Chrysler Corporation merged with Dodge Brothers, Inc.

1929 - Warner Brothers debuted "On With The Show" in New York City. It was the first all-color-talking picture.

1934 - The Dionne quintuplets were born near Callender, Ontario, to Olivia and Elzire Dionne. The babies were the first quintuplets to survive infancy.

1937 - U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt pushed a button in Washington, DC, signaling that vehicular traffic could cross the newly opened Golden Gate Bridge in California.

1940 - During World War II, Belgium surrendered to Germany.

1953 - The Walt Disney film "Melody" premiered in the Paramount Theatre in Hollywood. The picture was the first 3-D cartoon.

Disney movies, music and books

1957 - National League club owners voted to allow the Brooklyn Dodgers to move to Los Angeles and that the New York Giants could move to San Francisco.

1961 - Amnesty International, a human rights organization, was founded.

1976 - The Peaceful Nuclear Explosion Treaty was signed, limiting any nuclear explosion - regardless of its purpose - to a yield of 150 kilotons.

1977 - Fire raced through the Beverly Hills Supper Club in Southgate, KY. 165 people were killed.

1985 - David Jacobsen, director of the American University Hospital in Beirut, Lebanon, was abducted by pro-Iranian kidnappers. He was freed 17 months later.

1987 - Mathias Rust, a 19-year-old West German pilot, landed a private plane in Moscow's Red Square after evading Soviet air defenses. He was released August 3, 1988.

1995 - An earthquake in the Russian town Neftegorsk killed at least 2000 people. It had a magnitude of 7.5.

1996 - U.S. President Clinton's former business partners in the Whitewater land deal were convicted of fraud.

1998 - Pakistan matched India with five nuclear test blasts. The U.S., Japan and other nations imposed economic sanctions. Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said "Today, we have settled the score with India."

1998 - Dr. Susan Terebey discovered a planet outside of our solar system with the use of photos taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.

1999 - In Milan, Italy, Leonardo de Vinci's "The Last Supper" was put back on display after more than 20 years of restoration work.

2002 - Russia became a limited partner in NATO with the creation of the NATO-Russia Council.

May 29, 2014

1453 - Constantinople fell to Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II, ending the Byzantine Empire.

1660 - Charles II was restored to the English throne after the Puritan Commonwealth.

1721 - South Carolina was formally incorporated as a royal colony.

1765 - Patrick Henry denounced the Stamp Act before Virginia's House of Burgesses.

1790 - Rhode Island became the last of the original thirteen colonies to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

1827 - The first nautical school opened in Nantucket, MA, under the name Admiral Sir Isaac Coffin’s Lancasterian School.

1848 - WIsconsin became the 30th state to join the United States.

1849 - A patent for lifting vessels was granted to Abraham Lincoln.

1910 - An airplane raced a train from Albany, NY, to New York City. The airplane pilot Glenn Curtiss won the $10,000 prize.

1912 - Fifteen women were dismissed from their jobs at the Curtis Publishing Company in Philadelphia, PA, for dancing the Turkey Trot while on the job.

1916 - The official flag of the president of the United States was adopted.

1916 - U.S. forces invaded Dominican Republic and remained until 1924.

1922 - Ecuador became independent.

1922 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that organized baseball was a sport, not subject to antitrust laws.

1932 - World War I veterans began arriving in Washington, DC. to demand cash bonuses they were not scheduled to receive for another 13 years.

1951 - C.F. Blair became the first man to fly over the North Pole in single engine plane.

1953 - Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay became first men to reach the top of Mount Everest.

1962 - Buck (John) O’Neil became the first black coach in major league baseball when he accepted the job with the Chicago Cubs.

1965 - Ralph Boston set a world record in the broad jump at 27-feet, 4-3/4 inches, at a meet held in Modesto, CA.

1973 - Tom Bradley was elected the first black mayor of Los Angeles.

1974 - U.S. President Nixon agreed to turn over 1,200 pages of edited Watergate transcripts.

1978 - In the U.S., postage stamps were raised from 13 cents to 15 cents.

1981 - The U.S. performed a nuclear test at the Nevada Test Site.

1985 - Thirty-nine people were killed and 400 were injured in a riot at a European Cup soccer match in Brussels, Belgium.

1986 - Colonel Oliver North told National Security Advisor William McFarlane that profits from weapons sold to Iran were being diverted to the Contras.

1988 - U.S. President Reagan began his first visit to the Soviet Union in Moscow.

1988 - NBC aired "To Heal A Nation," the story of Jan Scruggs' effort to build the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

1990 - Boris Yeltsin was elected president of the Russian republic by the Russian parliament.

1997 - The ruling party in Indonesia, Golkar, won the Parliament election by a record margin. There was a boycott movement and rioting that killed 200 people.

1999 - Space shuttle Discovery completed the first docking with the International Space Station.

2000 - Fiji's military took control of the nation and declared martial law following a coup attempt by indigenous Fijians in mid-May.

2001 - In New York, four followers of Osama bin Laden were convicted of a global conspiracy to murder Americans. The crimes included the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa that killed 224 people.

May 30, 2014

1416 - Jerome of Prague was burned as a heretic by the Church.

1431 - Joan of Arc was burned at the stake in Rouen, France, at the age of 19.

1527 - The University of Marburg was founded in Germany.

1539 - Hernando de Soto, the Spanish explorer, landed in Florida with 600 soldiers to search for gold.

1783 - The first daily newspaper was published in the U.S. by Benjamin Towner called "The Pennsylvania Evening Post"

1814 - The First Treaty of Paris was declared, which returned France to its 1792 borders.

1848 - W.G. Young patented the ice cream freezer.

1854 - The U.S. territories of Nebraska and Kansas were established.

1868 - Memorial Day was observed widely for the first time in the U.S.

1879 - William Vanderbilt renamed New York City's Gilmore’s Garden to Madison Square Garden.

1883 - Twelve people were trampled to death in New York City in a stampede when a rumor that the Brooklyn Bridge was in danger of collapsing occurred.

1896 - The first automobile accident occurred in New York City.

1903 - In Riverdale, NY, the first American motorcycle hill climb was held.

1911 - Ray Harroun won the first Indianapolis Sweepstakes. The 500-mile auto race later became known as the Indianapolis 500. Harroun's average speed was 74.59 miles per hour.

1912 - The U.S. Marines were sent to Nicaragua to protect American interests.

1913 - The First Balkan War ended.

1921 - The U.S. Navy transferred the Teapot Dome oil reserves to the Department of the Interior.

1922 - The Lincoln Memorial was dedicated in Washington, DC.

1933 - Sally Rand introduced her exotic and erotic fan dance to audiences at Chicago’s Century of Progress Exposition.

1943 - American forces secured the Aleutian island of Attu from the Japanese during World War II.

1958 - Unidentified soldiers killed in World War II and the Korean conflicts were buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

1967 - Daredevil Evel Knievel jumped 16 automobiles in a row in a motorcycle stunt at Ascot Speedway in Gardena, CA.

1967 - The state of Biafra seceded from Nigeria and Civil war erupted.

1971 - Mariner 9, the American deep space probe blasted off on a journey to Mars.

1981 - In Chittagong, Bangladesh, President Ziaur Rahman was assassinated.

1982 - Spain became the 16th NATO member. Spain was the first country to enter the Western alliance since West Germany in 1955.

1983 - Peru's President Fernando Belaunde Terry declared a state of emergency and suspended civil rights after bombings by leftist rebels.

1989 - The "Goddess of Democracy" statue (33 feet height) was erected in Tiananmen Square by student demonstrators.

1996 - Britain's Prince Andrew and the former Sarah Ferguson were granted an uncontested decree ending their 10-year marriage.

1997 - Jesse K. Timmendequas was convicted in Trenton, NJ, of raping and strangling a 7-year-old neighbor, Megan Kanka. The 1994 murder inspired "Megan's Law," requiring that communities be notified when sex offenders move in.

1998 - A powerful earthquake hit northern Afghanistan killing up to 5,000.

2003 - Peter Jennings was sworn in as a U.S. citizen.

May 31, 2014

1433 - Sigismund was crowned emperor of Rome.

1854 - The Kansas-Nebraska Act passed by the U.S. Congress.

1859 - The Philadelphia Athletics were formally organized to play the game of Town Ball.

1859 - In London, Big Ben went into operation.

1870 - E.J. DeSemdt patented asphalt.

1879 - New York's Madison Square Garden opened.

1880 - The first U.S. national bicycle society was formed in Newport, RI. It was known as the League of American Wheelman.

1884 - Dr. John Harvey Kellogg patented "flaked cereal."

1889 - In Johnstown, PA, more than 2,200 people died after the South Fork Dam collapsed.

1900 - U.S. troops arrived in Peking to help put down the Boxer Rebellion.

1902 - The Boer War ended between the Boers of South Africa and Great Britain with the Treaty of Vereeniging.

1907 - The first taxis arrived in New York City. They were the first in the United States.

1909 - The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) held its first conference.

1910 - The Union of South Africa was founded.

1913 - The 17th Amendment went into effect. It provided for popular election of U.S. senators.

1915 - A German zeppelin made an air raid on London.

1927 - Ford Motor Company produced the last "Tin Lizzie" in order to begin production of the Model A.

1929 - In Beverly, MA, the first U.S. born reindeer were born.

1941 - The first issue of "Parade: The Weekly Picture Newspaper" went on sale.

1943 - "Archie" was aired on the Mutual Broadcasting System for the first time.

1947 - Communists seized control of Hungary.

1955 - The U.S. Supreme Court ordered that all states must end racial segregation "with all deliberate speed."

1961 - South Africa became an independent republic.

1962 - Adolf Eichmann was hanged in Israel. Eichmann was a Gestapo official and was executed for his actions in the Nazi Holocaust.

1970 - An earthquake in Peru killed tens of thousands of people.

1974 - Israel and Syria signed an agreement on the Golan Heights.

1977 - The trans-Alaska oil pipeline was finished after 3 years of construction.

1979 - Zimbabwe proclaimed its independence.

1994 - The U.S. announced it was no longer aiming long-range nuclear missiles at targets in the former Soviet Union.

1995 - Bob Dole singled out Time Warner for "the marketing of evil" in movies and music. Dole later admitted that he had not seen or heard much of what he had been criticizing.

2003 - In North Carolina, Eric Robert Rudolph was captured. He had been on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list for five years for several bombings including the 1996 Olympic bombing.

June 1, 2014

1533 - Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII’s new queen, was crowned.

1774 - The British government ordered the Port of Boston closed.

1789 - The first U.S. congressional act on administering oaths became law.

1792 - Kentucky became the 15th state of the U.S.

1796 - Tennessee became the 16th state of the U.S.

1861 - The first skirmish of the U.S. Civil War took place at the Fairfax Court House, Virginia.

1869 - Thomas Edison received a patent for his electric voting machine.

1877 - U.S. troops were authorized to pursue bandits into Mexico.

1915 - Germany conducted the first zeppelin air raid over England.

1916 - The National Defense Act increased the strength of the U.S. National Guard by 450,000 men.

1921 - A race riot erupted in Tulsa, OKlahoma. 85 people were killed.

1935 - The Ingersoll-Waterbury Company reported that it had produced 2.5 million Mickey Mouse watches during its 2-year association with Disney.

1938 - Baseball helmets were worn for the first time.

1939 - The Douglas DC-4 made its first passenger flight from Chicago to New York.

1941 - The German Army completed the capture of Crete as the Allied evacuation ended.

1942 - The U.S. began sending Lend-Lease materials to the Soviet Union.

1943 - During World War II, Germans shot down a civilian flight from Lisbon to London.

1944 - The French resistance was warned by a coded message from the British that the D-Day invasion was imminent.

1944 - Siesta was abolished by the government of Mexico.

1953 - Raymond Burr mad his network-TV acting debut. It was in "The Mask of Medusa" on ABC-TV's "Twilight Theater."

1954 - In the Peanuts comic strip, Linus' security blanket made its debut.

1958 - Charles de Gaulle became the premier of France.

1961 - Radio listeners in New York, California, and Illinois were introduced to FM multiplex stereo broadcasting. A year later the FCC made this a standard.

1963 - Governor George Wallace vowed to defy an injunction that ordered the integration of the University of Alabama.

1970 - Zimbabwe came into existence. It was formerly known as Rhodesia.

1977 - The Soviet Union formally charged Jewish human rights activist Anatoly Shcharansky with treason. He was imprisoned until 1986.

1978 - The U.S. reported the finding of wiretaps in the American embassy in Moscow.

1980 - Cable News Network (CNN) made its debut as the first all-news station.

1989 - Disney World's "Typhoon Lagoon" opened.

1995 - At Disneyland Paris, the attraction "Space Mountain: From The Earth to the Moon" opened.

1998 - In the U.S., the FDA approved a urine-only test for the AIDS virus.

1998 - A $124 million suit was brought against Goodyear Tire & Rubber that alleged discrimination towards black workers.

2008 - The Phoenix Mars Lander became the first NASA spacecraft to scoop Martian soil.

2009 - The first event, a George Strait concert, was held at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, TX.

Today in Texas History

2009 - General Motors filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. The filing made GM the largest U.S. industrial company to enter bankruptcy protection.

June 2, 2014

1537 - Pope Paul III banned the enslavement of Indians.

1774 - The Quartering Act, which required American colonists to allow British soldiers into their houses, was reenacted.

1793 - Maximillian Robespierre initiated the "Reign of Terror". It was an effort to purge those suspected of treason against the French Republic.

1818 - The British army defeated the Maratha alliance in Bombay, India.

1851 - Maine became the first U.S. state to enact a law prohibiting alcohol.

1883 - The first baseball game under electric lights was played in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

1886 - Grover Cleveland became the second U.S. president to get married while in office. He was the first to have a wedding in the White House.

1896 - Guglieimo Marconi's radio was patented in the U.S.

1897 - Mark Twain, at age 61, was quoted by the New York Journal as saying "the report of my death was an exaggeration." He was responding to the rumors that he had died.

1910 - Charles Stewart Roll became the first person to fly non-stop and double cross the English Channel.

1924 - All American Indians were granted U.S. citizenship by the U.S. Congress.

1928 - Nationalist Chiang Kai-shek captured Peking, China.

1930 - Mrs. M. Niezes of Panama gave birth to the first baby to be born on a ship while passing through the Panama Canal.

1933 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt accepted the first swimming pool to be built inside the White House.

1935 - George Herman "Babe" Ruth announced that he was retiring from baseball.

1937 - "The Fabulous Dr. Tweedy" was broadcast on NBC radio for the first time.

1946 - Italians voted by referendum to form a republic instead of a monarchy.

1953 - Elizabeth was crowned queen of England at Westminster Abbey.

1954 - U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy charged that there were communists working in the CIA and atomic weapons plants.

1957 - Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev was interviewed by CBS-TV.

1966 - Surveyor 1, the U.S. space probe, landed on the moon and started sending photographs back to Earth of the Moon's surface. It was the first soft landing on the Moon.

1969 - The National Arts Center in Canada opened its doors to the public.

1969 - Australian aircraft carrier Melbourne sliced the destroyer USS Frank E. Evans in half off the shore of South Vietnam.

1979 - Pope John Paul II arrived in his native Poland on the first visit by a pope to a Communist country.

1985 - The R.J. Reynolds Company proposed a major merger with Nabisco that would create a $4.9 billion conglomerate.

1985 - Tommy Sandt was ejected from a major-league baseball game before the national anthem was played. He had complained to the umpire about a call against his team the night before.

1995 - Captain Scott F. O'Grady's U.S. Air Force F-16C was shot down by Bosnian Serbs. He was rescued six days later.

1998 - Royal Caribbean Cruises agreed to pay $9 million to settle charges of dumping waste at sea.

1998 - Voters in California passed Proposition 227. The act abolished the state's 30-year-old bilingual education program by requiring that all children be taught in English.

1999 - In South Africa, the African National Congress (ANC) won a major victory. ANC leader Thabo Mbeki was to succeed Nelson Mandela as the nation's president.

2003 - In the U.S., federal regulators voted to allow companies to buy more television stations and newspaper-broadcasting combinations in the same city. The previous ownership restrictions had not been altered since 1975.

2003 - In Seville, Spain, a chest containing the supposed remains of Christopher Columbus were exhumed for DNA tests to determine whether the bones were really those of the explorer. The tests were aimed at determining if Colombus was currently buried in Spain's Seville Cathedral or in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic.

2003 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that companies could not be sued under a trademark law for using information in the public domain without giving credit to the originator. The case had originated with 20th Century Fox against suing Dastar Corp. over their use of World War II footage.

2003 - William Baily was reunited with two paintings he had left on a subway platform. One of the works was an original Picasso rendering of two male figures and a recreation of Picasso's "Guernica" by Sophie Matisse. Sophie Matisse was the great-granddaughter of Henri Matisse.

June 3, 2014

1098 - Christian Crusaders of the First Crusade seized Antioch, Turkey.

1539 - Hernando De Soto claimed Florida for Spain.

1621 - The Dutch West India Company received a charter for New Netherlands (now known as New York).

1784 - The U.S. Congress formally created the United States Army to replace the disbanded Continental Army. On June 14, 1775, the Second Continental Congress had created the Continental Army for purposes of common defense and this event is considered to be the birth of the United States Army.

1800 - John Adams moved to Washington, DC. He was the first President to live in what later became the capital of the United States.

1805 - A peace treaty between the U.S. and Tripoli was completed in the captain's cabin on board the USS Constitution.

1851 - The New York Knickerbockers became the first baseball team to wear uniforms.

1856 - Cullen Whipple patented the screw machine.

1888 - "Casey at the Bat" the poem by Ernest Lawrence Thayer was first published.

1918 - The Finnish Parliament ratified its treaty with Germany.

1923 - In Italy, Benito Mussolini granted women the right to vote.

1932 - Lou Gehrig set a major league baseball record when he hit four consecutive home runs.

1937 - The Duke of Windsor, who had abdicated the British throne, married Wallis Warfield Simpson.

1938 - The German Reich voted to confiscate so-called "degenerate art."

1952 - A rebellion by North Korean prisoners in the Koje prison camp in South Korea was put down by American troops.

1959 - The first class graduated from the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, CO.

1965 - Edward White became the first American astronaut to do a "space walk" when he left the Gemini 4 capsule.

1970 - Har Gobind Khorana and colleagues announced the first synthesis of a gene from chemical components.

1985 - After five years, the characters of Nancy and Chris Hughes returned to CBS-TV's "As the World Turns."

1989 - Chinese army troops positioned themselves to began a sweep of Beijing to crush student-led pro-democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square.

1999 - Slobodan Milosevic's government accepted an international peace plan concerning Kosovo. NATO announced that airstrikes would continue until 40,000 Serb forces were withdrawn from Kosovo.

1999 - Dennis Muren received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

2003 - Sammy Sosa (Chicago Cubs) broke a bat when he grounded out against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. The bat he was using was a corked bat. (Illinois, Florida)

2003 - Toys "R" Us, Inc. announced that it had signed a multi-year agreement with Albertson to become the exclusive toy provider for all of all of Albertson's food and drug stores.

June 4, 2014

1615 - The fortress of Osaka, Japan, fell to shogun Ieyasu after a six month siege.

1647 - The British army seized King Charles I and held him as a hostage.

1674 - Horse racing was prohibited in Massachusetts.

1784 - Marie Thible became the first woman to fly in a hot-air balloon. The flight was 45 minutes long and reached a height of 8,500 feet.

1792 - Captain George Vancouver claimed Puget Sound for Britain.

1794 - British troops captured Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

1805 - Tripoli was forced to conclude peace with U.S. after conflicts over tribute.

1812 - The Louisiana Territory had its name changed to the Missouri Territory.

1816 - The Washington was launched at Wheeling, WV. It was the first stately, double-decker steamboat.

1878 - Turkey turned Cyprus over to Britain.

1892 - The Sierra Club was incorporated in San Francisco.

1896 - Henry Ford made a successful test drive of his new car in Detroit, MI. He called the vehicle was called a "Quadricycle."

1911 - Gold was discovered in Alaska's Indian Creek.

1918 - French and American troops halted Germany's offensive at Chateau-Thierry, France.

1919 - The U.S. Senate passed the Women's Suffrage bill.

1924 - An eternal light was dedicated at Madison Square in New York City in memory of all New York soldiers who died in World War I.

1931 - The first rocket-glider flight was made by William Swan in Atlantic City, NJ.

1935 - "Invisible" glass was patented by Gerald Brown and Edward Pollard.

1939 - The first shopping cart was introduced by Sylvan Goldman in Oklahoma City, OK. It was actually a folding chair that had been mounted on wheels.

1940 - The British completed the evacuation of 300,000 troops at Dunkirk, France.

1942 - The Battle of Midway began. It was the first major victory for America over Japan during World War II. The battle ended on June 6 and ended Japanese expansion in the Pacific.

1943 - In Argentina, Juan Peron took part in the military coup that overthrew Ramon S. Castillo.

1944 - The U-505 became the first enemy submarine captured by the U.S. Navy.

1944 - During World War II, the U.S. Fifth Army entered Rome, which began the liberation of the Italian capital.

1944 - "Leonidas Witherall" was first broadcast on the Mutual Broadcasting System.

1946 - Juan Peron was installed as Argentina's president.

1947 - The House of Representatives approved the Taft-Hartley Act. The legislation allowed the President of the United States to intervene in labor disputes.

1954 - French Premier Joseph Laniel and Vietnamese Premier Buu Loc initialed treaties in Paris giving "complete independence" to Vietnam.

1960 - The Taiwan island of Quemoy was hit by 500 artillery shells fired from the coast of Communist China.

1974 - The Cleveland Indians had "Ten Cent Beer Night". Due to the drunken and unruly fans the Indians forfeited to the Texas Rangers.

1974 - Sally Murphy became the first woman to qualify as an aviator with the U.S. Army.

1984 - For the first time in 32 years, Arnold Palmer failed to make the cut for the U.S. Open golf tournament.

1985 - The U.S. Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling striking down an Alabama law that provided for a daily minute of silence in public schools.

1986 - Jonathan Jay Pollard, a former Navy intelligence analyst, pled guilty in Washington to spying for Israel. He was sentenced to life in prison.

1986 - The California Supreme Court approved a law that limited the liability of manufacturers and other wealthy defendants. It was known as the "deep pockets law."

1989 - In Beijing, Chinese army troops stormed Tiananmen Square to crush the pro-democracy movement. It is believed that hundreds, possibly thousands, of demonstrators were killed.

1992 - The U.S. Postal Service announced that people preferred the "younger Elvis" stamp design in a nationwide vote.

1998 - George and Ira Gershwin received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

2003 - The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that would ban "partial birth" abortions with a 282-139 vote.

2003 - Amazon.com announced that it had received more than 1 million orders for the book "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix." The released date was planned for June 21.

June 5, 2014

1595 - Henry IV's army defeated the Spanish at the Battle of Fontaine-Francaise.

1752 - Benjamin Franklin flew a kite for the first time to demonstrate that lightning was a form of electricity.

1783 - A hot-air balloon was demonstrated by Joseph and Jacques Montgolfier. It reached a height of 1,500 feet.

1794 - The U.S. Congress prohibited citizens from serving in any foreign armed forces.

1827 - Athens fell to the Ottomans.

1851 - Harriet Beecher Stow published the first installment of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" in "The National Era."

1865 - The first safe deposit vault was opened in New York. The charge was $1.50 a year for every $1,000 that was stored.

1884 - U.S. Civil War General William T. Sherman refused the Republican presidential nomination, saying, "I will not accept if nominated and will not serve if elected."

1917 - American men began registering for the World War I draft.

1924 - Ernst F. W. Alexanderson transmitted the first facsimile message across the Atlantic Ocean.

1927 - Johnny Weissmuller set two world records in swimming events. Weissmuller set marks in the 100-yard, and 200-yard, free-style swimming competition.

1933 - President Roosevelt signed the bill that took the U.S. off of the gold standard.

1940 - During World War II, the Battle of France began when Germany began an offensive in Southern France.

1942 - In France, Pierre Laval congratulated French volunteers that were fighting in the U.S.S.R. with Germans.

1944 - The first B-29 bombing raid hit the Japanese rail line in Bangkok, Thailand.

1946 - The first medical sponges were first offered for sale in Detroit, MI.

1947 - U.S. Secretary of State George C. Marshall gave a speech at Harvard University in which he outlined the Marshall Plan.

1956 - Premier Nikita Khrushchev denounced Josef Stalin to the Soviet Communist Party Congress.

1967 - The National Hockey League (NHL) awarded three new franchises. The Minnesota North Stars (later the Dallas Stars), the California Golden Seals (no longer in existence) and the Los Angeles Kings.

1967 - The Six Day War between Israel and Egypt, Syria and Jordan began.

1973 - The first hole-in-one in the British Amateur golf championship was made by Jim Crowford.

1975 - Egypt reopened the Suez Canal to international shipping, eight years after it was closed because of the 1967 war with Israel.

1981 - In the U.S., the Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported that five men in Los Angeles were suffering from a rare pneumonia found in patients with weakened immune systems. They were the first recognized cases of what came to be known as AIDS.

1986 - A federal jury in Baltimore convicted Ronald W. Pelton of selling secrets to the Soviet Union. Pelton was sentenced to three life prison terms plus 10 years.

1987 - Ted Koppel and guests discussed the topic of AIDS for four hours on ABC-TV’s "Nightline".

1998 - A strike began at a General Motors Corp. parts factory near Detroit, MI, that closed five assembly plants and idled workers across the U.S. for seven weeks.

1998 - Volkswagen AG won approval to buy Rolls-Royce Motor Cars for $700 million, outbidding BMW's $554 million offer.

1998 - C-Span reported that Bob Hope had died. The report was false and had begun with an inaccurate obituary on the Associated Press website.

1998 - A strike at a General Motors parts factory began. It lasted for seven weeks.

2001 - Amazon.com announced that it would begin selling personal computers later in the year.

2004 - The U.S.S. Jimmy Carter was christened in the U.S. Navy in Groton, CT.

June 6, 2014

1674 - Sivaji crowned himself King of India.

1813 - The U.S. invasion of Canada was halted at Stony Creek, Ontario.

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.

1882 - The first electric iron was patented by H.W. Seely.

1890 - The United States Polo Association was formed in New York City, NY.

1904 - The National Tuberculosis Association was formed in Atlantic City, NJ.

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.

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 - The D-Day invasion of Europe took place on the beaches of Normandy, France. 400,000 Allied American, British and Canadian troops were involved.

1946 - The Basketball Association of America was formed in New York City, NY.

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.

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.

1978 - "20/20" debuted on ABC.

1982 - Israel invaded southern Lebanon in an effort to drive PLO guerrillas out of Beirut.

1985 - The body of Nazi war criminal Dr. Josef Mengele was located and exhumed near Sao Paolo, Brazil. Mengele was known as the "Angel of Death."

1985 - The U.S. Senate authorized nonmilitary aid to the Contras. The vote authorized $38 million over two years.

1993 - Mongolia held its first direct presidential elections.

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.

June 7, 2014

1494 - Spain and Portugal divided the new lands they had discovered between themselves.

1498 - Christopher Columbus left on his third voyage of exploration.

1546 - Peace of Ardes ended the war between France and England.

1654 - Louis XIV was crowned king of France.

1712 - The Pennsylvania Assembly banned the importation of slaves.

1775 - The United Colonies changed their name to the United States.

1776 - Richard Henry Lee of Virginia proposed to the Continental Congress a resolution calling for a Declaration of Independence.

1863 - Mexico City was captured by French troops.

1892 - J.F. Palmer patented the cord bicycle tire.

1892 - John Joseph Doyle became the first pinch-hitter in baseball when he was used in a game.

1900 - Boxer rebels cut the rail links between Peking and Tientsin in China.

1903 - Professor Pierre Curie revealed the discovery of Polonium.

1909 - Mary Pickford made her motion picture debut in "The Violin Maker of Cremona."

1929 - The sovereign state of Vatican City came into existence as copies of the Lateran Treaty were exchanged in Rome.

1932 - Over 7,000 war veterans marched on Washington, DC, demanding their bonuses.

1935 - Pierre Laval received emergency powers to save the franc.

1937 - The cover of "LIFE" magazine showed the latest in campus fashions of the times, which included saddle shoes.

1939 - King George VI and his wife, Queen Elizabeth, arrived in the U.S. It was the first visit to the U.S. by a reigning British monarch.

1942 - The Battle of Midway ended. The sea and air battle lasted 4 days. Japan lost four carriers, a cruiser, and 292 aircraft, and suffered 2,500 casualties. The U.S. lost the Yorktown, the destroyer USS Hammann, 145 aircraft, and suffered 307 casualties.

1942 - Japan landed troops on the islands of Attu and Kiska in the Aleutians. The U.S. invaded and recaptured the Alutians one year later.

1944 - Off of the coast of Normandy, France, the Susan B. Anthony sank. All 2,689 people aboard survived.

1948 - The Communists completed their takeover of Czechoslovakia.

1955 - "The $64,000 Question" premiered.

1966 - Sony Corporation unveiled its brand new consumer home videotape recorder. The black and white only unit sold for $995.

1965 - In the U.S., the Gemini 4 mission was completed. The mission featured the first spacewalk by an American.

1968 - In Operation Swift Saber, U.S. Marines swept an area 10 miles northwest of Danang in South Vietnam.

1976 - "The NBC Nightly News", with John Chancellor and David Brinkley, aired for the first time.

1981 - Israeli F-16 fighter-bombers destroyed Iraq’s only nuclear reactor.

1983 - The U.S. ordered Nicaragua to close all six of its consulates and informed 21 Nicaraguan consular officials that they could not longer remain in the U.S.

1994 - The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia declared the RMS Titanic, Inc. (RMST) salvor-in-possession of the wreck and the wreck site of the RMS Titanic.

2000 - U.S. Federal Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson ordered the breakup of Microsoft Corporation.

June 8, 2014

0452 - Italy was invaded by Attila the Hun.

0793 - The Vikings raided the Northumbrian coast of England.

1786 - In New York City, commercially manufactured ice cream was advertised for the first time.

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 voted to secede from the Union and joined the Confederacy.

1866 - Prussia annexed the region of Holstein.

1869 - Ives W. McGaffey received a U.S. patent for the suction vacuum cleaner.

1872 - The penny postcard was authorized by the U.S. Congress.

1904 - U.S. Marines landed 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.

1947 - "Lassie" debuted on ABC radio. It was a 15-minute show.

1948 - Milton Berle hosted "Texaco Star Theater" NBC-TV. It was the show's debut.

1953 - The U.S. Supreme Court outlawed segregated restaurants in Washington, DC.

1961 - The Milwaukee Braves set a major league baseball record when four consecutive home runs in the seventh inning.

1965 - U.S. troops in South Vietnam were given orders to begin fighting offensively.

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.

1969 - The New York Yankees retired Mickey Mantle's number (7).

1969 - It was announced that there would be a single schedule for both the NFL and AFL.

1969 - U.S. President Richard Nixon met with President Thieu of South Vietnam to tell him 25,000 U.S. troops would pull out by August.

1978 - A jury in Clark County, Nevada, ruled that the "Mormon will," was a forgery. The work was supposedly written by Howard Hughes.

1982 - U.S. President Reagan became the first American chief executive to address a joint session of the British Parliament.

1986 - The Boston Celtics won their 16th NBA championship.

1987 - Fawn Hill began testifying in the Iran-Contra hearings. She said that she had helped to shred some documents.

1988 - The judge in the Iran-Contra conspiracy case ruled that Oliver North, John Poindexter, Richard Secord and Albert Hakim had to be tried separately.

1991 - A victory parade was held in Washington, DC, to honor veterans of the Persian Gulf War.

1994 - The warring factions in Bosnia agreed to a one-month cease-fire.

1995 - U.S. Air Force pilot Captain Scott O'Grady was rescued by U.S. Marines after surviving alone in Bosnia after his F-16 fighter was shot down on June 2.

1996 - China set off an underground nuclear test blast.

1998 - The National Rifle Association elected Charlton Heston to be its president.

1998 - In the U.S., the FTC brought an antitrust complaint against Intel Corp., alleging its policies punished other developers of microprocessor chips.

1998 - Honda agreed to pay $17.1 million for disconnecting anti-pollution devices in 1.6 million cars.

1998 - The space shuttle Discovery pulled away from Mir, ending America's three-year partnership with Russia.

2000 - The Dallas Stars and the New Jersey Devils played the NHL's longest scoreless game in Stanley Cup finals history. The fifth game of the series lasted 106 minutes and 21 seconds. The game ended with a goal by Mike Madano that allowed the Stars to play a game six back in Dallas.

2001 - Marc Chagall's painting "Study for 'Over Vitebsk" was stolen from the Jewish Museum in New York City. The 8x10 painting was valued at about $1 million. A group called the International Committee for Art and Peace later announced that they would return the painting after the Israelis and Palestinians made peace.

2004 - Nate Olive and Sarah Jones began the first known continuous hike of the 1,800-mile trail down the U.S. Pacific Coast. They completed the trek at the U.S.-Mexico border on September 28.

June 9, 2014

1064 - Coimbra, Portugal fell to Ferdinand, the King of Castile.

1534 - Jacques Cartier became the first to sail into the river he named Saint Lawrence.

1790 - John Barry copyrighted "Philadelphia Spelling Book." It was the first American book to be copyrighted.

1790 - Civil war broke out in Martinique.

1860 - The book, "Malaeska, the Indian Wife of the White Hunter" by Mrs. Ann Stevens, was offered for sale for a dime. It was the first published "dime novel."

1861 - Mary Ann "Mother" Bickerdyke began working in Union hospitals.

1923 - Bulgaria's government was overthrown by the military.

1931 - Robert H. Goddard patented a rocket-fueled aircraft design.

1934 - Donald Duck made his debut in the Silly Symphonies cartoon "The Wise Little Hen."

1940 - Norway surrendered to the Nazis during World War II.

1943 - The withholding tax on payrolls was authorized by the U.S. Congress.

1945 - Japanese Premier Kantaro Suzuki declared that Japan would fight to the last rather than accept unconditional surrender.

1946 - Mel Ott (with the New York Giants) became the first manager to be ejected from a doubleheader (both games).

1959 - The first ballistic missile carrying submarine, the USS George Washington, was launched.

1965 - Michel Jazy ran the mile in 3 minutes, 53.6 seconds. He broke the record set by Peter Snell in 1964.

1978 - Leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints struck down a 148-year-old policy of excluding black men from the Mormon priesthood.

1980 - Richard Pryor was severely burned by a "free-base" mixture that exploded. He was hospitalized more than two months.

1985 - Thomas Sutherland, an American educator, was kidnapped in Lebanon. He was not released until November 1991.

1986 - The Rogers Commission released a report on the Challenger disaster. The report explained that the spacecraft blew up as a result of a failure in a solid rocket booster joint.

1999 - NATO and Yugoslavia signed a peace agreement over Kosovo.

2000 - Canada and the United States signed a border security agreement. The agreement called for the establishment of a border-enforcement team.

2000 - The U.S. House of Representatives voted to repeal gift and estate taxes. The bill called for the taxes to be phased out over 10 years.

2001 - Patrick Roy (Colorado Avalanche) became the first National Hockey League (NHL) player to win three Conn Smythe Trophies. The award is given to the playoff's Most Valuable Player.

2011 - The world's first artificial organ transplant was performed. It was an artificial windpipe coated with stem cells.

June 10, 2014

1776 - The Continental Congress appointed a committee to write a Declaration of Independence.

1793 - The Jardin des Plantes zoo opened in Paris. It was the first public zoo.

1801 - The North African State of Tripoli declared war on the U.S. The dispute was over merchant vessels being able to travel safely through the Mediterranean.

1806 - New York's "Commercial Advertiser" became the first U.S. newspaper to cover the sport of harness racing.

1854 - The U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD, held its first graduation.

1898 - U.S. Marines landed in Cuba during the Spanish-American War.

1902 - The "outlook" or "see-through" envelope was patented by Americus F. Callahan.

1909 - The SOS distress signal was used for the first time. The Cunard liner SS Slavonia used the signal when it wrecked off the Azores.

1916 - Mecca, under control of the Turks, fell to the Arabs during the Great Arab Revolt.

1920 - The Republican convention in Chicago endorsed woman suffrage.

1924 - The Republican National Convention was broadcast by NBC radio. It was the first political convention to be on radio.

1925 - The state of Tennessee adopted a new biology text book that denied the theory of evolution.

1935 - Alcoholic Anonymous was founded by William G. Wilson and Dr. Robert Smith.

1940 - Italy declared war on France and Britain. In addition, Canada declared war on Italy.

1943 - Laszlo Biro patented his ballpoint pen. Biro was a Hungarian journalist.

1943 - The Allies began bombing Germany around the clock.

1944 - The youngest pitcher in major league baseball pitched his first game. Joe Nuxhall was 15 years old (and 10 months and 11 days).

1946 - Italy established a republic replacing its monarchy.

1948 - Chuck Yeager exceeded the speed of sound in the Bell XS-1.

1954 - General Motors announced the gas turbine bus had been produced successfully.

1967 - Israel and Syria agreed to a cease-fire that ended the Six-Day War.

1970 - A fifteen-man group of special forces troops began training for Operation Kingpin. The operation was a POW rescue mission in North Vietnam.

1971 - The U.S. ended a 21-year trade embargo of China.

1983 - Johnny Bench announced his plans to retire. He was a catcher in the major leagues for 16 years.

1984 - The U.S. Army successfully tested an antiballistic missile.

1984 - The United States and the Vatican established full diplomatic relations for the first time in 117 years.

1985 - Frank Sinatra was portrayed as a friend of organized crime in a "Doonesbury" comic strip. Over 800 newspapers carried the panel.

1985 - The Israeli army pulled out of Lebanon after 1,099 days of occupation.

1990 - The Civic Forum movement won Czechoslovakia's first free elections since 1946. The movement was founded by President Vaclav Havel.

1990 - Bulgaria's former Communist Party won the country's first free elections in more than four decades.

1993 - It was announced by scientists that genetic material was extracted from an insect that lived when dinosaurs roamed the Earth.

1994 - U.S. President Clinton intensified sanctions against Haiti's military leaders. U.S. commercial air travel was suspended along with most financial transactions between Haiti and the U.S.

1996 - The Colorado Avalanche defeated the Florida Panthers in a 1-0 triple overtime game. The win ended a four-game sweep for the Stanley Cup.

1996 - Britain and Ireland opened Northern Ireland peace talks. The IRA's political arm Sinn Fein was excluded.

1998 - The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that poor children in Milwaukee could attend religious schools at taxpayer expense.

1999 - NATO suspended air strikes in Yugoslavia after Slobodan Milosevic agreed to withdraw his forces from Kosovo.

June 11, 2014

1346 - Charles IV of Luxembourg was elected Holy Roman Emperor in Germany.

1509 - King Henry VIII married his first of six wives, Catherine of Aragon.

1770 - Captain James Cook discovered the Great Barrier Reef off of Australia when he ran aground.

1776 - In America, the Continental Congress formed a committee to draft a Declaration of Independence from Britain.

1798 - Napoleon Bonaparte took the island of Malta.

1880 - Jeanette Rankin was born. She became the first woman elected to the U.S. Congress.

1889 - The Washington Business High School opened in Washington, DC. It was the first school devoted to business in the U.S.

1895 - Charles E. Duryea received the first U.S. patent granted to an American inventor for a gasoline-driven automobile.

1910 - Jacques-Yves Cousteau was born. He was the French underwater explorer that invented the Aqua-Lung diving apparatus.

1912 - Silas Christoferson became the first pilot to take off from the roof of a hotel.

1915 - British troops took Cameroon in Africa.

1919 - Sir Barton became the first horse to capture the Triple Crown when he won the Belmont Stakes in New York City.

1927 - Charles A. Lindberg was presented the first Distinguished Flying Cross.

1930 - William Beebe dove to a record-setting depth of 1,426 feet off the coast of Bermuda. He used a diving chamber called a bathysphere.

1934 - The Disarmament Conference in Geneva ended in failure.

1936 - The Presbyterian Church of America was formed in Philadelphia, PA.

1937 - Soviet leader Josef Stalin began a purge of Red Army generals.

1940 - The Italian Air Force bombed the British fortress at Malta in the Mediterranean.

1942 - The U.S. and the Soviet Union signed a lend lease agreement to aid the Soviets in their effort in World War II.

1943 - During World War II, the Italian island of Pantelleria surrendered after a heavy air bombardment.

1947 - The U.S. government announced an end to sugar rationing.

1950 - Ben Hogan returned to tournament play after a near fatal car accident. He won the U.S. Open.

1963 - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was arrested in Florida for trying to integrate restaurants.

1963 - Alabama Gov. George Wallace allowed two black students to enroll at the University of Alabama.

1967 - Israel and Syria accepted a U.N. cease-fire.

1972 - Hank Aaron tied the National League record for 14 grand-slam home runs in a career.

1973 - After a ruling by the Justice Department of the State of Pennsylvania, women were licensed to box or wrestle.

1977 - In the Netherlands, a 19-day hostage situation came to an end when Dutch marines stormed a train and a school being held by South Moluccan extremist. Two hostages and the six terrorists were killed.

1981 - The first major league baseball player's strike began. It would last for two months.

1982 - Steven Spielberg's movie "E.T." opened.

1987 - Margaret Thatcher became the first British prime minister in 160 years to win a third consecutive term of office.

1990 - The U.S. Supreme Court struck down a law that would prohibit the desecration of the American Flag.

1991 - Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines erupted. The eruption of ash and gas could be seen for more than 60 miles.

1993 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that people who commit "hate crimes" could be sentenced to extra punishment. The court also ruled in favor of religious groups saying that they indeed had a constitutional right to sacrifice animals during worship services.

1993 - Steven Spielberg's movie "Jurassic Park" opened.

1998 - Mitsubishi of America agreed to pay $34 million to end the largest sexual harassment case filed by the U.S. government. The federal lawsuit claimed that hundreds of women at a plant in Normal, IL, had endured groping and crude jokes from male workers.

1998 - Pakistan announced moratorium on nuclear testing and offered to talk with India over disputed Kashmir.

June 12, 2014

1099 - Crusade leaders visited the Mount of Olives where they met a hermit who urged them to assault Jerusalem.

1442 - Alfonso V of Aragon was crowned King of Naples.

1665 - England installed a municipal government in New York. It was the former Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam.

1812 - Napoleon's invasion of Russia began.

1838 - The Iowa Territory was organized.

1839 - Abner Doubleday created the game of baseball, according to the legend.

1849 - The gas mask was patented by L.P. Haslett.

1897 - Carl Elsener patented his penknife. The object later became known as the Swiss army knife.

1898 - Philippine nationalists declared their independence from Spain.

1900 - The Reichstag approved a second law that would allow the expansion of the German navy.

1901 - Cuba agreed to become an American protectorate by accepting the Platt Amendment.

1912 - Lillian Russel retired from the stage and was married for the fourth time.

1918 - The first airplane bombing raid by an American unit occurred on World War I's Western Front in France.

1921 - U.S. President Warren Harding urged every young man to attend military training camp.

1923 - Harry Houdini, while suspended upside down 40 feet above the ground, escaped from a strait jacket.

1926 - Brazil quit the League of Nations in protest over plans to admit Germany.

1935 - U.S. Senator Huey Long of Louisiana made the longest speech on Senate record. The speech took 15 1/2 hours and was filled by 150,000 words.

1935 - The Chaco War was ended with a truce. Bolivia and Paraguay had been fighting since 1932.

1937 - The Soviet Union executed eight army leaders under Joseph Stalin.

1939 - The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum was dedicated in Cooperstown, New York.

1941 - In London, the Inter-Allied Declaration was signed. It was the first step towards the establishment of the United Nations.

1944 - Chinese Communist leader Mao Tse-tung announced that he would support Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek in the war against Japan.

1948 - Ben Hogan won his first U.S. Open golf classic.

1963 - "Cleopatra" starring Elizabeth Taylor, Rex Harrison, and Richard Burton premiered at the Rivoli Theatre in New York City.

1963 - Civil rights leader Medgar Evers was fatally shot in front of his home in Jackson, MS.

1967 - State laws which prohibited interracial marriages were ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court.

1971 - Tricia Nixon and Edward F. Cox were married in the White House Rose Garden.

1975 - Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was found guilty of corrupt election practices in 1971.

1979 - Bryan Allen flew the Gossamer Albatross, man powered, across the English Channel.

1981 - Major league baseball players began a 49 day strike. The issue was free-agent compensation.

1981 - "Raiders of the Lost Ark" opened in the U.S.

1982 - 75,000 people rallied against nuclear weapons in New York City's Central Park. Jackson Browne, James Taylor, Bruce Springsteen, and Linda Ronstadt were in attendance.

1985 - Wayne "The Great One" Gretsky was named winner of the NHL's Hart Trophy. The award is given to the the league Most Valuable Player.

1985 - The U.S. House of Representatives approved $27 million in aid to the Nicaraguan contras.

1986 - South Africa declared a national state of emergency. Virtually unlimited power was given to security forces and restrictions were put on news coverage of the unrest.

1987 - U.S. President Reagan publicly challenged Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall.

1990 - The parliament of the Russian Federation formally declared its sovereignty.

1991 - Russians went to the election polls and elected Boris N. Yeltsin as the president of their republic.

1991 - The Chicago Bulls won their first NBA championship. The Bulls beat the Los Angeles Lakers four games to one.

1992 - In a letter to the U.S. Senate, Russian Boris Yeltsin stated that in the early 1950's the Soviet Union had shot down nine U.S. planes and held 12 American survivors.

1996 - In Philadelphia a panel of federal judges blocked a law against indecency on the internet. The panel said that the 1996 Communications Decency Act would infringe upon the free speech rights of adults.

1997 - Interleague play began in baseball, ending a 126-year tradition of separating the major leagues until the World Series.

1997 - The U.S. Treasury Department unveiled a new $50 bill meant to be more counterfeit-resistant.

1998 - Compaq Computer paid $9 billion for Digital Equipment Corp. in largest high-tech acquisition.

1999 - NATO peacekeeping forces entered the province of Kosovo in Yugoslavia.

2003 - In Arkansas, Terry Wallis spoke for the first time in nearly 19 years. Wallis had been in a coma since July 13, 1984, after being injured in a car accident.

2009 - In the U.S., The switch from analog TV trasmission to digital was completed.

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