1269 – King Louis IX of France orders all Jews found in public without an identifying yellow badge to be fined ten livres of silver.
1586 – English colonists leave Roanoke Island, after failing to establish England’s first permanent settlement in North America.
1816 – Battle of Seven Oaks between North West Company and Hudson’s Bay Company, near Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
1862 – The U.S. Congress prohibits slavery in United States territories, nullifying Dred Scott v. Sandford.
1865 – Over two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, slaves in Galveston, Texas, United States, are finally informed of their freedom. The anniversary is still officially celebrated in Texas and 41 other contiguous states as Juneteenth.
1867 – Maximilian I of the Mexican Empire is executed by firing squad in Querétaro, Querétaro at 34
1893 – Madeleine Astor, American survivor of the Sinking of the RMS Titanic (d. 1940) was born.
1903 – Lou Gehrig, American baseball player (d. 1941) was born.
1913 – Natives’ Land Act in South Africa implemented.
1915 – Pat Buttram, American actor (d. 1994) was born.
1934 – The Communications Act of 1934 establishes the United States’ Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
1940 – Shirley “Cha Cha” Muldowney, drag racer (1st woman Top Fuel champ)Born
1945 – Aung San Suu Kyi, Burmese politician, Nobel Prize laureate was born.
1947 – Salman Rushdie, Pak, novelist (Midnight’s Children, Satanic Verses) Born
1950 – Ann Wilson, Seattle Wa, American Rock Vocalist (Heart)Born
1951 – Ayman al-Zawahiri, Egyptian terrorist, 2nd leader of al-Qaeda was born.
1953 – Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are executed at Sing Sing, in New York. 1953 – Ethel took 5 tries
1953 – Larry Dunn, American keyboard player, songwriter, and producer (Earth, Wind & Fire) was born.
1964 – The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is approved after surviving an 83-day filibuster in the United States Senate.
1975 – Geoff Ramsey, American voice actor and producer was born.
1978 – Garfield, holder of the Guinness World Record for the world’s most widely syndicated comic strip, makes its debut.
1978 – Dirk Nowitzki, German basketball player (Dallas Mavs) Born
1982 – John Cheever, US writer (Wapshot Chronicle, Pulitzer), dies at 70
1990 – The current international law defending indigenous peoples, Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989, is ratified for the first time by Norway.
1993 – William Golding, author (Lord of the Flies, Nobel 1983), dies at 81
2009 – Mass riots involving over 10,000 people and 10,000 police officers break out in Shishou, China, over the dubious circumstances surrounding the death of a local chef.
2013 – Slim Whitman, American country singer, dies from heart failure at 90
2013 – James Gandolfini, American actor, dies from a heart attack at 51