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.
1610 – Samuel de Champlain and his French army defeat the Mohawk people at the Battle of Sorel in New France, present-day Sorel-Tracy, Quebec
1786 – Nathanael Greene, American Revolutionary general (b. 1742) Dies
1794 – Richard H Lee, US farmer (signed Decl of Independence), dies at 62
1811 – Samuel Chase, US judge (signed Declar of Independence), dies at 70
1816 – Battle of Seven Oaks between North West Company and Hudson’s Bay Company, near Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
1846 – The first officially recorded, organized baseball game is played under Alexander Cartwright’s rules on Hoboken, New Jersey’s Elysian Fields with the New York Base Ball Club defeating the Knickerbockers 23-1. Cartwright umpired.
1857 – Alexander Twilight, American politician and minister, first African American to graduate and hold political office, dies at 61
1867 – Maximilian I of the Mexican Empire is executed by firing squad in Querétaro, Querétaro at 34
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.
1897 – Moe Howard, [Moses Horowitz], Brooklyn New York, American actor and comedian (The 3 Stooges) Born
1893 – Madeleine Astor, American survivor of the Sinking of the RMS Titanic (d. 1940) was born.
1902 – Guy Lombardo, London Ontario Canada, orchestra leader (Auld Lang Syne) born
1903 – Lou Gehrig [Henry Louis Gehrig], “Iron Horse”, 1st baseman for NY Yankees (d. 1941) born
1910 – The first Father’s Day is celebrated in Spokane, Washington.
1913 – Natives Land Act, Act No 27, passed in South Africa: confines Africans to hopelessly overcrowded reserves and deprives them of rights to purchase land outside the native reserves
1917 – The British Royal Family, which has had strong German ties since George I, renounces its German names (Saxe Coberg Gotha) and titles and adopts the name of Windsor
1934 – The Communications Act of 1934 establishes the United States’ Federal Communications Commission (FCC). aka – Radio TV, (now Internet) police
1936 – German boxer Max Schmeling World Champion KOs Joe Louis
1937 – James M Barrie, Scottish writer (Dear Brutus/Peter Pan), dies
1940 – Shirley “Cha Cha” Muldowney, drag racer (1st woman Top Fuel champ) Born
1943 – Race riot in Beaumont Texas
1948 – Panama & Costa Rica recognize Israel
1950 – Ann Wilson, American musician (Heart-What About Love), born in San Diego, California
1951 – Ayman al-Zawahiri, Egyptian terrorist, 2nd leader of al-CIA-Qaeda was birthed
1953 – Larry Dunn, American keyboard player, songwriter, and producer (Earth, Wind & Fire) was born.
1953 – Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are executed at Sing Sing, in New York.
1954 – Tasmanian Devil debuts in “Devil May Hare” by Warner Bros
1961 – Kuwait declares independence from UK
1961 – US Supreme Court struck down a provision in Maryland’s constitution requiring state office holders to believe in God
1964 – The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is approved after surviving an 83-day filibuster in the United States Senate.
1967 – Paul McCartney admits on TV that he took LSD
1969 – State troopers ordered to Cairo Ill, to quell racial disturbances
1971 – Mayor declares state of emergency in Columbus Ga, racial disturbance
1972 – Hundreds of thousands of holidaymakers face flight delays and cancellations after pilots threaten to strike over hijack fears
1975 – Sam Giancana, American gangster, dies of multiple gunshot wounds at 67
1978 – Garfield, holder of the Guinness World Record for the world’s most widely syndicated comic strip, makes its debut.
1979 – Paul Popenoe, American eugenicist (b. 1888) DIES
1982 – The body of “God’s Banker”, Roberto Calvi, is found hanging beneath Blackfriars Bridge in London.
1982 – John Cheever, US writer (Wapshot Chronicle, Pulitzer), dies at 70
1984 – Lee Krasner Pollock, US painter, dies at 75
1986 – Len Bias, 1st pick of Celtics, suffers fatal cocaine-induced seizure
1987 – Supreme Court rules school teaching evolution need not teach creation
1988 – Coup in Haiti – Namphy takes control of Haitian government
1990 – The current international law defending indigenous peoples, Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989, is ratified for the first time by Norway.
1991 – Colombian drug baron Pablo Escobar surrenders to police
1992 – Evander Holyfield beats Larry Holmes in 12 for heavyweight boxing title
1992 – Guardian Angel Curtis Sliwa is shot twice in NYC
1993 – William Golding, author (Lord of the Flies, Nobel 1983), dies at 81
1999 – At about 4:30 pm, Stephen King is hit by a car on the shoulder of Route 5, in Lovell, Maine. He would suffer numerous injuries, including a collapsed right lung, multiple fractures of his right leg, scalp laceration and a broken hip
2006 – Prime ministers of several northern European nations participate in a ceremonial “laying of the first stone” at the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Spitsbergen, Norway.
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.
2010 – Manute Bol, Sudanese NBA basketball player (b. 1962) Dies
2012 – A man is beheaded for witchcraft and sorcery in Saudi Arabia
2012 – Antonis Samaras, the leader of the New Democracy party in Greece, forms a coalition government
2012 – WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange requested asylum in London’s Ecuatorian Embassy for fear of extradition to the US after publication of previously classified documents including footage of civilian killings by the US army.
2013 – Slim Whitman, American country singer, dies from heart failure at 90
2013 – James Gandolfini, American actor, dies from a heart attack at 51