This Day In History

[Mr. Scruffy]

June 10

1692 - In Salem Village in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Bridget Bishop, the first colonist to be tried in the Salem witch trials, is hanged after being found guilty of the practice of witchcraft.

1752 - Benjamin Franklin flies a kite during a thunderstorm and collects ambient electrical charge in a Leyden jar, enabling him to demonstrate the connection between lightning and electricity.

1940 - After two months of desperate resistance, the last surviving Norwegian and British defenders of Norway are overwhelmed by the Germans, and the country is forced to capitulate to the Nazis.

 

[Mr. Scruffy]

June 11

1509 - King Henry VIII of England marries Catherine of Aragon, the first of six wives he will have in his lifetime. When Catherine failed to produce a male heir, Henry divorced her against the will of the Roman Catholic Church, thus precipitating the Protestant Reformation in England.

1949 - Hank Williams took to the microphone for his Grand Ole Opry debut, electrifying a live audience at Ryman Auditorium that called Williams out for six encores and had to be implored not to call him out for more in order to allow the rest of the show to go on.

1979 - John Wayne, an iconic American film actor famous for starring in countless westerns, dies at age 72 after battling cancer for more than a decade.

 

[Mr. Scruffy]

June 12

1898 - During the Spanish-American War, Filipino rebels led by Emilio Aguinaldo proclaim the independence of the Philippines after 300 years of Spanish rule. By mid-August, Filipino rebels and U.S. troops had ousted the Spanish, but Aguinaldo’s hopes for independence were dashed when the United States formally annexed the Philippines as part of its peace treaty with Spain.

1963 - In the driveway outside his home in Jackson, Mississippi, African American civil rights leader Medgar Evers is shot to death by white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith.

1987 - In one of his most famous Cold War speeches, President Ronald Reagan challenges Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall. Two years later, deliriously happy East and West Germans did break down the infamous barrier between East and West Berlin.

 

[oc_in_fw]

1994- I got paid and got off work early. I stopped at the jewelry store and bought an engagement ring. I was super nervous- I wanted to marry a woman with two children. Let’s say nervous and excited. I go home after work, and want to take her out. Her mother was living with us. My wife, like lots of other people, was glued to the TV. I am trying to get her out of the door, and enlist her mother’s help (I clued her in). I finally get her to go out to a local Mexican restaurant. After a couple double shots of Scotch, I get down on one knee and propose, to the applause of everyone who say us. What was on TV that was so interesting? OJ Simpson running from the law in his white Bronco.

 

[Mr. Scruffy]

June 18

1812 - The day after the Senate followed the House of Representatives in voting to declare war against Great Britain, President James Madison signs the declaration into law—and the War of 1812 begins. The American war declaration, opposed by a sizable minority in Congress, had been called in response to the British economic blockade of France, the induction of American seaman into the British Royal Navy against their will, and the British support of hostile Indian tribes along the Great Lakes frontier.

1815 - At Waterloo in Belgium, Napoleon Bonaparte suffers defeat at the hands of the Duke of Wellington, bringing an end to the Napoleonic era of European history.

1983 - The space shuttle Challenger is launched into space on its second mission. On board the shuttle is Dr. Sally K. Ride, who as a mission specialist, becomes the first American woman to travel into space.

 

[Mr. Scruffy]

June 19

1865 - Two and a half years after President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation - which had become official January 1, 1863, Union Army General Gordon Granger arrived at Galveston Island with 2,000 federal troops to occupy Texas on behalf of the federal government. Standing on the balcony of Galveston's Ashton Villa, Granger read aloud the contents of "General Order No. 3", announcing the total emancipation of those held as slaves:

The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor. The freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere.

1867 - Austrian Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian, installed as emperor of Mexico by French Emperor Napoleon III in 1864, is executed on the orders of Benito Juarez, the president of the Mexican Republic.

1953 - Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were convicted of conspiring to pass U.S. atomic secrets to the Soviets, are executed at Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, New York.

 

[Raissermesser]

On General Order 3:

Interesting. Soldiers during Sherman's March urged slaves to leave. One incident recounted by a Union soldier was of a black family offered to remain, but replied something to the effect that "They say we have to leave." Whether it was by Sherman or an idea of the troops, I can't say. Enough emancipated slaves followed Sherman's columns that he considered it hampering his military objectives. If that sounds cold, remember that Sherman's troops had no supply line and had to forage through Georgia and South Carolina northward.

Here we have Granger addressing that issue. Maybe because of it? Sherman's March happened from November 1864 through March 1865 (including the Carolinas).

 

[Mr. Scruffy]

June 20

1782 - Congress adopts the Great Seal of the United States after six years of discussion.

1900 - In response to widespread foreign encroachment upon China’s national affairs, Chinese nationalists launch the so-called Boxer Rebellion in Peking. Calling themselves I Ho Ch’uan, or “the Righteous and Harmonious Fists,” the nationalists occupied Peking, killed several Westerners, including German ambassador Baron von Ketteler, and besieged the foreign legations in the diplomatic quarter of the city.

1947 - Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, the man who brought organized crime to the West Coast, is shot and killed at his mistress Virginia Hill’s home in Beverly Hills, California. Siegel had been talking to his associate Allen Smiley when three bullets were fired through the window and into his head, killing him instantly.

 

[Raissermesser]

Boxer Rebellion:

It merges with the Opium Wars in memory, which is a shame. It deserves more study because arguably there was turmoil in China when it found the world had passed them by technologically, a serious reversal to the way of things thousands of years old. By the time of the Boxer Rebellion, China had made huge strides to correct matters while still dealing with concessions beginning all the way back to opening additional trade ports for Europeans. It's notable that much of the hostility during the Boxer Rebellion was directed toward Christians and missionaries. Getting into why gets dangerously close to politics, but I'll only comment here that you have to take in China in its thousands of years of history rather than a short segment to get an understanding of what was going on there.

The siege of the embassies in Bejing was really something. Those there ended up working together to defend themselves, and an eight nation alliance mounted an effort to rescue those there.

Something that shouldn't be forgotten is the incredible looting that took place afterward. I'm sure the Chinese haven't.

All this, though, is but a blip in Chinese history. That is significant, because it seems that China is returning to societal ways that were probably already old when the first stone was laid for the Great Pyramid. Again, that heads straight toward politics, and is best not discussed on B&B.

 

[Mr. Scruffy]

June 21

1788 - New Hampshire becomes the ninth and last necessary state to ratify the Constitution of the United States, thereby making the document the law of the land.

1964 - Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, and James Chaney are killed by a Ku Klux Klan lynch mob near Meridian, Mississippi. The three young civil rights workers were working to register black voters in Mississippi, thus inspiring the ire of the local Klan. The deaths of Schwerner and Goodman, white Northerners and members of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), caused a national outrage.

 

[oc_in_fw]

June 22, 1969- The Cuyahoga river caught on fire.


The Cuyahoga River caught fire 50 years ago today. These stomach-churning photos highlight why the EPA exists.

 

[Mr. Scruffy]

July 2

1776 - The Second Continental Congress, assembled in Philadelphia, formally adopts Richard Henry Lee’s resolution for independence from Great Britain. The vote is unanimous, with only New York abstaining.

1839 - Africans on the Cuban schooner Amistad rise up against their captors, killing two crewmembers and seizing control of the ship, which had been transporting them to a life of slavery on a sugar plantation at Puerto Principe, Cuba.

1881 - Only four months into his administration, President James A. Garfield is shot as he walks through a railroad waiting room in Washington, D.C. His assailant, Charles J. Guiteau, was a disgruntled and perhaps insane office seeker who had unsuccessfully sought an appointment to the U.S. consul in Paris. On September 19, 1881, after 80 days, President Garfield died of blood poisoning.

1937 - The Lockheed aircraft carrying American aviator Amelia Earhart and navigator Frederick Noonan is reported missing near Howland Island in the Pacific.

 

[charliemilano]

July 4

We celebrate American Independence Day on the Fourth of July every year. We think of July 4, 1776, as a day that represents the Declaration of Independence and the birth of the United States of America as an independent nation.

 

[Juanmosey]

https://www.amazon.com/Last-Pirate-New-York-Gangster-ebook/dp/B07H73QH5J

A must read. Fast paced,easy, read.

 

[Mr. Scruffy]

July 5

1946 - French designer Louis Reard unveils a daring two-piece swimsuit at the Piscine Molitor, a popular swimming pool in Paris. Parisian showgirl Micheline Bernardini modeled the new fashion, which Reard dubbed “bikini,” inspired by a news-making U.S. atomic test that took place off the Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean earlier that week.

 

[FarmerTan]

July 5

1946 - French designer Louis Reard unveils a daring two-piece swimsuit at the Piscine Molitor, a popular swimming pool in Paris. Parisian showgirl Micheline Bernardini modeled the new fashion, which Reard dubbed “bikini,” inspired by a news-making U.S. atomic test that took place off the Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean earlier that week.

I assume she is holding the package her bikini was delivered in.

 

[Mr. Scruffy]

July 11

1804 - In a duel held in Weehawken, New Jersey, Vice President Aaron Burr fatally shoots his long-time political antagonist Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton, a leading Federalist and the chief architect of America’s political economy, died the following day.

1914 - In his major league debut, George Herman “Babe” Ruth pitches seven strong innings to lead the Boston Red Sox over the Cleveland Indians, 4-3.

1979 - Parts of Skylab, America’s first space station, come crashing down on Australia and into the Indian Ocean five years after the last manned Skylab mission ended. No one was injured.

 

[Haggises]

July 15
1799 The Rosetta Stone is found
The ancient Egyptian rock inscribed with a decree by King Ptolemy V was found in the Egyptian port city of Rashid (Rosetta) by French Captain Pierre Bouchard.

1815: Napoleon surrenders
Napoleon Bonaparte surrenders to British forces at Rochefort near Paris, France. His surrender signaled an end to nearly two decades of conflict and war with most European countries. He was exiled to the island of Saint Helena, an island in the South Atlantic Ocean that is 1,210 miles (1,950 km) off the western coast of Africa. Napoleon died on the island in May 1821, at the age of 51.

2006: Twitter is launched
The San Francisco-based podcasting company Odeo officially launches 'Twitter' for the public. It was earlier released as 'Twttr' in March 2006 which was later changed to 'Twitter'.

So in 1799, the world learned a new language and became a little bit more knowledgeable.
Then in 2006....

 

[FarmerTan]

July 15
1799 The Rosetta Stone is found
The ancient Egyptian rock inscribed with a decree by King Ptolemy V was found in the Egyptian port city of Rashid (Rosetta) by French Captain Pierre Bouchard.

1815: Napoleon surrenders
Napoleon Bonaparte surrenders to British forces at Rochefort near Paris, France. His surrender signaled an end to nearly two decades of conflict and war with most European countries. He was exiled to the island of Saint Helena, an island in the South Atlantic Ocean that is 1,210 miles (1,950 km) off the western coast of Africa. Napoleon died on the island in May 1821, at the age of 51.

2006: Twitter is launched
The San Francisco-based podcasting company Odeo officially launches 'Twitter' for the public. It was earlier released as 'Twttr' in March 2006 which was later changed to 'Twitter'.

So in 1799, the world learned a new language and became a little bit more knowledgeable.
Then in 2006....

Ugh. Well done.

 

[Mr. Scruffy]

July 16

1790 - The young American Congress declares that a swampy, humid, muddy and mosquito-infested site on the Potomac River between Maryland and Virginia will be the nation’s permanent capital. “Washington,” in the newly designated federal “District of Columbia,” was named after the leader of the American Revolution and the country’s first president: George Washington.

1918 - In Yekaterinburg, Russia, Czar Nicholas II and his family are executed by the Bolsheviks, bringing an end to the three-century-old Romanov dynasty.

1945 - The Manhattan Project comes to an explosive end as the first atom bomb is successfully tested in Alamogordo, New Mexico.

1969 - Apollo 11, the first U.S. lunar landing mission, is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on a historic journey to the surface of the moon. After traveling 240,000 miles in 76 hours, Apollo 11 entered into a lunar orbit on July 19.