This Day In History

[Mr. Scruffy]

June 17

1462 - The Night Attack at Târgoviște - fought between forces of Vlad III Basarab the Impaler, Prince of Wallachia and Mehmed II of the Ottoman Empire and his invading army of 300,000-400,000 men. When the Turks camped south of the capital, Vlad Țepeș launched his night attack with only 7,000 to 10,000 horsemen. Some sources say that the Wallachians slaughtered a great number of Turks, while others say the Ottoman losses were minimal. Even though the morale of the sultan and his army was low, Mehmed decided to besiege the capital, but instead found it deserted with its gates wide open. The Turkish army entered the capital and for half an hour, the army marched on the road that was bordered by some 20,000 impaled Turks, later known as the Forest of the Dead.

1579 - English seaman Francis Drake anchors in a harbor just north of present-day San Francisco, California, and claims the territory for Queen Elizabeth I. Calling the land “Nova Albion,” Drake remained on the California coast for a month to make repairs to his ship, the Golden Hind, and prepare for his westward crossing of the Pacific Ocean.

1775 - British General Thomas Gage lands his troops on the Charlestown Peninsula overlooking Boston, Massachusetts, and leads them against Breed’s Hill, a fortified American position just below Bunker Hill. Two assaults on the colonial positions were repulsed with significant British casualties; the third and final attack carried the redoubt after the defenders ran out of ammunition. The colonists retreated to Cambridge over Bunker Hill, leaving the British in control of the Peninsula.

 

[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 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.

 

[Doc4]

war against Great Britain, President James Madison signs the declaration into law—and the War of 1812 begins.

Waterloo

England has one war end and another begin on the same day! (Three years apart, but still ...)

 

[Mr. Scruffy]

England has one war end and another begin on the same day! (Three years apart, but still ...)

Not necessarily. There are those who view the War of 1812 as a minor theater of the Napoleonic Wars.


June 19

1306 - The Earl of Pembroke's army defeats Robert the Bruce's Scottish army at the Battle of Methven.

1610 - Samuel de Champlain, supported by the Kingdom of France and his allies, the Wyandot people, Algonquin people and Innu people defeat the Mohawk people in a battle at present day Sorel-Tracy, Quebec. The forces of Champlain armed with the arquebus engaged and killed or captured nearly all of the Mohawks. The Battle of Sorel was part of the Beaver Wars, which pitted the nations of the Iroquois confederation, led by the dominant Mohawks, against the Algonquian peoples of the Great Lakes region, supported by the Kingdom of France. The Beaver Wars continued intermittently for nearly a century, ending with the Great Peace of Montreal in 1701.

1865 - Union soldiers arrive in Galveston, Texas with news that the Civil War is over and slavery in the United States is abolished. Major Gen. Gordon Granger announced General Order No. 3: "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."

1944 - In what would become known as the “Marianas Turkey Shoot,” U.S. carrier-based fighters decimate the Japanese Fleet with only a minimum of losses in the Battle of the Philippine Sea.

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. Both refused to admit any wrongdoing and proclaimed their innocence right up to the time of their deaths, by the electric chair.

 

[Doc4]

Not necessarily. There are those who view the War of 1812 as a minor theater of the Napoleonic Wars.

It's a very interesting war.

Ask a Canadian and "we won the war: we beat back every American invasion of Canada while vastly outnumbered ... aaaand we burned Washington DC!!"
Ask an American and "we won the war: we beat back every British invasion from Canada, and the U.S.S. Constitution kicked the Royal Navy's butt, ... oh, and can I sing you a song about the Battle of New Orleans??"
Ask an Englishman and ... well, he probably doesn't have an opinion about it and will probably start rambling about the American War of Independence and/or the Napoleonic Wars. Maaaaayyybe he'll point out that Wellington's best veteran troops from years of fighting in Portugal and Spain were wasted by poor leadership in the battle of New Orleans ... making the Waterloo Campaign the following year much harder!

Certainly from the Canadian perspective, and probably the American too, it was its own war and not merely part of the war going on in Europe. Pretty wild, though, that the Royal Navy would be allowed to just pluck American sailors off American ships that they interdict at sea. Those were different times! (Heck, they would press gang their own subjects all the time back home, but ... from another country's ship at sea?

 

[Mr. Scruffy]

June 22

217 BC - Ptolemy IV of Egypt defeats Antiochus III the Great of the Seleucid kingdom at the Battle of Raphia (Battle of Gaza) during the Syrian Wars. It was one of the largest battles of the Hellenistic kingdoms and was one of the largest battles of the ancient world. The battle was waged to determine the sovereignty of Coele Syria.

1535 - Cardinal John Fisher is beheaded on Tower Hill, London, for refusing to acknowledge Henry VIII as head of the Church of England and for upholding the Catholic Church's doctrine of papal supremacy.

1941 - Germany launches Operation Barbarossa. Over 3 million German troops invade Russia in three parallel offensives, in what is the most powerful invasion force in history. Nineteen panzer divisions, 3,000 tanks, 2,500 aircraft, and 7,000 artillery pieces pour across a thousand-mile front as Hitler goes to war on a second front.

 

[Mr. Scruffy]

June 24

1314 - After two days, The Battle of Bannockburn ends in a victory of the army of King of Scots Robert the Bruce over the army of King Edward II of England in the First War of Scottish Independence.

1374 - A sudden outbreak of St. John's Dance (Dancing Plague) caused people in the streets of Aachen, Germany, to experience hallucinations and begin to jump and twitch uncontrollably until they collapsed from exhaustion. One of the most prominent theories is that victims suffered from ergot (fungus) poisoning. Affecting thousands of people across several centuries, dancing mania was not an isolated event, and was well documented in contemporary reports.

1509 - Henry VIII is crowned King of England in Westminster Abbey.

1853 - US President Franklin Pierce signs the Gadsden Purchase, buying 29,670 square-miles from Mexico for $10 million (now southern Arizona and New Mexico)

1948 - Soviet Union begins the West Berlin Blockade by stopping access by road, rail and water. The Soviets offered to drop the blockade if the Western Allies withdrew the newly introduced Deutsche Mark from West Berlin. The Western Allies organised the Berlin Airlift (26 June 1948 – 30 September 1949) to carry supplies to the people of West Berlin, a difficult feat given the size of the city's population.

 

[Mr. Scruffy]

June 25

1530 - The Augsburg Confession, written in both German and Latin, was presented by a number of German rulers and free-cities at the Diet of Augsburg. It is the primary confession of faith of the Lutheran Church and one of the most important documents of the Protestant Reformation. The Holy Roman Emperor Charles V had called on the Princes and Free Territories in Germany to explain their religious convictions in an attempt to restore religious and political unity in the Holy Roman Empire and rally support against the Turkish invasion. The Augustana is the fourth document contained in the Lutheran Book of Concord.

1876 - Native American forces led by Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull defeat the U.S. Army troops of Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer in the Battle of the Little Bighorn near southern Montana’s Little Bighorn River.

1950 - Armed forces from communist North Korea smash into South Korea, setting off the Korean War. The United States, acting under the auspices of the United Nations, quickly sprang to the defense of South Korea and fought a bloody and frustrating war for the next three years.

 

[Mr. Scruffy]

June 29

1149 - At the Battle of Inab (also called Battle of Ard al-Hâtim or Fons Muratus) during the Second Crusade the Zengid army of Atabeg Nur ad-Din Zangi destroyed the combined army of Prince Raymond of Antioch and the Assassins of Ali ibn-Wafa. The Principality of Antioch was subsequently pillaged and reduced in size as its eastern border was pushed west.

1613 - Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London, England, burns down during a performance of "Henry VIII"

1958 - Edson Arantes do Nascimento (Pelé) leads Brazil in defeating host nation Sweden 5-2 to win its first World Cup. Brazil came into the tournament as a favorite, and did not disappoint, thrilling the world with their spectacular play, which was often referred to as the “beautiful game.”

 

[Mr. Scruffy]

July 1

1690 - Army of Protestant King William III defeats deposed Roman Catholic King James II in Battle of Boyne in Ireland. This turned the tide in James's failed attempt to regain the British crown and ultimately aided in ensuring the continued Protestant ascendancy in Ireland. James fled to France after the Boyne, never to return. The symbolic importance of this battle has made it one of the best-known battles in the history of the British Isles and a key part of the folklore of the Orange Order.

1863 - One of the largest military conflicts in North American history begins when Union and Confederate forces collide at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The epic battle lasted three days and resulted in a retreat to Virginia by Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia.

1867 - The autonomous Dominion of Canada, a confederation of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the future provinces of Ontario and Quebec, is officially recognized by Great Britain with the passage of the British North America Act.

1898 - The 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry (Rough Riders), along with the 3rd Cavalry Regiment, began a near simultaneous assault supporting the regulars of the 10th Cavalry (Buffalo Soldiers) up Kettle Hill.

 

[Mr. Scruffy]

July 2

1839 - Enslaved Africans on the Cuban schooner Amistad rise up against their captors, killing two crew members 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. Garfield, mortally ill, was treated in Washington and then taken to the seashore at Elberon, New Jersey, where he attempted to recuperate with his family. On September 19, 1881, after 80 days, President Garfield died of blood poisoning.

1964 - U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs into law the historic Civil Rights Act in a nationally televised ceremony at the White House. The most sweeping civil rights legislation passed by Congress since the post-Civil War Reconstruction era, the Civil Rights Act prohibited racial discrimination in employment and education and outlawed racial segregation in public places such as schools, buses, parks and swimming pools.

 

[Mr. Scruffy]

July 10

1553 - Lady Jane Grey, daughter of the Duke of Suffolk, is proclaimed Queen of England succeeding Edward VI, who proclaimed his half-sisters illegitimate. She only reigns for nine days.

1925 - In Dayton, Tennessee, the so-called Scopes Monkey Trial begins with John Thomas Scopes, a young high school science teacher, accused of teaching evolution in violation of a Tennessee state law.

1943 - The Allies begin their invasion of Axis-controlled Europe with landings on the island of Sicily, off mainland Italy. Encountering little resistance from the demoralized Sicilian troops, the British 8th Army under Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery came ashore on the southeast of the island, while the U.S. 7th Army under General George S. Patton landed on Sicily’s south coast. Within three days, 150,000 Allied troops were ashore.

 

[Mr. Scruffy]

July 14

1099 - During the First Crusade, Christian knights from Europe capture Jerusalem after seven weeks of siege and begin massacring the city’s Muslim and Jewish population.

1789 - Parisian revolutionaries and mutinous troops storm and dismantle the Bastille, a royal fortress and prison that had come to symbolize the tyranny of the Bourbon monarchs. This dramatic action signaled the beginning of the French Revolution, a decade of political turmoil and terror in which King Louis XVI was overthrown and tens of thousands of people, including the king and his wife Marie Antoinette, were executed.

1881 - Sheriff Pat Garrett shoots Henry McCarty, popularly known as Billy the Kid, to death at the Maxwell Ranch in New Mexico. Garrett, who had been tracking the Kid for three months after the gunslinger had escaped from prison only days before his scheduled execution, got a tip that Billy was holed up with friends. While Billy was gone, Garrett waited in the dark in his bedroom. When Billy entered, Garrett shot him to death.

1966 - Eight student nurses are brutally murdered by Richard Speck at their group residence in Chicago, Illinois. Speck threatened the women with both a gun and a knife, tying each of them up while robbing their townhouse. Over the next several hours, Speck stabbed and strangled each of the young women throughout various rooms of the place. One young woman, Corazon Amurao, managed to escape with her life by hiding under a bed; Speck had lost count of his victims.

 

[MVeeI]

1881 - Sheriff Pat Garrett shoots Henry McCarty, popularly known as Billy the Kid, to death at the Maxwell Ranch in New Mexico. Garrett, who had been tracking the Kid for three months after the gunslinger had escaped from prison only days before his scheduled execution, got a tip that Billy was holed up with friends. While Billy was gone, Garrett waited in the dark in his bedroom. When Billy entered, Garrett shot him to death.

He who shoots first shoots best.

 

[Mr. Scruffy]

July 16

1769 - Father Junípero Serra, a Spanish Franciscan missionary, founds the first Catholic mission in California on the site of present-day San Diego. After Serra blessed his new outpost of Christianity in a high mass, the royal standard of Spain was unfurled over the mission, which he named San Diego de Alcala.

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.

 

[Mr. Scruffy]

July 20

1881 - Five years after General George A. Custer’s infamous defeat at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Hunkpapa Teton Sioux leader Sitting Bull surrenders to the U.S. Army, which promises amnesty for him and his followers. Sitting Bull had been a major leader in the 1876 Sioux uprising that resulted in the death of Custer and 264 of his men at Little Bighorn.

1969 - American astronaut Neil Armstrong, 240,000 miles from Earth, speaks these words to more than a billion people listening at home: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” Stepping off the lunar landing module Eagle, Armstrong became the first human to walk on the surface of the moon.

 

[Bakker1964]

July 20

1969 - American astronaut Neil Armstrong, 240,000 miles from Earth, speaks these words to more than a billion people listening at home: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” Stepping off the lunar landing module Eagle, Armstrong became the first human to walk on the surface of the moon.

You misspelled "Sudbury"

Seriously, though . . . what a wondrous achievement. I hope that, in my lifetime, we can again set foot on the surface of another celestial body (Salma Hayek doesn't count).

Also . . . shoutout to Capricorn One, a favourite 70's schlock film.

 

[Mr. Scruffy]

July 21

365 - In the eastern Mediterranean an earthquake with an assumed epicenter near Crete (estimated to have been a magnitude 8.0 or higher) causes widespread destruction in central and southern Greece, northern Libya, Egypt, Cyprus, Sicily, and Spain. On Crete, nearly all towns were destroyed. The Crete earthquake was followed by a tsunami which devastated the southern and eastern coasts of the Mediterranean, particularly Libya, Alexandria and the Nile Delta, killing thousands and hurling ships 1.9 miles inland.

1861 - In the first major land battle of the Civil War, a large Union force under General Irvin McDowell is routed by a Confederate army under General Pierre G.T. Beauregard at Bull Run (Manassas).

2011 - NASA’s space shuttle program completes its final, and 135th, mission, when the shuttle Atlantis lands at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. During the program’s 30-year history, its five orbiters—Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour—carried more than 350 people into space and flew more than 500 million miles, and shuttle crews conducted important research, serviced the Hubble Space Telescope and helped in the construction of the International Space Station, among other activities. NASA retired the shuttles to focus on a deep-space exploration program that could one day send astronauts to asteroids and Mars.

 

[oc_in_fw]

July 20

1881 - Five years after General George A. Custer’s infamous defeat at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Hunkpapa Teton Sioux leader Sitting Bull surrenders to the U.S. Army, which promises amnesty for him and his followers. Sitting Bull had been a major leader in the 1876 Sioux uprising that resulted in the death of Custer and 264 of his men at Little Bighorn.

1969 - American astronaut Neil Armstrong, 240,000 miles from Earth, speaks these words to more than a billion people listening at home: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” Stepping off the lunar landing module Eagle, Armstrong became the first human to walk on the surface of the moon.

I met Charlie Duke- one of 12 men to touch the moon. He is a great guy. We let him fly our A320 simulator, and he greased it in like he had 5000 hours in it.

 

[Mr. Scruffy]

July 22

1298 - Led by King Edward I of England, the English army defeated the Scots, led by William Wallace at the Battle of Falkirk. Shortly after the battle Wallace resigned as Guardian of Scotland.

1918 - Two large bolts of lightning struck and killed 654 head of sheep on Mill Canyon Peak in American Fork Canyon. According to one historical account: "Forked lightning had struck twice and split down two sides of the peak...There was about a seventy-five foot swath in between the dead sheep and where not a one was injured...The dead sheep all had to be moved to the opposite side of the canyon so as to be off the 'water shed.' Men counted them as they were moved, 654 sheep had been killed."

1934 - Outside Chicago’s Biograph Theatre, notorious criminal John Dillinger—America’s “Public Enemy No. 1″—is killed in a hail of bullets fired by federal agents.

1942 - The systematic deportation of Jewish people from the Warsaw ghetto begins, as thousands are rounded up daily and transported to a newly constructed concentration/extermination camp at Treblinka, in Poland.