Today in
History ~ June 15
Events
0763 - BC Assyrians record total solar eclipse event on clay tablet
1094 - Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar [El Cid] occupies Valencia on the Moren
1215 - Under pressure from rebellious barons, King John put his seal to Magna Carta ("the Great Charter") at Runnymede, England, granting his barons more liberty.
A crucial first step toward creating Britain's constitutional monarchy. [H]
1389 - Battle of Kossovo; Turks defeat Serbs - Bosnians
1520 - Pope Leo X threatened to excommunicate Martin Luther if he did not recant his religious beliefs.
1567 - Genoa expels Jews
1664 - NJ established
1752 - Benjamin Franklin, in a dangerous experiment, demonstrated the relationship between lightning and electricity by flying a kite during a storm in Philadelphia. An iron key suspended from the string attracted a lightning bolt.What a shock
1775 - The Second Continental Congress voted unanimously to appoint George Washington head of the Continental Army.
1779 - General Anthony Wayne captures impregnable Stony Point, on the Hudson River, raising morale of troops ("I'll storm the Gates of Hell if you will but plan the attack," the dashing Wayne told Gen.
Washington)
1785 - Two Frenchmen attempting to cross the English Channel in a hot-air balloon were killed when their balloon caught fire and crashed. It was the first fatal aviation accident.
1794 - Guillotine moved to outskirts of Paris; legislators squeamish
1804 - 12th Amendment ratified manner of choosing President & VP
1836 - Arkansas became the 25th state.
1844 - Charles Goodyear received a patent for his vulcanization of rubber process to strengthen rubber.
1846 - Oregon Treaty signed - setting US-British boundary at 49ø N
1851 - Jacob Fussell, Baltimore dairyman, sets up 1st ice-cream factory
1857 - San Francisco Water Works organized.
1862 - Gen JEB Stuart completes his "ride around McClellan"
1863 - 2nd battle at Winchester Va, ends in Federal defeat; 1350 casualities
1864 - Battle for Petersburg begins as Gen Grant assaults Confederate line
1864 - Robert E Lee's home estate (Arlington, VA) becomes a military cemetery
when Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton signed an order establishing a military burial
ground Arlington National Cemetery.
1877 - First African-American Graduate of West Point
1878 - 1st attempt at motion pictures (using 12 cameras, each taking one picture (done to see if all 4 of a horse's hooves leave the ground during a gallop. Leland Stanford bet they didn't. He lost).
1888 - Wilhelm II becomes emperor of Germany
1896 - The most devastating tsunami in Japanese history struck.
1898 - US marines attack Spanish off Guantnamo Cuba
1902 - Justin Clark of Corsicana - Texas minors hits 8 home runs in 1 game
1904 - More than 1,000 people died when fire erupted aboard the steamboat General Slocum in New York's East River.
1907 - 44 nations meet in 2nd Hague Peace Conference
1919 - 1st flight across Atlantic (Alcock & Brown)
1924 - J Edgar Hoover assumed leadership of the FBI
1924 - Native Americans are proclaimed US citizens
1933 - George "Machine Gun" Kelly's first attempt at kidnapping an Indiana businessman is foiled
[H]
1934 - Great Smoky Mountains National Park Established
1944 - American forces began their successful invasion of Saipan during World War II. Meanwhile, B-29 Superfortresses made their first raids on Japan.
1957 - Yanks trade Billy Martin & Ralph Terry for Ryne Duran
1963 - "Sound of Music" closes at Lunt Fontanne Theater NYC after 1443 performances
1963 - "Sukiyaki" topped the Billboard Hot-100 singles chart, making Kyu Sakamoto the first Japanese artist to chart -- let alone reach No.1 -- in the United States.
1963 - Israeli premier David Ben-Gurion resigns
1963 - Jan and Dean's "Surf City," written by Beach Boy Brian Wilson, was released.
1963 - Soviet cosmonaut Valery Bykovsky was launched on a space mission, during which he orbited the earth 81 times
1965 - Bob Dylan recorded "Like a Rolling Stone" in his first "electric session" at Columbia Studios in New York.
1967 - Gov Reagan signs liberalized California abortion bill
1975 - Soyuz 19 launched
1977 - Spain's 1st free elections since 1936
1978 - King Hussein of Jordan married 26-year-old American Lisa Halaby, who became Queen Noor.
1978 - Soyuz 29 carries 2 cosmonauts to Salyut 6; they stay 139 days
1982 - Riots in Argentina after Falklands/Malvinas defeat
1983 - Supreme Court strikes down state & local restrictions on abortion
1985 - All seven of Bruce Springsteen's albums were on the British album charts.
1986 - Pravda announces high-level Chernobyl staff fired for stupidity
1986 - Richard Petty made his 1000th NASCAR start at the Miller American 400 in Brooklyn, Michigan.
1986 - The final show in a concert series to celebrate Amnesty International's 25th anniversary drew 55,000 fans to the Meadowlands in New Jersey. Performers include Sting, U2, Miles Davis, the Police, Yoko Ono and Joan Baez.
1987 - Richard Norton of Philadelphia and Calin Rosetti of West Germany completed the first polar circumnavigation of the Earth in a single-engine propeller aircraft, landing in Paris after a 38,000-mile flight.
1990 - Real estate mogul Donald Trump missed a payment due on junk bonds used to finance one of his Atlantic City resorts.
1991 - India concluded its violence-racked elections, with the Congress Party of recently assassinated former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi gaining a plurality of votes.
1992 - More than 1,000 people were arrested and 95 police officers injured in the sporadic violence, looting and arson that erupted after the Chicago Bulls won a second straight
NBA championship.
1993 - Ella Fitzgerald, Redd Foxx, Billie Holliday and the Ink Spots were inducted into the Apollo Theatre Hall of Fame.
1993 - Paul McCartney ended the American leg of his world tour with a concert broadcast live from Charlotte, N.C.
1994 - Disney's "Lion King," opens in theaters with $42 million
1994 - Former President Carter arrived in North Korea to discuss the dispute over the country's nuclear development sites.
1994 - Israel and the Vatican established full diplomatic relations.
1995 - during his trial, O.J. Simpson tried on the blood-stained gloves allegedly worn by the killer of his ex-wife and her friend. He seemed to have trouble putting on the gloves and remarked, "Too tight, too tight."
1995 - Sinead O'Connor attacked two Israeli photographers who'd been following her as she did some sightseeing in Jerusalem.
1996 - A truck bomb blew up in a retail district of Manchester, England, injuring more than 200 people in an attack claimed by the Irish Republican Army.
1997 - President Clinton said he might support a formal apology to blacks for slavery.
1998 - Nigeria's new military ruler ordered the release of some of the political prisoners jailed under the previous regime.
1999 - American Society of Young Musicians in Los Angeles named Latin pop star Ricky Martin its "artist for the new millennium." It also inducted Little Richard into its Hall of Fame.
1999 - South Korean ships sunk a North Korean torpedo boat, killing all aboard. The incident had followed a series of confrontations in disputed territorial waters.
1999 - The Los Angeles chapter of the National Association of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) honored singer Jewel, songwriter Carole Bayer Sager, composer Jerry Goldsmith and producer Don Was with the prestigious Governors Awards for their "creative talents and community service."
1999 - Thousands of ethnic Albanian refugees flooded back into Kosovo while thousands of Serbs fled.
2000 - Al Gore named Commerce Secretary William Daley to take over his presidential campaign, replacing Tony Coelho, who had abruptly resigned, citing health problems.
2000 - Denis Savard, Joe Mullen and Walter L. Bush Jr. were selected to the Hockey Hall of Fame.
2000 - Don Henley and Eagles co-founder Glen Frey were inducted into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame in New York. Other inductees included James Brown, James Taylor, Brian
Wilson and the late Curtis Mayfield. Neil Diamond and the writing team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller were given special awards.
Birthdays
Today
1330 - Edward ("The Black Prince"), prince of Wales, son
of Edward III (1343-1376)
1767 - Rachel Jackson (Donelson Robards) (U.S. First Lady, wife of 7th President Andrew Jackson)
1843 - Edvard Grieg, Norwegian composer
1894 - Robert Russell Bennett (musician: orchestration: Victory at Sea series)
1910 - David Rose (Grammy Award-winning [22] composer: The Stripper; scores: Little House on the Prairie, Bonanza, Sea Hunt, Highway Patrol; David Rose and His Orchestra: The Red Skelton Show, The Tony Martin Show)
1912 - Babe (Ellsworth) Dahlgren (baseball)
1914 - Saul Steinberg, Romania, cartoonist/illustrator (New Yorker)
1914 - Yuri Andropov, Russian KGB chief/1st secretary
1917 - Leon Payne (country artist, songwriter: I Love You Because, Lost Highway, They'll Never Take Her Love, I Heard My Heart Break Last Night, The Blue Side of Lonesome)
1921 - Erroll Garner (ASCAP Award-winning jazz pianist: Misty [1984]; Dreamy, That's My Kick, Moment's Delight, Solitaire)
1922 - Morris Udall (politician: U.S. Congressman from Arizona)
1923 - Peter Horeck (hockey)
1930 - Marcel Pronovost (hockey)
1932 - Mario Cuomo (politician: governor: state of New York)
1937 - Waylon Jennings (Country Music Association [1974] Award-winning singer: My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys, Good Hearted Woman, Luckenbach, Texas, Theme from "The Dukes of Hazzard"; bass: group: The Crickets (Buddy Holly); actor: Nashville Rebel, Stagecoach, Urban Cowboy)
1938 - Billy Williams (baseball: Sweet Swingin' Billy Williams: Chicago Cubs hitter, outfielder: Rookie of the Year [1961])
1939 - Ty Cline (baseball)
1941 - Harry (Edward) Nilsson III (singer: Everybody's Talkin, Without You, Me and My Arrow, Coconut; songwriter: One; scores: Skidoo, The Courtship of Eddie's Father)
1942 - Bruce Del Canton (baseball)
1942 - Xaveria Hollander, [DeVries], Surabaya Indonesia, celebrity "author" (Happy
Hooker)
1944 - Terri Gibbs (country singer: Somebody's Knockin')
1945 - Danny O'Shea (hockey)
1945 - Nicola Pagett,
1946 - Janet Lennon (singer: group: Lennon Sisters: Lawrence Welk Show)
1946 - Ken Henderson (baseball)
1949 - Dusty Baker (baseball: LA Dodgers player and coach)
1949 - Jim Varney (actor: The Beverly Hillbillies, Ernest Goes to Jail, Ernest Saves Christmas)
1949 - Russ Hitchcock (singer: group: Air Supply: The One that You Love, Love and other Bruises)
1951 - Tom Forzani, CFL wide receiver (Calgary Stampeders)
1954 - Jim Belushi (actor: Saturday Night Live, Men at Work, Wild Palms, Trading Places; John Belushi's brother)
1955 - Actress Julie Hagerty
("Airplane!")
1958 - Wade Boggs (baseball: New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox: 3rd base: baseball's best hitter in the 1980s)
1963 - Helen Hunt (actress: Mad About You, Twister, Kiss of Death, My Life and Times)
1964 - Courteney Cox (actress: Family Ties, Ace Ventura Pet Detective)
1973 - Neil Patrick Harris (actor: Doogie Howser, M.D., My Antonia, Snowbound)
Famous
deaths
1381 - Wat Tyler, leader of English Peasants' Revolt, beheaded in London [H]
1849 - James Polk, the 11th president of the United States, died in Nashville, Tenn.
1865 - Edmund Ruffin, US secessionist/writer, commits suicide after Confederacy defeat
1969 - Georges Pompidou, president of France, dies
1993 - John Connally, the fiscally minded lawyer who survived both the Kennedy assassination and the Nixon Administration.
1996 - Singer Ella Fitzgerald dies at the age of 78
If
you have other Birthdays or events to add for this day please
E-mail me
 |
Yesterday |
|
Tomorrow |
 |
