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Today in
History ~ June 17
Republic Day, celebrated in Iceland.
Events
1579 - Anti-English uprising in Ireland
1579 - Sir Francis Drake lands on coast of California, in San Francisco Bay, calling the land "Nova Albion"
1745 - American colonials capture Louisburg, Cape Breton I from French
1775 - The Revolutionary War Battle of Bunker Hill (actually it was Breed's Hill) took place near Boston.
1789 - Third Estate in France declared itself a national assembly (First Estate - nobility; Second Estate - clergy; Third Estate - middle classes)
1824 - Bureau of Indian Affairs established
1855 - Heavy French/British shelling of Sebastopol, 2000+ killed
1856 - In Philadelphia, the Republican Party opened its first convention.
1863 - Battle of Aldie, Confederates fail to drive back Union in Virginia
1863 - Travelers Insurance Co of Hartford chartered (1st accident insurer)
1864 - 640m long ponton bridge over James River Virginia finished
1864 - General John B Hood replaces General Johnston as head of CSA troops around Atlanta
1876 - Indians hammer U.S. soldiers at the Battle of the Rosebud [H]
1880 - John Ward - Providence - pitches perfect game vs Buffalo
1885 - The Statue of Liberty arrived in New York City aboard the French ship Isere.
1894 - 1st US poliomyelitis epidemic breaks out, Rutland, Vermont
1916 - American troops under the command of Gen. Jack Pershing marched into Mexico
1919 - "Barney Google" cartoon strip, by Billy De Beck, premieres
1928 - Amelia Earhart embarked on a trans-Atlantic flight from Newfoundland to Wales - the first by a woman.
1933 - Kansas City Massacre: 1 FBI agent, 4 cops & 1 gangster killed by mob
1937 - Marx Brothers' "A Day At The Races" opens in NY
1938 - Japan declares war on China
1940 - France asks Germany for terms of surrender in WW II, Marshal Henri Petain replaced Paul Reynaud (who chose to resign over surrender) as prime minister and announced his intention to sign an armistice with the Nazis [H]
1942 - 1st American expeditionary force to land in Africa (WW2)
1944 - Iceland declares independence from Denmark at Thingvallir, Republic of Iceland proclaimed
1945 - German Fed Rep National Day
1946 - SW Bell inaugurates mobile telephone commercial service, St Louis
1947 - 1st round-the-world civil air service left NYC, Pan Am Airways chartered as 1st worldwide passenger airline
1948 - A United Air Lines DC-6 crashed near Mount Carmel, Penn., killing all 43 people on board.
1950 - 1st kidney transplant (Chicago)
1953 - Riots in East Germany for reunification
1953 - Sup Court Justice Wm O Douglas stays executions of spies Julius & Ethel Rosenberg scheduled for next day, their 14th wedding anniversary
1954 - Televised Senate Army McCarthy hearings ended
1956 - Golda Meir begins her term as Israel's foreign minister
1957 - Tuskegee boycott begins (Blacks boycott city stores)
1958 - Radio Moscow reports execution of Hungarian ex-premier Imre Nagy, by hanging.
1959 - Eamon de Valera elected pres of Ireland
1963 - British House of Commons debates John Profumo-Christine Keeler affair -- the defense minister and the call-girl he shared with a Russian agent.
1963 - The Supreme Court struck down rules requiring the recitation of the Lord's Prayer or reading of biblical verses in public schools.
1967 - China becomes world's 4th thermonuclear (H-bomb) power
1969 - "Oh! Calcutta!" opens in NYC
1971 - The United States signed a treaty with Japan under which it would give up control of the island of Okinawa.
1972 - 5 arrested for burglarizing Democratic Party HQ at Watergate. Within a year, allegations of high-level involvement in the crime exploded on the national stage, and a number of President Richard Nixon's top aides were indicted in the Watergate affair. [H]
1972 - Chile president Allende forms new government (CIA rolls up its sleeves to oust him)
1981 - Battle between Muslims & Christians in Cairo, 14 killed
1982 - Pres Reagan 1st UN Gen Assembly address ("evil empire" speech)
1982 - President Galtieri resigns after leading Argentina to defeat in Falkland Isl War
1985 - 18th Space Shuttle Mission - Discovery 5 is launched
1986 - President Ronald Reagan announced the retirement of Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Earl Burger; Antonin Scalia nominated
1986 - Illicit drug use by athletes made headlines when University of Maryland basketball star Len Bias dropped dead from cocaine intoxication
1990 - South African black nationalist Nelson Mandela and his wife, Winnie, arrived in Ottawa, Canada, en route to an 11-day tour of the United States.
1991 - The remains of President Zachary Taylor were briefly exhumed in Louisville, Kentucky, to test a theory that Taylor had died of arsenic poisoning. The results showed his death was from natural causes.
1991 - South African President F.W. de Klerk ended apartheid when he repealed the Population Registration Act that classified South Africans by race from birth.
1992 - President George H.W. Bush and Russian President Boris Yeltsin signed a breakthrough arms-reduction agreement.
1992 - Addressing the U.S. Congress, Yeltsin pledged to find any American prisoners of war still being held in Russia.
1992 - Two German relief workers, the last of Western hostages held in Lebanon, were released by their pro-Iranian kidnappers after three years in captivity.
1993 - U.N. troops stormed the headquarters of Somali warlord Mohammed Farah Aidid in Mogadishu, but he was not there.
1994 - O.J. Simpson doesn't turn himself in on murder charges, LA cops chase his Ford Bronco for hours, eventually gives up (seen live on TV)
1994 - Members of the Branch Davidian cult were sentenced to prison on charges stemming from the February 1993 federal raid on their compound near Waco, Texas.
1995 - Russian commandos stormed a hospital where Chechen rebels were holding more than 1,000 hostages, but the Chechens beat the Russians back.
1996 - ValuJet Airlines shut down about a month after a crash in the Florida Everglades led to questions about the carrier's safety and maintenance records.
1997 - Mir Aimal Kasi, the suspect in the shooting deaths of two CIA employees outside agency headquarters in January 1993, was brought to Fairfax, Virginia, to face trial after being arrested in Pakistan. He was later convicted and sentenced to death.
1999 - The Republican-controlled House narrowly voted to loosen restrictions on sales at gun shows, marking a victory for the National Rifle Association.
2001 - Texas Governor Rick Perry vetoed a bill to ban the execution of mentally retarded death row inmates, saying the state already had numerous safeguards in place to protect them.
Birthdays Today
1239 - Edward I, king of England (1272-1307)
1703 - John B Wesley, England, religion co-founder (Methodists)
1742 - William Hooper, signed Declaration of Independence
1818 - Charles Francois Gounod, Paris France, opera composer of Faust and Romeo et Juiliette
1837 - Strong Vincent, Civil War Union Colonel (killed in action at Gettysburg in 1863)
1867 - John Robert Gregg, Ireland, inventor (shorthand)
1870 - George Cormack, cereal inventor (Wheaties)
1882 - Igor Fedorovich Stravinsky (composer: The Firebird, Petrouchka, The Rite of Spring, The Wedding, The Soldier's Tale)
1898 - Maurits C Escher, Dutch graphic artist
1900 - Martin Bormann, deputy fuhrer to Hitler
1902 - Sammy Fain (Feinberg) (Oscar-winning musician, composer: Secret Love [1953], Love is a Many-Splendored Thing [1955]; April Love, A Certain Smile, A Very Precious Love, Tender is the Night, I'll Be Seeing You, I Can Dream Can't I, Let a Smile be Your Umbrella, mostly w/Irving Kahal)
1904 - Ralph Bellamy (actor: The Awful Truth, Trading Places, War & Remembrance, The Winds of War, Oh, God!, Rosemary's Baby, Man Against Crime, The Eleventh Hour; panelist: To Tell the Truth)
1910 - Red (Clyde) Foley (songwriter, singer: Chattanooga Shoe Shine Boy, Birmingham Bounce, Just a Closer Walk with Thee, Blues in My Heart, Tennessee Saturday Night, Tennessee Polka, Peace in the Valley, Mississippi, Tennessee Border, Goodnight Irene; TV host: Ozark Jubilee; elected to Country Music Hall of Fame [1967]; actor: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington)
1912 - Wessel Couzijn, sculptor/cartoonist (Auschwitz-monument)
1914 - John R Hersey, author (Hiroshima, Bell for Adano, Wall)
1915 - Stringbean (David Akeman) (country comedian: Grand Old Opry, Ozark Jubilee, Hee-Haw)
1917 - Dean Martin (Dino Crocetti) (comedian: Martin and Lewis; singer: Memories are Made of This, Return to Me, Everybody Loves Somebody, The Door is Still Open to My Heart, Houston; actor: My Friend Irma, Hollywood or Bust, Airport, Bells are Ringing, The Caddy, Cannonball Run, Ocean's 11, Rio Bravo)
1919 - Kingman Brewster, Yale pres
1920 - Beryl Reid,
1920 - Fran‡ois Jacob, French biologist bacteriologist (Nobel 1965)
1923 - Elroy Hirsch (Crazy Legs: Pro Football Hall of Famer: LA Rams pass receiver; University of Wisconsin, player, athletic director)
1929 - Bud Collins (sportscaster)
1929 - Tigran Petrosyan, of USSR world chess champion (1963-69)
1939 - Dickie Doo (Gerry Granahan) (singer: group: Dickie Doo and The Don'ts: Click Clack, No Chemise Please)
1940 - Bobby Bell, NFL linebacker (Kansas City)
1943 - Steve Clark (swimmer: Olympic Gold medalist [1964]; broke nine world swimming records from 1960-65 in short-course times)
1944 - Randy Johnson (football)
1946 - Barry Manilow (Barry Alan Pincus) (Grammy Award-winning singer: I Write the Songs [1975], Mandy, Looks Like We Made It, Can't Smile Without You, Copacabana)
1948 - Dave Concepcion (baseball: Cincinnati Reds; World Series [1975])
1951 - Dave Fortier (hockey)
1951 - Joe Piscopo (comedian, actor: Saturday Night Live, Sidekicks, Wise Guys, Johnny Dangerously)
Famous deaths
1678 - Giacomo Torelli, composer, dies at 69
1696 - Jan Sobieski, King of Poland (1674-96), dies at 72
1719 - Joseph Addison, English poet/writer/secretary of state, dies at 47
1797 - Aga Mohammed Khan, cruel ruler of Persia, castrated & killed
1939 - Eugene Weldman, last person to be guillotined in France
1986 - Kate Smith, singer (God Bless America), dies in Raleigh NC at 78
1986 - Maryland basketball star Len Bias, about to enter the pro ranks, dropped dead from cocaine intoxication, focusing national attention on cocaine use by athletes.
1987 - NY Yankee & KC Royal Mgr Dick Howser dies at 51 of brain cancer
If you have other Birthdays or events to add for this day please E-mail me
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