June 121099 - Crusade leaders visited the Mount of Olives where they met a hermit who urged them to assault Jerusalem. 1442 - Alfonso V of Aragon was crowned King of Naples. 1665 - England installed a municipal government in New York. It was the former Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam. 1812 - Napoleon's invasion of Russia began. 1838 - The Iowa Territory was organized. 1839 - Abner Doubleday created the game of baseball, according to the legend. 1849 - Lewis Haslett patented a gas mask. (Patent US6529 A) 1897 - Carl Elsener patented his penknife. The object later became known as the Swiss army knife. 1898 - Philippine nationalists declared their independence from Spain. 1900 - The Reichstag approved a second law that would allow the expansion of the German navy. 1901 - Cuba agreed to become an American protectorate by accepting the Platt Amendment. 1912 - Lillian Russel retired from the stage and was married for the fourth time. 1918 - The first airplane bombing raid by an American unit occurred on World War I's Western Front in France. 1921 - U.S. President Warren Harding urged every young man to attend military training camp. 1923 - Harry Houdini, while suspended upside down 40 feet above the ground, escaped from a strait jacket. 1926 - Brazil quit the League of Nations in protest over plans to admit Germany. 1935 - U.S. Senator Huey Long of Louisiana made the longest speech on Senate record. The speech took 15 1/2 hours and was filled by 150,000 words. 1935 - The Chaco War was ended with a truce. Bolivia and Paraguay had been fighting since 1932. 1937 - The Soviet Union executed eight army leaders under Joseph Stalin. 1939 - The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum was dedicated in Cooperstown, New York. 1941 - In London, the Inter-Allied Declaration was signed. It was the first step towards the establishment of the United Nations. 1944 - Chinese Communist leader Mao Tse-tung announced that he would support Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek in the war against Japan. 1948 - Ben Hogan won his first U.S. Open golf classic. 1963 - "Cleopatra" starring Elizabeth Taylor, Rex Harrison, and Richard Burton premiered at the Rivoli Theatre in New York City. 1963 - Civil rights leader Medgar Evers was fatally shot in front of his home in Jackson, MS. 1967 - State laws which prohibited interracial marriages were ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court. 1971 - Tricia Nixon and Edward F. Cox were married in the White House Rose Garden. 1975 - Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was found guilty of corrupt election practices in 1971. 1979 - Bryan Allen flew the Gossamer Albatross, man powered, across the English Channel. 1981 - Major league baseball players began a 49 day strike. The issue was free-agent compensation. 1981 - "Raiders of the Lost Ark" opened in the U.S. 1982 - 75,000 people rallied against nuclear weapons in New York City's Central Park. Jackson Browne, James Taylor, Bruce Springsteen, and Linda Ronstadt were in attendance. 1985 - Wayne "The Great One" Gretsky was named winner of the NHL's Hart Trophy. The award is given to the the league Most Valuable Player. 1985 - The U.S. House of Representatives approved $27 million in aid to the Nicaraguan contras. 1986 - South Africa declared a national state of emergency. Virtually unlimited power was given to security forces and restrictions were put on news coverage of the unrest. 1987 - U.S. President Reagan publicly challenged Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall. 1990 - The parliament of the Russian Federation formally declared its sovereignty. 1991 - Russians went to the election polls and elected Boris N. Yeltsin as the president of their republic. 1991 - The Chicago Bulls won their first NBA championship. The Bulls beat the Los Angeles Lakers four games to one. 1992 - In a letter to the U.S. Senate, Russian Boris Yeltsin stated that in the early 1950's the Soviet Union had shot down nine U.S. planes and held 12 American survivors. 1996 - In Philadelphia a panel of federal judges blocked a law against indecency on the internet. The panel said that the 1996 Communications Decency Act would infringe upon the free speech rights of adults. 1997 - Interleague play began in baseball, ending a 126-year tradition of separating the major leagues until the World Series. 1997 - The U.S. Treasury Department unveiled a new $50 bill meant to be more counterfeit-resistant. 1998 - Compaq Computer paid $9 billion for Digital Equipment Corp. in largest high-tech acquisition. 1999 - NATO peacekeeping forces entered the province of Kosovo in Yugoslavia. 2003 - In Arkansas, Terry Wallis spoke for the first time in nearly 19 years. Wallis had been in a coma since July 13, 1984, after being injured in a car accident. 2009 - In the U.S., The switch from analog TV trasmission to digital was completed. |