Today in History, 6/22

1611: Henry Hudson and nine others (including his son) are set adrift in an open boat in Hudson Bay by mutineers. None of them were ever seen again.
1633: The Holy Office in Rome forces Galileo to recant his view that the Sun, not the Earth is the center of the Universe.
1812: Napoleon declares war on Russia.
1845: Tom Dula is born. After he was hanged for the murder of his fiancee, he became the subject of the folk song "Tom Dooley."
1861: Maximilian von Spee, German admiral, is born.1893: The HMS Camperdown accidentally rams the flagship HMS Victoria, which sinks taking 358 of the crew with her including the fleet's commander Vice-Admiral Sir George Tryon.1898: During the Spanish-American War, US Marines land in Cuba.
1898: Erich Maria Remarque, author of All Quiet on the Western Front, is born.1903: John Dillinger is born.1906: Anne Morrow Lindbergh is born.1906: Billy Wilder is born. He directed Some Like it Hot, Ocean's Eleven and a ton of other classic films.

1911: George V is crowned King of the United Kingdom.
1920: Paul Frees is born. He was the Mel Blanc of the Disney stable, but also provided the voice of Boris Badenov in the Bullwinkle cartoons and did a great Orson Wells impersonation. Here's his complete listing at Voice Chasers.

1921: Joseph Papp is born. He founded Shakespeare in the Park, which later became the New York Shakespeare festival. He is also one of the few people to stand up to Robert Moses and win.
1932: Prunella Scales is born. She played the shrewish wife Sybil on Fawlty Towers.

1936: Kris Kristofferson is born.

1940: France is force to sign an armistice with Nazi Germany at the same spot and in the same rail car where Germany surrendered to France 21 years previously.
1941: Nazi Germany violates the Molotov-Ribbentrop Non-Agression Pact and invades the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa.1941: Michael Lerner is born. He played the egotistical, insane, illiterate movie producer Jack Lipnick in Barton Fink.

1944: President Roosevelt signs the GI Bill of rights.
1945: The Battle of Okinawa ends with 12,520 Americans and 110,000 Japanese killed.
1947: Howard Kaylen, founding member of The Turtles, is born.

1949: Meryl Streep is born.1953: Cyndi Lauper is born. Normally I'd embed a video here but Sony/BMG are totally uncool with that and they scour YouTube looking for their videos and turn off embedding on them. I learned that when I tried to post Courtney Cox's appearance in the Dancing in the Dark video the other day. So you can go here and see the Girls Just Wanna Have Fun video.
1956: Tim Russ is born. He played Lt. Tuvok on Star Trek: Voyager.1957: Garry "Gary" Beers, bassist for INXS, is born.

1958: Bruce Campbell is born. For my money he's the greatest actor in the history of the world. Even when he's in a crappy B-movie (which is pretty much his entire resume) he never fails to deliver the goods. Here's one of his Old Spice commercials.

1969: The Cuyahoga River in Ohio catches fire leading to pollution reforms. Here's Randy Newman's song Burn On, which only goes to show how dedicated I am to this blog because I freaking loathe Randy Newman.

1969: Judy Garland commits suicide at age 47. Poor Judy, so much talent and yet she probably would have been happier had she stayed Frances Gumm and just sang in community theater. Here she is in happier times singing Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe in The Harvey Girls.

1970: President Nixon signs measure lowering the voting age to 18.
1978: Charon, a moon of Pluto, is discovered.
1981: Mark David Chapman pleads guilty to the murder of John Lennon.
Today in History elements mostly cribbed from The History Channel, Wikipedia, The New York Times, The Jewish World Review, The Writer's Almanac and anything else I can dig up.