Today in History, 6/5

70: Titus and the Roman Legions breach the middle wall of Jerusalem during the Siege of Jerusalem.
1723: Adam Smith is born. He wrote The Wealth of Nations one of the seminal books in the rise of capitalism.1817: The first Great Lakes steamer, the Frontenac is launched.

1829: The HMS Pickle captures the armed slave ship Voladora off the coast of Cuba.

HMS Pickle

1850: Pat Garrett, Western lawman, is born.1851: Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe is published in serial form in the National Era abolitionist newsletter.1877: Pancho Villa, Mexican revolutionary, is born.1883: John Maynard Keynes, economist, is born.1917: During WWI, conscription begins in the US as "Army Registration Day."
1919: Richard Scarry, children's book author, is born. If you deal with little kids on a regular basis, you're familiar with the exploits of Lowly Worm.1920: Cornelius Ryan is born. He wrote military history books, most famously A Bridge Too Far and The Longest Day. Boy, he looks a lot cooler than I had imagined!

"Hello, darling...let's talk about
Operation Market Garden, shall we?"

1933: The US goes off the gold standard.
1941: Spalding Gray is born.

1943: Matthew Lesko is born. He's the guy who does those terrible commercials on how to scam money from the government.

1944: More than a thousand British bombers plaster German gun emplacements on the French coast in preparation for the D-Day landings.
1947: At a speech at Harvard University, General George C. Marshall lays out an economic aid plan for Europe which later came to be known as the Marshall Plan.
1956: Elvis Presley introduces his new song "Hound Dog" on The Milton Berle Show and scandalizes a generation with his suggestive hip movements.

1967: The Six Day War begins as Israel launches a preemptive attack on the air forces of Egypt, Jordan and Syria.
1968: Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy is gunned down by Sirhan Sirhan in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. Here he is announcing the assassination of Martin Luther King at a speech in Indianapolis April 5, 1968. This is one of the greatest speeches of the 20th century and he was only working off some notes he had jotted down on the ride over.

1976: The Teton Dam collapses in Idaho.

1977: The Apple II, the first practical personal computer, goes on sale.1981: The Center for Disease Control reports on a new disease affecting homosexuals in California that mimicked the symptoms of pneumonia. It would later be known as AIDS.
1984: In an effort to curb terrorism, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi of India orders a military strike on the Golden Temple, one of the holiest sites of the Sikh religion and which was being held by Sikh terrorists. Hundreds died, including civilians, army and terrorists and it is arguable that it led directly to her assassination at the hand of two of her Sikh bodyguards some months later.

The Golden Temple

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.

Today in History, 6/4

1584: Sir Walter Raleigh establishes the first English colony on Roanoke Island, Virginia.1647: The English army captures King Charles I.
1783: The Montgolfier brothers publicly demonstrate the hot air balloon.1862: Confederate troops evacuate Fort Pillow, clearing the way for the Union to take Memphis.
1907: Rosalind Russell is born. She was in the screwball comedy His Girl Friday.

1912: Massachusetts becomes the first state to set a minimum wage.
1924: Dennis Weaver is born.1936: Bruce Dern is born. He's made a good living playing bad guys or crazy guys or bad, crazy guys. He's one of the few people to have killed John Wayne in a movie (The Cowboys, 1972). After the take, Wayne said to Dern, "They're going to hate you in Middle America," and Dern replied, "Yeah, but they'll love me in Berkley!"

1939: The SS St Louis, carrying 963 Holocaust refugees, is denied permission to dock in Florida and returns to Europe. Many of its passengers would later die in the concentration camps.1940: German forces enter Paris.
1942: The Battle of Midway begins.
1944: The US Navy captures the German submarine U-505, marking the first time a US Navy vessel captured an enemy vessel at sea since the 19th century. It's on display at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago.1944: Rome falls to the Allies.
1944: Michelle Phillips, of The Mamas & The Papas, is born.

1952: Eva Peron's last public appearance.
1952: Parker Stevenson, Hardy Boy, is born.

1956: Keith David is born. He is very different from David Keith.

Keith David

David Keith

1973: The patent for the ATM is granted to Don Wetzel, Tom Barnes, and George Chastain.1975: Angelina Jolie is born.
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.

Today in History, 6/3

1098: During the First Crusade, Antioch falls to the crusaders after an eight-month siege.
1665: James Stuart, Duke of York (later King James II) defeats the Dutch Fleet off the coast of Lowestoft.1800: President John Adams takes up residence in Washington, DC (above a tavern as the White House wasn't completed).
1808: Jefferson Davis is born.1888: The poem "Casey at the Bat", by Ernest Lawrence Thayer, is published in the San Francisco Examiner.
1889: The first long-distance electric power transmission line in the US is completed, running 14 miles between a generator at Willamette Falls and downtown Portland, Oregon.
1906: Josephine Baker is born. She was a big time stripper in 20's-era Paris.

1916: The ROTC is established by Congress.
1917: Lili St. Cyr is born.1924: Jimmie Rogers is born.

1925: Tony Curtis is born.1926: Allen Ginsburg is born.1929: Chuck Barris, game show host and CIA assassin, is born.

1931: John Norman is born. He wrote the dreadful Gor novels, all about a planet where men and men and women don't say much.1936: Larry McMurtry is born. He wrote all those Lonesome Dove novels that I've never read.
1937: The Duke of Windsor (formerly King Edward VIII) marries Wallis Simpson, the woman he resigned the crown for.1940: The Luftwaffe bombs Paris.
1941: The Battle of Dunkirk ends with a German victory and the Allies in full retreat.

View Larger Map
1942: Curtis Mayfield is born. He did the soundtrack for the seminal blaxploitation movie Superfly including "Pusherman."

1943: The Zoot Suit Riots kick off when a mob of 60 from the Los Angles Naval Reserve beat up anyone perceived to be Hispanic.
1965: For 21 minutes, Edward H. White floats free outside the space craft Gemini IV for the first time.1989: The government of China sends troops into Tiananmen Square to force the protesters out.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.

Today in History, 6/2

455: The Vandals enter Rome and spend two weeks sacking the city.
1692: Bridget Bishop becomes the first person to go on trial for witchcraft in Salem, MA.
1731: Martha Washington is born.
1763: At Mackinaw City, MI Chippewa Indians capture Fort Michilimackinac by causing a diversion with a lacrosse game and then chasing the ball into the fort.
1774: The Quartering Act, forcing American colonists to let British soldiers into their homes is passed.
1835: PT Barnum and his circus begin their first tour of the US.1886: President Grover Cleveland marries Francis Folsom in the White House, becoming the only president to wed in the executive mansion.
1896: Marconi receives a patent for the radio.
1904: Johnny Weissmuller is born.1924: President Calvin Coolidge signs the Indian Citizenship Act into law, granting US citizenship to all Native Americans born within the territorial limits of the US.
1936: Sally Kellerman is born.1941: Stacy Keach is born.

1941: Charlie Watts, drummer for The Rolling Stones, is born. A story about him goes like this: One night at a hotel, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were up late carousing. Mick calls down to Charlie's room and says, "Hey, where's my drummer? Get yer ass up here!" Charlie gets up, showers and shaves, and puts on a suit and tie. He goes up to Mick's room and knocks and the door. As soon as the door opens, Charlie punches Mick in the face and says, "I'm not your drummer, your my singer! And don't forget it!" Then he turns around and goes back to his room. 1948: Jerry Mathers (as The Beaver) is born.1953: Queen Elizabeth II is crowned. It is the first English coronation to be televised.
1959: Lydia Lunch is born. She was a singer in New York City during the crazy 70's. She was also mentioned in a Venture Bros episode where The Monarch is confronting Dr. Girlfriend about her past: "Oh, look, here's a picture of you at the Danceteria with Slim Vaders and Lydia Lunch!"

1978: Nikki Cox is born. She doesn't do much, but she sure looks good doing it.1979: Pope John Paul II visits his native Poland, becoming the first Pope to visit a Communist country.

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.

Today in History, 6/1

1533: Anne Boleyn is crowned Queen of England.
1563: Robert Cecil is born. He was Queen Elizabeth I's spymaster and could get things done.1660: Mary Dyer is hanged for violating a law banning Quakers from the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
1779: Benedict Arnold is court-martialed for malfeasance.1792: Kentucky is admitted as the 15th state
1796: Tennessee is admitted as the 16th state.
1801: Brigham Young is born in Whitingham, VT.1812: President James Madison asks Congress to declare war on the United Kingdom.
1834: James Lawrence, the mortally-wounded commander of the USS Chesapeake, cries out, "Don't give up the ship!"
1843: Henry Faulds is born. He was an early pioneer in the science of fingerprinting.1869: Thomas Edison receives a patent for the electric voting machine.
1890: The United States Census Bureau begins using Herman Hollerith's tabulating machine to count census returns.1907: Frank Whittle is born. He invented the jet engine.1918: Allied forces under John J. Pershing and James Harbord engage Imperial German Forces under Crown Prince Wilhelm at the Battle for Belleau Wood.
1925: Lou Gehrig plays the first game in his streak of 2,130 consecutive games.1926: Andy Griffith is born.

1926: Marilyn Monroe is born.

1930: Edward Woodward is born. He is most famous for playing The Equalizer, but he also played the Ghost of Christmas Present in the George C. Scott version of A Christmas Carol.1934: Pat Boone is born.

1937: Morgan Freeman is born.

1939: Cleavon Little is born.

1940: Rene Auberjonois is born. He's been a character actor in all kids of things, including playing the gruff-but-lovable shape-shifting constable on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

1944: The BBC airs a coded message intented to let the French resistance know that the D-Day invasion was imminent.
1947: Jonathan Pryce is born. He played Sam Lowry in Brazil.

1967: The Beatles release Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

1973: Heidi Klum is born.1974: The Heimlich maneuver is first published in the journal Emergency Medicine.
1980: CNN begins broadcasting.

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.