This Day in History

[Undertoad]

It's not as good as yours but a faithful reproduction

[DanaC]

Oh Grav, that totally sucks. Nice one UT for keeping the torch lit

[Gravdigr]

June 23

Today is International Widows Day.

1314 – First War of Scottish Independence: The Battle of Bannockburn begins.

1611 – The mutinous crew of Henry Hudson's fourth voyage sets Henry, his son and seven loyal crew members adrift in an open boat in what is now Hudson Bay; they are never heard from again.

1683 – William Penn signs a friendship treaty with Lenni Lenape Indians in Pennsylvania.

1757 – Battle of Plassey: Three thousand British troops under Robert Clive defeat a 50,000-strong Indian army under Siraj ud-Daulah at Plassey.

1780 – American Revolution: Battle of Springfield fought in and around Springfield, New Jersey.

1810 – John Jacob Astor forms the Pacific Fur Company.

1868 – Christopher Latham Sholes received a patent for an invention he called the "Type-Writer."

1894 – The International Olympic Committee is founded at the Sorbonne in Paris, at the initiative of Baron Pierre de Coubertin.

1926 – The College Board administers the first SAT exam.

1931 – Wiley Post and Harold Gatty take off from Roosevelt Field, Long Island, New York in an attempt to circumnavigate the world in a single-engine plane.

1942 – The first selections for the gas chamber at Auschwitz take place on a train full of Jews from Paris.

Germany's latest fighter aircraft, a Focke-Wulf Fw 190, is captured intact when it mistakenly lands at RAF Pembrey in Wales.

1943 – The British destroyers HMS Eclipse and HMS Laforey sink the Italian submarine Ascianghi in the Mediterranean after she torpedoes the cruiser HMS Newfoundland.

1946 – The 1946 Vancouver Island earthquake strikes Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.

1959 – Convicted Manhattan Project spy Klaus Fuchs is released after only nine years in prison and allowed to emigrate to Dresden, East Germany where he resumes a scientific career.

1960 – The United States Food and Drug Administration declares Enovid to be the first officially approved combined oral contraceptive pill in the world.

1969 – Warren E. Burger is sworn in as Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court by retiring Chief Justice Earl Warren.

1970 - Chubby Checker was arrested in Niagara Falls after police discovered marijuana and other drugs in his car.

1973 – A fire at a house in Hull, England which kills a six-year-old boy is passed off as an accident; it later emerges as the first of 26 deaths by fire caused over the next seven years by arsonist Peter Dinsdale.

1975 - During his 'Welcome To My Nightmare' tour in Vancouver, Canada, Alice Cooper falls from the stage and breaks six ribs.

1982 – Chinese American Vincent Chin dies in a coma after being beaten in Highland Park, Michigan on June 19, by two auto workers who had mistaken him for Japanese and who were angry about the success of Japanese auto companies.

1985 – A terrorist bomb aboard Air India Flight 182 brings the Boeing 747 down off the coast of Ireland killing all 329 aboard.

1990 - Buddy Holly's Gibson acoustic guitar sold for £139,658 ($237,419) in a Sotheby's auction. The guitar was in a tooled leather case made by Holly himself.

2010 - [Then] 62-year-old Gregg Allman underwent a successful liver transplant operation at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida.

2013 – Nik Wallenda becomes the first man to successfully walk across the Grand Canyon on a tight rope.

2014 – The last of Syria's declared chemical weapons are shipped out for destruction.

Births

1894 – Alfred Kinsey; 1912 – Alan Turing; 1923 – Elroy Schwartz; 1925 – Art Modell; 1927 – Bob Fosse; 1929 – June Carter Cash; 1936 – Richard Bach; 1940 – Wilma Rudolph; 1940 – Stu Sutcliffe; 1947 – Bryan Brown; 1955 – Glenn Danzig; 1956 – Randy Jackson; 1957 – Frances McDormand; 1964 – Joss Whedon; 1966 – Chico DeBarge; 1972 – Selma Blair; 1974 – Joel Edgerton; 1975 – KT Tunstall; 1977 – Jason Mraz; 1979 – LaDainian Tomlinson; 1980 – Melissa Rauch; 1984 – Duffy

Deaths

79 – Vespasian; 1970 – Roscoe Turner; 1995 – Jonas Salk; 1997 – Betty Shabazz; 1998 – Maureen O'Sullivan; 2006 – Aaron Spelling; 2009 – Ed McMahon; 2011 – Peter Falk; 2013 – Bobby 'Blue' Bland, Frank Kelso; 2015 – Dick Van Patten

[xoxoxoBruce]

Damn, so soon, now I have to run out and make a widow.

[glatt]

"1982 – Chinese American Vincent Chin dies in a coma after being beaten in Highland Park, Michigan on June 19, by two auto workers who had mistaken him for Japanese and who were angry about the success of Japanese auto companies."

There is all kinds of stupid in this story.

[Gravdigr]

June 24

1340 – Hundred Years' War: Battle of Sluys: The French fleet is almost completely destroyed by the English fleet commanded in person by King Edward III.

1374 – A sudden outbreak of St. John's Dance causes people in the streets of Aachen, Germany, to experience hallucinations and begin to jump and twitch uncontrollably until they collapse from exhaustion.

1497 – John Cabot lands in North America at Newfoundland leading the first European exploration of the region since the Vikings.

1717 – The Premier Grand Lodge of England, the first Masonic Grand Lodge in the world (now the United Grand Lodge of England), is founded in London.

1880 – First performance of O Canada, the song that would become the national anthem of Canada.

1916 – Mary Pickford becomes the first female film star to sign a million-dollar contract.

1938 – Pieces of a meteor, estimated to have weighed 450 metric tons when it hit the Earth's atmosphere and exploded, land near Chicora, Pennsylvania.

1947 – Kenneth Arnold makes the first widely reported UFO sighting, near Mount Rainier, Washington.

1949 – The first television western, Hopalong Cassidy, is aired on NBC starring William Boyd.

1957 – In Roth v. United States, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that obscenity is not protected by the First Amendment.

1967 – The worst caving disaster in British history takes six lives at Mossdale Caverns.

1999 - Eric Clapton put 100 of his guitars up for auction at Christie's in New York City to raise money for his drug rehab clinic, the Crossroads Centre in Antigua. His 1956 Fender Stratocaster, named Brownie, which was used to record the electric version of ‘Layla’, sold for a record $497,500. The auction helped raise nearly $5 million for the clinic.

2002 – The Igandu train disaster in Tanzania kills 281 people, the worst train accident in African history.

2004, A Fender Stratocaster that Eric Clapton nicknamed 'Blackie' sold at a Christie's auction for $959,500 (£564,412) in New York, making it the most expensive guitar in the world. The proceeds of the sale went towards Clapton's Crossroads addiction clinic, which he founded in 1998.

2010 – John Isner of the United States defeats Nicolas Mahut of France at Wimbledon, in the longest match in professional tennis history.

2012 – Lonesome George, the last known individual of Chelonoidis nigra abingdonii, a subspecies of the Galápagos tortoise, dies.

2013, Former Devo drummer Alan Myers died aged 58 in Los Angeles, California, following a long bout with cancer. Myers drummed for Devo between 1976 and 1986.

Births

1788 – Thomas Blanchard (pioneered the assembly line, and interchangeable parts); 1813 – Henry Ward Beecher; 1842 – Ambrose Bierce; 1893 – Roy O. Disney (walt's brother); 1895 – Jack Dempsey; 1901 – Chuck Taylor (namesake of Chuck Taylor athletic shoes); 1904 – Phil Harris (no, not the captain of the Cornelia Marie); 1911 – Juan Manuel Fangio; 1915 – Fred Hoyle (coined the term "big bang"); 1919 – Al Molinaro ('Big Al' on "Happy Days"); 1922 – Jack Carter; 1929 – Carolyn S. Shoemaker; 1930 – William Bernard Ziff, Jr. (Ziff Davis); 1931 – Billy Casper; 1941 – Charles Whitman; 1944 – Jeff Beck; 1944 – Chris Wood; 1945 – George Pataki; 1946 – Robert Reich; 1947 – Mick Fleetwood, Peter Weller; 1950 – Nancy Allen ("RoboCop"); 1960 – Juli Inkster; 1967 – Sherry Stringfield ("ER"); 1979 – Mindy Kaling; 1986 – Solange Knowles

Deaths

1519 – Lucrezia Borgia; 1908 – Grover Cleveland; 1987 – Jackie Gleason; 1997 – Brian Keith; 2005 – Paul Winchell; 2007 – Chris Benoit; 2013 – Jackie Fargo; 2014 – Eli Wallach

[tw]

Originally Posted by Gravdigr

2013, Former Devo drummer Alan Myers died aged 58 in Los Angeles, California, following a long bout with cancer. Myers drummed for Devo between 1976 and 1986

Devo made a stunning appearance on Saturday Night live in it heyday. So a sign for the Devon exist on Route 202 would constantly have the number spray painted out for the next 20 years.

Just passed that sign last month. It is no longer modified by spray paint. Maybe he also died.

[Gravdigr]

I think I remember that appearance. I would have been fairly young. Maybe 1978, or so?



ETA: Hey, I was right.

For a change.

[Gravdigr]

June 25

1876 – Battle of the Little Bighorn and the death of Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer.

1906 – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania millionaire Harry Thaw (<---great read, btw) shoots and kills prominent architect Stanford White.

1910 – The United States Congress passes the Mann Act, which prohibits interstate transport of females for “immoral purposes”; the ambiguous language would be used to selectively prosecute people for years to come.

Igor Stravinsky's ballet The Firebird premiers in Paris, bringing him to prominence as a composer.

1923 – Capt. Lowell H. Smith and Lt. John P. Richter perform the first ever aerial refueling, in a DH.4B biplane.

1944 – The final page of the comic Krazy Kat is published, exactly two months after its author George Herriman died.

1947 – The Diary of a Young Girl (better known as The Diary of Anne Frank) is published.

1950 – The Korean War begins with the invasion of South Korea by North Korea.

1960 – Two cryptographers working for the United States National Security Agency left for vacation to Mexico, and from there defected to the Soviet Union.

1966 - Jackie Wilson was arrested for inciting a riot and refusing to obey a police order at a nightclub in Port Arthur, Texas. Wilson had a crowd of 400 whipped into a frenzy and refused to stop singing when requested to do so by police. He was later convicted of drunkenness and fined $30.

1969 - The Hollies recorded 'He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother'. The ballad was written by Bobby Scott and Bob Russell (who was dying of cancer of the lymph nodes). The pair met in person only three times, but managed to collaborate on the song. The track featured Elton John on piano.

1978 – The rainbow flag representing gay pride is flown for the first time during the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade.

1981 – Microsoft is restructured to become an incorporated business in its home state of Washington.

1984 – American singer Prince releases his most successful studio album Purple Rain.

1996 – The Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia kills 19 U.S. servicemen.

2006 - Nicole Kidman married her singer boyfriend Keith Urban at a ceremony in Sydney, Australia.

Births

1886 – Henry H. 'Hap' Arnold; 1900 – Louis Mountbatten; 1903 – George Orwell; 1924 – Sidney Lumet; 1925 – June Lockhart; 1928 – Peyo (created The Smurfs); 1933 – James Meredith; 1939 - Harold Melvin; 1945 – Carly Simon; 1947 – Jimmie Walker; 1954 – David Paich, Sonia Sotomayor; 1956 – Anthony Bourdain; 1961 – Ricky Gervais; 1963 – George Michael; 1966 – Dikembe Mutombo; 1972 - Mike Kroeger (Nickelback)

Deaths

1218 – Simon de Montfort; 1533 – Mary Tudor; 1876 – James Calhoun, Boston Custer, George Armstrong Custer, Thomas Custer, Myles Keogh (<---all died at the Little Big Horn); 1906 – Stanford White; 1916 – Thomas Eakins; 1958 – Alfred Noyes; 1959 – Charles Starkweather; 1976 – Johnny Mercer; 1977 – Olave Baden-Powell; 1979 – Dave Fleischer; 1987 – Boudleaux Bryant; 1988 - Hillel Slovak (Red Hot Chili Peppers); 1997 – Jacques Cousteau; 2005 – John Fiedler ('Lawyer Daggett' in "True Grit"); 2009 – Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson; 2015 – Lou Butera, Patrick Macnee

[Gravdigr]

June 26

4 – Augustus adopts Tiberius.

1483 – Richard III becomes King of England.

1718 – Alexei Petrovich, Tsarevich of Russia, Peter the Great's son, mysteriously dies after being sentenced to death by his father for plotting against him.

1740 – A combined force of Spanish, free blacks and allied Indians defeat a British garrison at the Siege of Fort Mose near St. Augustine (Florida) during the War of Jenkins' Ear.

1843 – Treaty of Nanking comes into effect, Hong Kong Island is ceded to the British "in perpetuity".

1870 – The Christian holiday of Christmas is declared a federal holiday in the United States.

1906 – The first Grand Prix motor racing event held.

1917 – The American Expeditionary Forces begin to arrive in France. They will first enter combat four months later.

1918 – Allied Forces under John J. Pershing and James Harbord defeat Imperial German Forces under Wilhelm, German Crown Prince in the Battle of Belleau Wood.

1936 – Initial flight of the Focke-Wulf Fw 61, the first practical helicopter.

1942 – The first flight of the Grumman F6F Hellcat.

1948 – The first supply flights are made in response to the Berlin Blockade.

1963 – U.S. President John F. Kennedy gave his "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech.

1973 - Rolling Stone Keith Richards and his girlfriend Anita Pallenberg were arrested at their home in Chelsea, London on drugs and gun charges.

1974 – The Universal Product Code (UPC) is scanned for the first time to sell a package of Wrigley's chewing gum at the Marsh Supermarket in Troy, Ohio.

Cher divorced Sonny Bono after 10 years of marriage.

1975 – Two FBI agents and a member of the American Indian Movement are killed in a shootout on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Leonard Peltier is later convicted of the murders in a controversial trial.

1977 – The Yorkshire Ripper kills 16-year-old shop assistant Jayne MacDonald in Leeds, changing public perception of the killer as she is the first victim who is not a prostitute.

Elvis Presley performs what will be his final concert in Indianapolis. The last two songs he performed were ‘Hurt’ and ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water.’

1997 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules that the Communications Decency Act violates the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.

2003 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Lawrence v. Texas that gender-based sodomy laws are unconstitutional.

2012 – The Waldo Canyon fire descends into the Mountain Shadows neighborhood in Colorado Springs burning 347 homes in a matter of hours and killing two people.

2015 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled, 5–4, that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marriage under the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution. Epic shitstorm ensues.

Births

1689 – Edward Holyoke; 1730 – Charles Messier; 1819 – Abner Doubleday; 1892 – Pearl S. Buck; 1898 – Willy Messerschmitt, Chesty Puller (the most decorated Marine in American history); 1903 – Big Bill Broonzy; 1904 – Peter Lorre; 1908 – Salvador Allende; 1909 – Colonel Tom Parker; 1911 – Babe Didrikson Zaharias; 1915 – Paul Castellano; 1930 – Jackie Fargo; 1934 – Dave Grusin; 1938 – Billy Davis, Jr.; 1955 – Mick Jones; 1956 – Chris Isaak; 1961 – Greg LeMond; 1963 – Richard Garfield (created Magic: The Gathering); 1970 – Paul Thomas Anderson, Irv Gotti, Sean Hayes, Chris O'Donnell, Nick Offerman; 1971 – Max Biaggi; 1973 – Gretchen Wilson; 1974 – Derek Jeter; 1980 – Jason Schwartzman, Michael Vick; 1993 – Ariana Grande

Deaths

363 – Julian; 1541 – Francisco Pizarro; 1784 – Caesar Rodney; 1810 – Joseph-Michel Montgolfier (co-invented the hot air balloon); 1992 – Buddy Rogers; 1993 – Roy Campanella; 1996 – Veronica Guerin; 2003 – Strom Thurmond (And there was much rejoicing.); 2007 – Liz Claiborne; 2012 – Nora Ephron; 2013 – Byron Looper; 2014 – Howard Baker, Rollin King (co-founded Southwest Airlines)

[Gravdigr]

June 27

1760 – Cherokee warriors defeat British forces at the Battle of Echoee near present-day Otto, North Carolina during the Anglo-Cherokee War.

1844 – Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, and his brother Hyrum Smith, are killed by a mob at the Carthage, Illinois jail.

1885 - Chichester Bell and Charles Tainter applied for a patent on their invention the gramophone.

1898 – The first solo circumnavigation of the globe is completed by Joshua Slocum from Briar Island, Nova Scotia.

1905 – During the Russo-Japanese War, sailors start a mutiny aboard the Russian battleship Potemkin.

1941 – Romanian authorities launch one of the most violent pogroms in Jewish history in the city of Iași, resulting in the murder of at least 13,266 Jews.

1950 – The United States decides to send troops to fight in the Korean War.

1967 - Mick Jagger was found guilty of illegal possession of two drugs found in his jacket at a party given by Keith Richards. He was remanded overnight at Lewes jail, England (prison number 7856). Jagger requested books on Tibet and modern art and two packs of Benson & Hedges cigarettes.

1968 - Elvis Presley appeared on an NBC TV show that was billed as his "comeback special". The show featured the king performing on a small, square stage, surrounded by a mostly female audience. Presley was outfitted in black leather and performed many of his early hits.

1970 - The newly formed Queen featuring Freddie Mercury (possibly still known as Freddie Bulsara) on vocals, guitarist Brian May, drummer Roger Taylor and Mike Grose on bass played their first gig at Truro City Hall, Cornwall, England. They were billed as Smile, Brian and Roger's previous band, for whom the booking had been made originally. Original material at this time included an early version of 'Stone Cold Crazy'.

1971 – After only three years in business, rock promoter Bill Graham closes the Fillmore East in New York, New York.

1976 – Air France Flight 139 (Tel Aviv-Athens-Paris) is hijacked en route to Paris by the PLO and redirected to Entebbe, Uganda.

1980 – Italian Aerolinee Itavia Flight 870 mysteriously explodes in mid air while en route from Bologna to Palermo, killing all 81 on board. Also known in Italy as the Ustica disaster.

Led Zeppelin appeared at Messehalle, Nuremberg, Germany during their last ever tour. After the group had played just three songs, drummer John Bonham collapsed on stage, causing the remainder of the show to be cancelled.

1985 – U.S. Route 66 is officially removed from the United States Highway System.

1987 - Whitney Houston became the first woman in US history to enter the album chart at No.1, with 'Whitney' she also became the first woman to top the singles chart with four consecutive releases when 'I Wanna Dance With Somebody' hit No.1.

1991 - Carlos Santana was arrested at Houston Airport when officials found cannabis in his luggage.

1994 - Aerosmith became the first major band to let fans download a full new track free from the internet.

2012 - The chief medical officer of Russia said that The Beatles were to blame for the country's drug problem. Yevgeny Bryun, the nation's medical chief, said that the country's youth first got introduced to the idea of drug-taking when The Beatles traveled to India to "expand their minds". Bryun added that it was after this news entered public consciousness that people in Russia realized you could make money from the sale of drugs. When business then realized it was possible to make money from this, goods associated with pleasure, that was when the growth in the demand for drugs started.

2015 – A midair explosion from flammable powder at a recreational water park in Taiwan injures at least 510 people with about 183 in serious condition in intensive care.

Births

1838 – Paul Mauser; 1880 – Helen Keller; 1907 – John McIntire; 1909 – Billy Curtis (the midget 'Mordecai' in "High Plains Drifter"); 1913 – Willie Mosconi; 1925 – Doc Pomus; 1927 – Bob Keeshan (Capt. Kangaroo); 1930 – Ross Perot; 1938 – Bruce Babbitt; 1945 – Joey Covington; 1949 – Vera Wang; 1951 – Julia Duffy; 1956 – Ted Haggard (idjit), Sultan bin Salman Al Saud; 1959 – Lorrie Morgan; 1963 – Johnny Benson, Jr.; 1966 – J. J. Abrams; 1975 – Tobey Maguire

Deaths

1839 – Ranjit Singh; 1844 – Hyrum Smith, Joseph Smith; 1996 – Albert R. Broccoli (producer James Bond films); 2001 – Jack Lemmon; 2002 – John Entwistle (bassist The Who); 2005 – Shelby Foote; 2009 – Gale Storm; 2014 – Bobby Womack; 2015 – Chris Squire (bassist Yes)

[Gravdigr]

June 28

1461 – Edward IV is crowned King of England.

1776 – Thomas Hickey, Continental Army private and bodyguard to General George Washington, is hanged for mutiny and sedition.

1838 – Coronation of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom.

1846 – Adolphe Sax patents the saxophone.

1880 – The Australian bushranger Ned Kelly is captured at Glenrowan.

1894 – Labor Day becomes an official US holiday.

1896 – An explosion in the Newton Coal Company's Twin Shaft Mine in Pittston, Pennsylvania results in a massive cave-in that kills 58 miners.

1902 – The U.S. Congress passes the Spooner Act, authorizing President Theodore Roosevelt to acquire rights from Colombia for the Panama Canal.

1914 – Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie are assassinated in Sarajevo by Bosnia Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princip, the casus belli of World War I.

1919 – The Treaty of Versailles is signed, ending the state of war between Germany and the Allies of World War I.

1926 – Mercedes-Benz is formed by Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz merging their two companies.

1950 – Korean War: Seoul is captured by North Korean troops.

Suspected communist sympathizers, argued to be between 100,000 and 200,000 are executed in the Bodo League massacre.

Packed with its own refugees fleeing Seoul and leaving their 5th Division stranded, South Korean forces blow up the Hangang Bridge in an attempt to slow North Korea's offensive.

North Korean Army conducts Seoul National University Hospital massacre.

1969 – Stonewall riots begin in New York City, marking the start of the Gay Rights Movement.

1987 – For the first time in military history, a civilian population is targeted for chemical attack when Iraqi warplanes bombed the Iranian town of Sardasht.

1997 – Holyfield–Tyson II: Mike Tyson is disqualified in the third round for biting a piece off Evander Holyfield's ear.

Births

1577 – Peter Paul Rubens; 1703 – John Wesley; 1852 – Charles Cruft (founded Crufts Dog Show); 1891 – Carl Panzram (bad man); 1902 – Richard Rodgers (Rodgers and Hammerstein); 1909 – Eric Ambler; 1915 – David "Honeyboy" Edwards; 1920 – A. E. Hotchner; 1926 – Mel Brooks; 1928 – Hans Blix; 1931 – Junior Johnson; 1932 – Pat Morita; 1938 – John Byner, Leon Panetta; 1943 - Bobby Harrison (Procol Harum); 1945 - David Knights (Procol Harum); 1946 – Bruce Davison, Gilda Radner; 1948 – Kathy Bates; 1960 – John Elway; 1966 – John Cusack, Mary Stuart Masterson; 1967 – Gil Bellows; 1971 – Elon Musk; 1986 – Kellie Pickler

Deaths

1836 – James Madison; 1914 – Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria; 1975 – Rod Serling; 1993 – GG Allin; 2006 – George Page; 2014 – Meshach Taylor; 2015 – Jack Carter

[Gravdigr]

June29

1534 – Jacques Cartier is the first European to reach Prince Edward Island.

1613 – The Globe Theatre in London burns to the ground.

1776 – Father Francisco Palou founds Mission San Francisco de Asís in what is now San Francisco, CA.

1786 – Alexander Macdonell and over five hundred Roman Catholic highlanders leave Scotland to settle in Glengarry County, Ontario, Canada.

1880 – France annexes Tahiti.

1888 – George Edward Gouraud records Handel's Israel in Egypt onto a phonograph cylinder, thought for many years to be the oldest known recording of music.

1927 – The Bird of Paradise, a U.S. Army Air Corps Fokker tri-motor, completes the first transpacific flight, from the mainland United States to Hawaii.

First test of Wallace Turnbull's controllable-pitch propeller.

1956 – The Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 is signed, officially creating the United States Interstate Highway System.

1974 – Mikhail Baryshnikov defects from the Soviet Union to Canada while on tour with the Kirov Ballet.

1975 – Steve Wozniak tested his first prototype of the Apple I computer.

1985 - John Lennon's 1965 Rolls-Royce Phantom V limousine, with psychedelic paintwork, sold for a record sum of $3,006,385, (£1,768,462) at a Sotheby's auction in New York.

1988 - Brenda Richie, the wife of Lionel Richie was arrested in Beverly Hills, California after allegedly hitting the singer and a young woman after she found them in bed together.

1999 - Michael Jackson suffered severe bruising after falling over 50 feet when a bridge collapsed during a concert at Munich's Olympic stadium.

2007 – Apple Inc. releases its first mobile phone, the iPhone.

2012 – A derecho sweeps across the eastern United States, leaving at least 22 people dead and millions without power.

Births

1861 – William James Mayo (co-founder Mayo Clinic); 1901 – Nelson Eddy; 1910 – Frank Loesser; 1919 – Slim Pickens; 1920 – Ray Harryhausen; 1930 – Robert Evans; 1936 – Harmon Killebrew; 1943 – Little Eva; 1944 – Gary Busey; 1948 – Fred Grandy, Ian Paice (Deep Purple); 1949 – Dan Dierdorf; 1953 – Don Dokken, Colin Hay; 1957 – María Conchita Alonso; 1957 – Michael Nutter; 1961 – Sharon Lawrence; 1967 – Jeff Burton (NASCAR driver); 1978 – Nicole Scherzinger; 1980 – Martin Truex Jr. (NASCAR driver)

Deaths

1852 – Henry Clay; 1861 – Elizabeth Barrett Browning; 1933 – Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle; 1940 – Paul Klee; 1941 – Ignacy Jan Paderewski; 1967 – Jayne Mansfield; 1975 – Tim Buckley; 1978 – Bob Crane; 1979 – Lowell George; 1995 – Lana Turner; 1997 – William Hickey; 2002 – Rosemary Clooney; 2003 – Katharine Hepburn; 2007 – Fred Saberhagen, Joel Siegel; 2008 – Don S. Davis (Stargate SG-1); 2013 – Victor Lundin (Star Trek's first Klingon)

[Gravdigr]

June 30

1520 – Spanish conquistadors led by Hernán Cortés fight their way out of Tenochtitlan.

1559 – King Henry II of France is mortally wounded in a jousting match against Gabriel, comte de Montgomery.

1859 – French acrobat Charles Blondin crosses Niagara Falls on a tightrope.

1864 – U.S. President Abraham Lincoln grants Yosemite Valley to California for "public use, resort and recreation".

1882 – Charles J. Guiteau is hanged in Washington, D.C. for the assassination of U.S. President James Garfield.

1905 – Albert Einstein sends the article On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies, in which he introduces special relativity, for publication in Annalen der Physik.

1906 – The United States Congress passes the Meat Inspection Act and Pure Food and Drug Act.

1908 – A massive explosion occurred near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in what is now Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, knocking down over 80 million trees covering 2,150 square kilometres (830 sq mi).

1912 – The Regina Cyclone hits Regina, Saskatchewan, killing 28. It remains Canada's deadliest tornado event.

1921 – U.S. President Warren G. Harding appoints former President William Howard Taft Chief Justice of the United States.

1934 – The Night of the Long Knives, Adolf Hitler's violent purge of his political rivals in Germany, takes place.

1937 – The world's first emergency telephone number, 999, is introduced in London.

1953 – The first Chevrolet Corvette rolls off the assembly line in Flint, Michigan.

1956 – A TWA Super Constellation and a United Airlines DC-7 collide above the Grand Canyon in Arizona and crash, killing all 128 on board both airliners.

1959 – A United States Air Force F-100 Super Sabre from Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, crashes into a nearby elementary school, killing 11 students plus six residents from the local neighborhood.

1971 – The crew of the Soviet Soyuz 11 spacecraft are killed when their air supply escapes through a faulty valve.

1976 - Police raid the home of Neil Diamond searching for drugs, they find less than one ounce of marijuana.

Stuart Goddard, (Adam Ant), placed the following ad in the classified section of Melody Maker, 'Beat on a bass, with the B-Sides.' Andy Warren answered the ad and the pair went on to form Adam and The Ants.

1977 - Marvel Comics launched a comic book based on the rock group KISS.

1985 – Thirty-nine American hostages from the hijacked TWA Flight 847 are freed in Beirut after being held for 17 days.

1989 - Police were called in to control over 4,000 Bobby Brown fans trying to see him at the HMV Record store in London's Oxford Street, six fans were hospitalized and one had to be resuscitated.

1990 - Police raid Chuck Berry's estate and seize homemade porn videos, drugs and guns.

1995 - American soul singer Phyllis Hyman committed suicide by overdosing on pentobarbital and secobarbital in her New York City apartment aged 45. She was found hours before she was scheduled to perform at the Apollo Theatre, in New York.

2000 - Eight men were trampled to death during Pearl Jam's performance at the Roskilde Festival, near Copenhagen. Police said the victims had all slipped or fallen in the mud in front of the stage.

2013 – Nineteen firefighters die controlling a wildfire in Yarnell, Arizona.

2015 – A Hercules C-130 military aircraft with 113 people on board crashes in a residential area in the Indonesian city of Medan, resulting in at least 116 deaths.

2016 – Rodrigo Duterte was sworn into office as the 16th President of the Philippines.

Births

1889 – Archibald Frazer-Nash (founder of Frazer Nash automobiles); 1891 – Man Mountain Dean; 1906 – Anthony Mann (director); 1917 – Susan Hayward, Lena Horne; 1934 – Harry Blackstone Jr.; 1942 – Robert Ballard; 1956 – David Alan Grier; 1957 – Sterling Marlin (ret'd NASCAR driver); 1959 – Vincent D'Onofrio; 1963 – Rupert Graves, Yngwie Malmsteen; 1966 – Mike Tyson; 1968 – Phil Anselmo (Pantera); 1971 – Monica Potter; 1983 - Cheryl Cole; 1984 – Fantasia Barrino; 1985 – Michael Phelps, T-Pain

Deaths

1882 – Charles J. Guiteau (assassin); 1961 – Lee de Forest (invented the audion tube); 2001 – Chet Atkins; 2003 – Buddy Hackett; 2014 – Paul Mazursky

[Gravdigr]

July 1

The end of today (actually 1 a.m. July 2) marks the halfway point of 2016.

There are 183 days remaining in 2016.

1766 – François-Jean de la Barre, a young French nobleman, is tortured and beheaded before his body is burnt on a pyre along with a copy of Voltaire's Dictionnaire philosophique nailed to his torso for the crime of not saluting a Roman Catholic religious procession in Abbeville, France.

1770 – Lexell's Comet passes closer to the Earth than any other comet in recorded history, approaching to a distance of 0.0146 a.u. (astronomical unit).

1819 – Johann Georg Tralles discovers the Great Comet of 1819, (C/1819 N1). It was the first comet analyzed using polarimetry, by François Arago.

1863 – American Civil War: The Battle of Gettysburg begins.

1867 – The British North America Act of 1867 takes effect as the Constitution of Canada, creating the Canadian Confederation and the federal dominion of Canada; Sir John A. Macdonald is sworn in as the first Prime Minister of Canada. This date is commemorated annually in Canada as Canada Day, a national holiday.

1874 – The Sholes and Glidden typewriter, the first commercially successful typewriter, goes on sale.

1879 – Charles Taze Russell publishes the first edition of the religious magazine The Watchtower.

1881 – The world's first international telephone call is made between St. Stephen, New Brunswick, Canada, and Calais, Maine, United States. A distance of app. 2.6 miles.

1898 – Spanish–American War: The Battle of San Juan Hill is fought in Santiago de Cuba.

1903 – Start of first Tour de France bicycle race.

1908 – SOS is adopted as the international distress signal.

1915 – Leutnant Kurt Wintgens of the then-named German Fliegertruppe air service achieves the first known aerial victory with a synchronized machine-gun-armed fighter plane, the Fokker M.5K/MG Eindecker.

1916 – World War I: First day on the Somme: On the first day of the Battle of the Somme 19,000 soldiers of the British Army are killed and 40,000 wounded.

The first attack of the Jersey Shore shark attacks of 1916 occurs.

1931 – United Airlines begins service (as Boeing Air Transport).

1932 – Australia's national broadcaster, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, was formed.

1933 – Wiley Post becomes the first person to fly solo around the world traveling 15,596 miles (25,099 km) in seven days, 18 hours and 45 minutes.

1942 – World War II: First Battle of El Alamein.

1943 – Tokyo City merges with Tokyo Prefecture and is dissolved. Since this date, no city in Japan has the name "Tokyo" (present-day Tokyo is not officially a city).

1956 - Elvis Presley appeared on NBC- TV's 'The Steve Allen Show' and performed 'Hound Dog', to a live Hound Dog. US TV critic John Crosby panned Elvis' performance, calling him an 'unspeakable, untalented and vulgar young entertainer.'

1959 – Specific values for the international yard, avoirdupois pound and derived units (e.g. inch, mile and ounce) are adopted after an agreement between the U.S.A., the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth countries.

1963 – ZIP codes are introduced for United States mail.

1968 – The United States Central Intelligence Agency's Phoenix Program is officially established.

The Band released their debut album Music From Big Pink. The album, which features their first hit single The Weight, was recorded in studios in New York and Los Angeles.

1972 – The first Gay pride march in England takes place.

1979 – Sony introduces the Walkman (no, not Walking Man, he's strictly ours).

1980 – "O Canada" officially becomes the national anthem of Canada.

1981 – The Wonderland murders occur in the early morning hours in Los Angeles, allegedly masterminded by businessman and drug dealer Eddie Nash.

Rushton Moreve bassist with Steppenwolf, was killed in motorcycle accident in Santa Barbara, California, aged 32. He co-wrote their hit 'Magic Carpet Ride' with lead singer John Kay.

1983 - A New Jersey-based quintet calling themselves Bon Jovi signed to Phonogram's Mercury records, although they had also been considering the name Johnny Electric. The group have since sold over 130 million records worldwide, and performed more than 2,600 concerts in over 50 countries for more than 34 million fans.

1984 – The PG-13 rating is introduced by the MPAA.

1987 – The American radio station WFAN in New York City is launched as the world's first all-sports radio station.

1991 – The Warsaw Pact is officially dissolved at a meeting in Prague.

1995 - DJ Wolfman Jack dies of a heart attack.

2004 - Glen Campbell began serving 10 nights in jail along with two years of probation for a November 2003 drunk-driving, hit-and-run collision. The 68 year old entertainer was also sentenced to 75 hours of community service and fined $900.

2005 - American R&B and soul singer-songwriter, record producer Luther Vandross died at the age of 54 at the JFK Medical Centre in New Jersey, two years after suffering a major stroke.

2007 – The Concert for Diana is held at the new Wembley Stadium in London and broadcast in 140 countries.

Smoking in England is banned in all public indoor spaces.


2008 - Whitesnake guitarist Mel Galley, died at the age of 60 from cancer of the oesophagus.

2013 – Neptune's moon S/2004 N 1 is discovered.

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