ON THIS DAY

ON THIS DAY--JUNE

For a more comprehensive list, including a Year by Year timeline, see our Research Guide.

June 1st. . .

1792--Kentucky became the 15^th state of the Union.

1793--Henry Francis Lyte, English clergyman who wrote the hymn 'Abide With Me', born.

1796--Tennessee became the 16^th state of the Union.

1801--Brigham Young, U.S. Mormon leader, born.

1809--Franz Joseph Haydn, Austrian composer, died.

1815--James Gillray, English caricaturist of politicians of the day, died.

1831--The magnetic North Pole was located by Sir James Clark Ross on his Arctic exploration expedition with Admiral Perry.

1857--Joseph Pujol, 'Le Petomane', performer at the Moulin Rouge, born.

1868--James Buchanan, 15^th U.S. President, died.

1874--The first Pullman cars in Britain were introduced on the Midland railway on the London to Bradford route.

1879--Eugene Louis Napoleon, Prince Imperial of France who escaped to England, was killed in the Zulu Campaign in South Africa.

June 2nd. . .

1696--John Sobieksi III, King of Poland and warrior, born.

1740--Comte Donatien de Sade, Marquis de Sade, French writer of Justine and 'sadist' (the term derived from his name), born.

1780--Lord George Gordon led the 'Gordon Riots' in protest at the ending of penalties against Roman Catholics.

1817--George Henry Corliss, American engineer and inventor, born.

1840--Thomas Hardy, English novelist of Tess of the D'Ubervilles, born.

1850--Sir Jesse Boot, 1st Baron Trent, founder of a pharmaceutical manufacturing and retailing operation that bears his name, born.

1857--Sir Edward Elgar, English composer, born.

1868--The Trades Union Congress was first held in Manchester.

1882--Giuseppe Garibaldi, Italian nationalist leader, died.

June 3rd. . .

1657--William Henry, court physician to James I and Charles I, died.

1665--The Duke of York defeated the Dutch Fleet off the coast of Lowestoft.

1726--James Hutton, Scottish physician and geologist who wrote Theory of the Earth, born.

1804--Richard Cobden, English political reformer and Liberal politician who fought to repeal the Corn Laws, born.

1808--Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate States of America, born.

1837--The Hippodrome opened in London's Bayswater to run steeplechase horse races.

1838--Jonathan Martin, English religious extremist who set fire to York Minster, died in an asylum.

1853--Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie, English Egyptologist, born.

1875--Georges Bizet, French composer of the opera Carmen, died.

1899--Johann Strauss the Younger, Austrian composer of The Blue Danube, died.

June 4th. . .

1738--George II, King of England from 1760, born.

1798--Giovanni Casanova, Italian romantic, author and librarian at the castle of Waldstein in Bohemia, died.

1805--The first Trooping the Colour ceremony took place at the Horse Guards Parade, London.

1826--Stephen Foster, U.S. composer of popular minstrel songs including 'Swanee River', born.

1831--Prince Leopold became the first King of Belgium.

1844--The last known specimen of the garefowl, the great auk, was killed on the Stack of Eldey off Iceland.

1852--Mary St. Leger Kingsley, English novelist who wrote under the pseudonym 'Lucas Malet', and daughter of writer Charles Kingsley, born.

1859--The French under Napoleon III defeated the Austrians at the Battle of Magenta in the Austro-Sardinian War.

1867--Baron Carl von Mannerheim, Finnish military commander, born.

June 5^th. . .

755--St. Boniface, English missionary who went to Germany to establish Christianity, was murdered by unbelievers.

1723--Adam Smith, Scottish political economist who wrote The Wealth of Nations, born.

1783--The first ascent in a hot-air balloon, which was made by the French Montgolfier brothers, lasted ten minutes.

1819--John Couch Adams, English mathematician and astronomer who discovered the planet Neptune, born.

1826--Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst, Baron von Weber, German composer, died in London.

1851--The first chapter of Uncle Tom's Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe, appeared in the National Era.

1878--Francisco Pancho Villa, Mexican revolutionary, born.

June 6th. . .

1599--Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velazquez, Spanish painter who became court painter to Philip IV, baptized on this day.

1606--Pierre Corneille, French playwright of Le Cid, born.

1683--The first public museum, the Ashmolean, was opened by Elias Ashmole in Oxford. Visitors were charged for the length of stay.

1727--The first title fight took place in London between James Figg and Ned Sutton who was defeated.

1755--Nathan Hale, American revolutionary who spied on the British and was caught, born.

1799--Aleksandr Pushkin, Russian poet, novelist and playwright, born.

1844--George Williams founded the YMCA at 72 St. Paul's Churchyard, London.

1861--Count Camillo Benso di Cavour, Italian statesman, died.

1875--Thomas Mann, German novelist of Death in Venice, born.

June 7th. . .

1329--Robert the Bruce, who seized the throne to become King of Scotland, died of leprosy.

1502--Pope Gregory XII, who introduced the New Style calendar named after him, born.

1566--Sir Thomas Gresham laid the foundation stone of the first Royal Exchange in London.

1761--John Rennie, Scottish civil engineer who built New London Bridge, born.

1770--The Earl of Liverpool, British Prime Minister, born.

1778--George Bryan 'Beau' Brummell, English dandy, leader of fashion and gambler, born.

1811--Richard Doddridge Blackmore, English novelist of Lorna Doone, born.

1848--Paul Gauguin, French post-Impressionist painter, born.

1886--Richard March Hoe, English-born rotary press inventor who emigrated to the U.S. where he established his printing company, died.

June 8th. . .

632--The Prophet Muhammad, founder of Islam, died in Mecca.

1376--Edward the Black Prince, commander in the Hundred Years War, died.

1652--William Dampier, English explorer who became a buccaneer, born.

1724--John Smeaton, founder of English civil engineering, born.

1772--Robert Stevenson, builder of the Bell Rock lighthouse, the first in Scotland, born.

1809--Thomas Paine, English radical who wrote The Rights of Man, died.

1810--Robert Schumann, German composer, born.

1829--Sir John Millais, English painter who was one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, born.

1845--Andrew Jackson, 7^th U.S. president, died.

1865--Sir Joseph Paxton, English architect who designed the Crystal Palace for the Great Exhibition, died.

1876--George Sand, French novelist, died.

June 9th. . .

1441--Jan van Eyck, Dutch painter, died.

1549--The Church of England adopted The Book of Common Prayer compiled by Thomas Cranmer.

1672--Peter the Great, Tsar of Russia, born.

1781--George Stephenson, English inventor of the first locomotive for a public railway, born.

1810--Otto Nicolai, German composer of the overture, The Merry Wives of Windsor, born.

1836--Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, English physician who studied privately because she was refused admittance to medical schools, born.

1870--Charles Dickens, English novelist and author of Oliver Twist, died of a brain hemorrhage.

1874--Conchise, Apache chief and leader of the Apache and Navajo wars, died.

1898--Britain took a 99-year lease on Hong Kong from China.

June 10th. . .

1190--Frederick Barbarossa, Holy Roman Emperor who led the third crusade against Saladin, died.

1688--James Edward Stuart, the Old Pretender, born.

1692--The first of 19 people (14 women and 5 men) were hanged at Salem at the end of the witch-hunt trials.

1727--George I, King of England, died on his way to Hanover.

1793--The first public zoo, the Jardin des Plantes, opened in Paris.

1819--Gustave Courbet, French painter and leader of the Realist movement, born.

1829--The first Oxford and Cambridge boat race took place from Hambledon Lock to Henley Bridge, and was won by Oxford.

1836--Andre Marie Ampere, French physicist, born.

1832--Nikolaus August Otto, German inventor of the four-stroke internal combustion engine, born.

1865--The first performance of Wagner's Tristan and Isolde took place in Munich.

June 11th. . .

1292--Roger Bacon, English natural scientist and philosopher, buried.

1488--James III of Scotland was murdered by rebellious Scottish nobles and was succeeded by his 15-year-old son, James IV.

1509--Henry VIII married for the first time. His wife was Catharine of Aragon.

1572--Ben Jonson, English poet and playwright, born.

1727--George II acceded to the English throne.

1776--John Constable, English landscape painter, born.

1776--The Continental Congress appointed John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and others to draft a declaration of independence.

1847--Sir John Franklin, English naval officer and Arctic explorer, died in an attempt to discover the North-West Passage.

1864--Richard Strauss, German composer of operas such as Salome, born.

June 12th. . .

1458--Magdalen College, Oxford, was founded.

1667--Jean-Baptiste Denys of Montpellier University and personal physician to Louis XIV carried out a successful blood transfusion using sheep's blood. The patient was a 15-year-old boy.

1806--John Augustus Roebling, American engineer and pioneer in the building of suspension bridges, born in Germany.

1819--Charles Kinsgley, English clergyman and author of The Water Babies, born.

1839--Abner Doubleday invented baseball at Cooperstown, New York.

1842--Dr. Thomas Arnold, English education reformer and headmaster of Rugby school, died.

1885--A roof collapsed during a murder trial in France, killing 30 people.

June 13th. . .

323_BC--Alexander the Great died at the age of 32 following an illness.

1381--Wat Tyler led the first popular rebellion in English history called the Peasant's Revolt.

1752--Fanny Burney, English novelist and diarist who used her observations to write Evaline, born.

1795--Dr. Thomas Arnold, English educationalist and reformer of the Public School system while headmaster of Rugby School, born.

1842--Queen Victoria traveled by train for the first time, from Slough to Paddington.

1865--W.B. Yeats, Irish poet and playwright, born.

1886--Ludwig II, the certified insane King of Bavaria, committed suicide by drowning in the Starnberger Sea. His psychiatrist, Bernhard von Gudden, also died while trying to save his life.

1893--The first Women's Golf Championship, held at Royal Lytham, was won by Lady Margaret Scott.

June 14^th. . .

1645--Cromwell's Parliamentarians defeated the Royalists at the Battle of Naseby, Northamptonshire.

1755--Dr. Johnson's Dictionary went on sale.

1777--The U.S. Congress adopted the 'Stars and Stripes' as the official flag.

1800--The Battle of Marengo ended with Napoleon defeating the Austrians during the French Revolutionary Wars.

1801--Benedict Arnold, U.S. soldier and traitor, died in London.

1811--Harriet Beecher Stowe, U.S. novelist who wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin, born.

1839--The first Henley Regatta was held.

June 15^th. . .

1215--The Magna Carta was sealed by King John at Runnymede.

1330--Edward the Black Prince, eldest son of Edward III, born.

1381--Wat Tyler, English tax rebel, was beheaded at Smithfield.

1752--Benjamin Franklin flew a kite with a metal frame during a storm as a part of his experiments with electricity.

1825--The foundation stone of the New London Bridge was laid by the Duke of York.

1836--Arkansas became the 25^th state of the Union.

1843--Edvard Grieg, Norwegian composer, born.

1844--Charles Goodyear patented his vulcanized rubber process.

1846--The 49^th parallel was established as the border between Canada and the United States.

1860--Florence Nightingale started her School for Nurses at St. Thomas Hospital, London.

1888--Frederick III, Emperor of Germany, died.

June 16^th. . .

1514--Sir John Cheke, English classical scholar, tutor of Edward VI, and secretary of state for Lady Jane Grey, born.

1722--John Churchill, first Duke of Marlborough, died.

1794--The first stone was laid for the world's largest grain windmill in Holland.

1801--Julius Plucker, German physicist who discovered cathode rays, born.

1567--Mary, Queen of Scots, was imprisoned in Scotland's Lochleven Castle.

1815--Wellington's army defeated Marshal Ney's forces at Quatre-Bras.

1858--Senate candidate Abraham Lincoln made his 'House Divided' speech on slavery in Springfield, IL.

1858--Gustav V, king of Sweden, born.

1869--Charles Sturt, English explorer of Australia, died.

1880--The distinctive Salvation Army ladies bonnets were worn for the first time when they marched in procession in London.

June 17^th. . .

1239--Edward I, King of England, born.

1579--Sir Francis Drake anchored the Golden Hind just north of the future San Francisco Bay, and named the area New Albion.

1703--John Wesley, English evangelist who brought about an evangelical revival in England and North America, born.

1719--Joseph Addison, English poet and essayist, died.

1775--The Battle of Bunker Hill took place in the U.S. War of Independence.

1818--Charles Gounod, French composer of Faust, born.

1823--Charles Macintosh patented the waterproof cloth he would use in raincoats.

1867--Joseph Lister amputated a cancerous breast, the first operation under antiseptic conditions.

1898--Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, English romantic painter, born.

June 18^th. . .

1583--The first Life Insurance policy was sold in London, and it was the first to be disputed.

1769--Viscount Castlereagh, 2^nd Marquis of Londonderry and British statesman, born.

1815--The combined forces led by Wellington and Blucher defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo.

1857--Henry Clay Folger, American capitalist and collector, born.

1880--John Augustus Sutter, California pioneer and settler and owner of the mill where gold was discovered, died.

1884--Edouard Daladier, French Premier, born.

June 19^th. . .

1556--James I, King of England and Scotland, born.

1623--Blaise Pascal, French mathematician and philosopher, born.

1815--William Combe, English writer of satirical books, died.

1820--Sir Joseph Banks, English explorer and naturalist, died.

1829--Sir Robert Peel established the London Metropolitan Police by an Act of Parliament passed this day.

1846--The first official game of baseball was played at the Elysian Fields, Hoboken, New Jersey between the New York Nine and the Knickerbocker Club.

1861--Douglas, 1^st Earl Haig, British field marshal, born.

1867--Ferdinand Joseph Maximilian, archduke of Austria and emperor of Mexico, was condemned to death and shot by his opponents.

1896--Bessie Wallis Warfield Simpson, Duchess of Winsdor, born.

June 20^th. . .

1597--Willem Barents, Dutch explorer, died in the Arctic searching for the north-east passage from Europe to Asia.

1756--The 146 captured defenders of the British garrison in Calcutta were incarcerated in a cell less than 18-feet square, which came to be known as the Black Hole. Only 23 survived the night.

1819--Jacques Offenbach, French composer, born. ALSO--The paddle-wheel steamship Savannah arrived at Liverpool after a voyage lasting 27 days 11 hours, the first steamship to cross the Atlantic.

1837--William IV, British king, died. Queen Victoria, just 18 years old, ascended to the throne.

1863--West Virginia became the 35^th state of the Union.

1887--Buffalo Bill Cody staged a Royal Command performance of his Wild West Show for Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee.

1887--Britain's longest railway bridge over the River Tay opened. The first had collapsed in 1879.

June 21^st. . .

1002--Leo IX, the pope who brought the conflict between Rome and the eastern church, born.

1377--Edward III, King of England, died.

1527--Niccolo Machiavelli, Italian writer and statesman, died.

1652--Inigo Jones, English architect and designer, died.

1675--Work began to rebuild St. Paul's Cathedral in London by Sir Christopher Wren after the original was destroyed in the Great Fire.

1788--The U.S. Constitution came into force. ALSO, New Hampshire became the ninth state of the Union.

1843--The Royal College of Surgeons was founded from the original Barber-Surgeons Company.

1852--Friedrich Froebel, German educationalist and founder of the kindergarten system, died.

1854--The first Victorian Cross was awarded to Charles Lucas, an Irishman aboard the HMS Hecla for conspicuous gallantry.

1876--Santa Anna, Mexican revolutionary, died in poverty. ALSO, the first gorilla arrived in Britain.

June 22^nd. . .

1377--Richard II ascended to the English throne.

1611--Henry Hudson, English navigator, was cast adrift with some of his crew after a mutiny in the bay that bears his name. It was the last time they were seen alive.

1679--The rebellion of the Scottish Covenanters was put down by the Duke of Monmouth at the Battle of Bothwell Bridge.

1757--George Vancouver, explorer who carried out surveys of North America, born.

1805--Giuseppe Mazzini, Italian thinker and writer, born.

1814--The first match at the new Lord's cricket ground was played.

1830--Theodor Leschetizky, Polish pianist and renowned teacher, born.

1856--Sir H. Rider Haggard, English writer of King Solomon's Mines, born.

June 23^rd. . .

1537--Pedro de Mendoza, Spanish explorer, died.

1625--John Fell, bishop of Oxford, born.

1683--William Penn signed a peace treaty with the Indians.

1757--British troops overthrew the Nawab of Bengal, preparing the way for the British Empire in India.

1763--Empress Josephine, Napoleon's first wife, born on the island of Martinque.

1839--Lady Hester Lucy Stanhope, English traveler in the Middle East, died in poverty as a result of her excessive generosity.

1848--Adolphe Sax was awarded a patent for the saxophone.

1894--Edward, Duke of Windsor who would abdicate the English throne, born.

June 24^th. . .

79_AD--Vespasian, Roman emperor, died.

1314--Robert the Bruce defeated the English troops at the Battle of Bannockburn.

1509--Henry VIII's coronation took place.

1519--Lucrezia Borgia, Duchess of Ferrara, died.

1650--John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, English general, born.

1717--The Grand Lodge of English Freemasons was formed in London.

1771--Eleuthere Irenee Du Pont, American powder manufacturer, born in France.

1825--W.H. Smith, English news agent and bookseller, born.

1850--Horatio Herbert, Earl Kitchener, British field marshal, born.

1842--Ambrose Bierce, American journalist and short-story writer, born.

1859--Henri Durant, while traveling through war-torn Italy, was inspired to form the Red Cross.

June 25^th. . .

1483--Earl Rivers and Lord Richard Grey, uncle and stepbrother to Edward V, were executed by order of Richard III, who had also deposed his nephew.

1788--Virginia became the tenth state of the Union.

1797--Admiral Nelson was wounded during battle off Santa Cruz and his arm was amputated that afternoon.

1870--Robert Erskine Childers, Irish author and nationalist, born.

1876--Barbed wire was patented by Lucien B. Smith of Kent, Ohio.

1876--Custer's last stand took place at Little Bighorn, Montana when the Sioux Indians killed Colonel George Custer and all 264 soldiers of his 7^th Cavalry.

June 26^th. . .

363_AD--Julian the Apostate, Roman emperor, died of wounds inflicted in battle with the Persians.

1541--Francisco Pizarro, conqueror of Peru, was assassinated by rivals in Lima.

1710--Charles Merrier, French astronomer, born.

1810--Joseph Michel Mongolfier, French pioneer balloonist, died.

1830--George IV, King of England, died. His brother, William VI ascended the throne.

1827--Samuel Crompton, English inventor of the spinning mule, died.

1836--Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle, author and composer, died.

1857--The first investiture ceremony of Victoria Crosses took place at Hyde Park. Sixty-two service men received the honor.

1824--William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, Irish physicist and inventor, born.

June 27^th. . .

1462--Louis XII, King of France, born.

1550--Charles IX, King of France during the Wars of Religion, who ordered the Massacre of the Huguenots, born.

1693--The Ladies' Mercury, the first magazine for women, was published.

1743--The last British King to lead his troops into battle was George II this day when he led the Pragmatic Army into the Battle of Dettingen.

1816--Samuel, 1^st Viscount Hood, English admiral, died.

1829--James Lewis Macie Smithson, English scientist and founder of the Smithsonian Institute, Washington DC, died in Genoa.

1844--Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormons, was murdered by mobs.

1846--Charles Stewart Parnell, Irish nationalist leader, born.

1880--Helen Adams Keller, U.S. blind, deaf and mute scholar and teacher, born.

June 28^th. . .

1491--Henry VIII, King of England who married six times and beheaded two wives, born.

1577--Sir Peter Paul Rubens, Flemish artist, born.

1703--John Wesley, English evangelical preacher and founder of Methodism, born.

1712--Jean Jacques Rousseau, French philosopher, born in Geneva.

1836--James Madison, fourth U.S. president, died.

1838--Queen Victoria's coronation took place in Westminster Abbey. She was 19 years old.

1841--The ballet Giselle opened in Paris.

1861--Robert O'Hara Burke, Australian explorer, died.

1867--Luigi Pirandello, Italian dramatist and novelist, born.

1873--Alexis Carrel, French experimental biologist, born.

June 29^th. . .

48_BC--Julius Caesar defeated Pompey at Pharsalus to become the absolute ruler of Rome.

1613--During a performance of Henry VIII at the Globe Theatre, a cannon was set off to announce the King. It accidentally set fire to the thatched gallery roof. The theatre was totally destroyed.

1798--Conte Giacomo Leopardi, Italian poet, born.

1801--The first census in Britain was carried out revealing a population of 8,872,000.

1829--The first policeman to be murdered in Britain was Constable William Grantham in Somers Town trying to break up a fight.

1838--The Sun, in honor of Queen Victoria's coronation the previous day, printed its entire issue in gold ink.

1855--The first edition of London's Daily Telegraph was published.

1861--Elizabeth Barrett Browning, English poet, died.

1868--The Press Association was founded in London.

1861--William James Mayo, surgeon and co-founder of the Mayo Clinic, born.

June 30^th. . .

1520--Montezuma II, last Aztec emperor, died.

1660--William Oughtred, English mathematician and inventor of the slide rule, died.

1685--John Gay, English poet and playwright of Beggar's Opera, born.

1837--Punishment by pillory was finally abolished in Britain.

1859--Tightrope walker, Blondin, crossed Niagara Falls from the U.S. to Canada in just eight minutes, a distance of 1,100 feet.

1864--Congress granted Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Big Tree Grove to California for a public park.

1893--In South Africa's Orange Free State, the finder of a 971.75 carat diamond was awarded 500 pounds sterling plus a horse with bridle and saddle.

1891--Sir Stanley Spencer, English artist, born.

1893--Sir James Gunn, Scottish painter, born.