0240 BC – Eratosthenes estimated the circumference of the Earth using two sticks.

1586 – English colonists sailed away from Roanoke Island, NC, after failing to establish England’s first permanent settlement in America.

1778 – U.S. General George Washington’s troops finally left Valley Forge after a winter of training.

1821 – The Ottomans defeated the Greeks at the Battle of Dragasani.

1846 – The New York Knickerbocker Club played the New York Club in the first baseball game at the Elysian Field, Hoboken, NJ. It was the first organized baseball game.

1862 – U.S. President Abraham Lincoln outlined his Emancipation Proclamation, which outlawed slavery in U.S. territories.

1864 – The USS Kearsarge sank the CSS Alabama off of Cherbourg, France.

1865 – The emancipation of slaves was proclaimed in Texas.

1867 – In New York, the Belmont Stakes was run for the first time.

1873 – Eadweard Muybridge successfully photographed a horse named “Sallie Gardner” in fast motion using a series of 24 stereoscopic cameras. This is considered the first step toward motion pictures.

1903 – The young school teacher, Benito Mussolini, was placed under investigation by police in Bern, Switzerland.

1910 – The first Father’s Day was celebrated in Spokane, Washington.

1911 – In Pennsylvania, the first motion-picture censorship board was established.

1912 – The U.S. government established the 8-hour work day.

1917 – During World War I, King George V ordered the British royal family to dispense with German titles and surnames.

1933 – France granted Leon Trotsky political asylum.

1934 – The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration was established.

1934 – The U.S. Congress established the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The commission was to regulate radio and TV broadcasting (later).

1937 – The town of Bilbao, Spain, fell to the Nationalist forces.

1939 – In Atlanta, GA, legislation was enacted that disallowed pinball machines in the city.

1942 – Norma Jeane Mortenson (Marilyn Monroe) and her 21-year-old neighbor Jimmy Dougherty were married. They were divorced in June of 1946.

1942 – British Prime Minister Winston Churchill arrived in Washington, DC, to discuss the invasion of North Africa with U.S. President Roosevelt.

1943 – Henry Kissinger became a naturalized United States citizen.

1943 – The National Football League approved the merger of the Philadelphia Eagles and the Pittsburgh Steelers.

1944 – The U.S. won the battle of the Philippine Sea against the Imperial Japanese fleet.

1951 – U.S. President Harry S. Truman signed the Universal Military Training and Service Act, which extended Selective Service until July 1, 1955 and lowered the draft age to 18.

1958 – In Washington, DC, nine entertainers refused to answer a congressional committee’s questions on communism.

1961 – Kuwait regained complete independence from Britain.

1961 – The U.S. Supreme Court struck down a provision in Maryland’s constitution that required state officeholders to profess a belief in God.

1964 – The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was approved after surviving an 83-day filibuster in the U.S. Senate.

1965 – Air Marshall Nguyen Cao Ky became South Vietnam’s youngest premier at age 34.

1968 – 50,000 people marched on Washington, DC. to support the Poor People’s Campaign.

1973 – The Case-Church Amendment prevented further U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia.

1973 – The stage production of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” opened in London.

1973 – Gordie Howe left the NHL to join his sons Mark and Marty in the WHA (World Hockey League).

1981 – The European Space Agency sent two satellites into orbit from Kourou, French Guiana.

1983 – Lixian-nian was chosen to be China’s first president since 1969.

1987 – The U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Louisiana law that required that schools teach creationism.

1997 – William Hague became the youngest leader of Britain’s Conservative party in nearly 200 years.

1998 – Gateway was fined more than $400,000 for illegally shipping personal computers to 16 countries subject to U.S. export controls.

1998 – A study released said that smoking more than doubles risks of developing dementia and Alzheimer’s.

1998 – Switzerland’s three largest banks offered $600 million to settle claims they’d stolen the assets of Holocaust victims during World War II. Jewish leaders called the offer insultingly low.

2000 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a group prayer led by students at public-school football games violated the 1st Amendment’s principle that called for the separation of church and state.

on-this-day.com

On June 19, 1968, a long-term anti-poverty demonstration known as Resurrection City reaches its high-water mark. On “Solidarity Day,” over 50,000 people flock to the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. to protest, sing, hear speeches and demonstrate on behalf of national legislation to address the plight of the American poor. “Today is really only the beginning,” Rev. Ralph Abernathy tells the crowd. “We will not give up the battle until the Congress of the United States decides to open the doors of America and allow the nation’s poor to enter as full-fledged citizens into this land of wealth and opportunity.”

In May 1968, poor people from all over the country came to the National Mall and made temporary homes in plywood shelters, creating a settlement they called Resurrection City. The protest began less than two months after the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and grew out of the Poor People’s Campaign and the campaign for an Economic Bill of Rights, both of which had been major focuses of King’s at the time of his death. The goal was to convince legislators of the need for laws that would lift poor people of all races out of poverty, and to sway public opinion by making the plight of the poor impossible to ignore. Protesters came from all over the country—“caravans” drove from as far away as Los Angeles and Seattle while a “Freedom Train” brought people from Memphis and one group from Marks, Mississippi rode mule-drawn wagons.

For the complete ar

How the 1982 Murder of Vincent Chin Ignited a Push for Asian American Rights

Two autoworkers who reportedly mistook Chin to be Japanese received no jail time for the killing.

By: Becky Little

Joy Harjo, renowned for evocative poetry that weaves Indigenous culture and personal narrative, is appointed America’s first Native American poet laureate, a historic moment celebrating her powerful voice and rich storytelling.

Source: history.com

June 18, 1812 – After much debate, the U.S. Senate voted 19 to 13 in favor of a declaration of war against Great Britain, prompted by Britain’s violation of America’s rights on the high seas and British incitement of Indian warfare on the Western frontier. The next day, President James Madison officially proclaimed the U.S. to be in a state of war. The War of 1812 lasted over two years and ended with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent in Belgium on December 24, 1814.

June 18, 1815 – On the fields near Waterloo in central Belgium, 72,000 French troops, led by Napoleon, suffered a crushing military defeat from a combined Allied army of 113,000 British, Dutch, Belgian, and Prussian troops. Thus ended 23 years of warfare between France and the other powers of Europe. Napoleon was then sent into exile on the island of St. Helena off the coast of Africa. On May 5, 1821, the former vain-glorious Emperor died alone on the tiny island, abandoned by everyone.

June 18, 1983 – Dr. Sally Ride, a 32-year-old physicist and pilot, became the first American woman in space, beginning a six-day mission aboard the space shuttle Challenger, launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Birthday – British explorer George Mallory (1886-1924) was born in Mobberley, Cheshire, England. When asked why he wanted to climb Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world, he simply answered, “Because it is there.” He disappeared while climbing through the mists toward its summit on the morning of June 8, 1924. His body, perfectly preserved due to the cold conditions, was discovered by climbers in 1999, just 600 meters (2,030 feet) from the summit.