1788 – Virginia ratified the U.S. Constitution and became the 10th state of the United States.
1868 – The U.S. Congress enacted legislation granting an eight-hour day to workers employed by the Federal government.

1868 – Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina were readmitted to the Union

1910 – The U.S. Congress authorized the use of postal savings stamps.

1917 – The first American fighting troops landed in France.

1920 – The Greeks took 8,000 Turkish prisoners in Smyrna.

1962 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the use of unofficial non-denominational prayer in public schools was unconstitutional.

1964 – U.S. President Lyndon Johnson ordered 200 naval personnel to Mississippi to assist in finding three missing civil rights workers.

1968 – Bobby Bonds (San Francisco Giants) hit a grand-slam home run in his first game with the Giants. He was the first player to debut with a grand-slam.
1970 – The U.S. Federal Communications Commission handed down a ruling (35 FR 7732), making it illegal for radio stations to put telephone calls on the air without the permission of the person being called.

1981 – The U.S. Supreme Court decided that male-only draft registration was constitutional.

1986 – The U.S. Congress approved $100 million in aid to the Contras fighting in Nicaragua.
1990 – The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the right of an individual, whose wishes are clearly made, to refuse life-sustaining medical treatment. “The right to die” decision was made in the Curzan vs. Missouri case.
1997 – U.S. air pollution standards were significantly tightened by U.S. President Clinton.

1998 – The U.S. Supreme Court rejected the line-item veto thereby striking down presidential power to cancel specific items in tax and spending legislation.

1998 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that those infected with HIV are protected by the Americans With Disabilities Act.

 

 

Micmac chief Membertou and 20 of his family are the first people of the First Nations to be baptized by Christian missionaries in Port-Royal, New France [1]

 First Nations Chief:

Nationality: Micmac

Biography: Membertou was a influential and formidable Micmac chief (saqamaw) who interacted with and helped protect the French settlement of Port Royal, in modern Nova Scotia.

In 1610 he and 20 members of his family were the first, First Nations people to be baptized by the French. He was given the names Henri and while there is no indication he renounced his traditional beliefs he agreed to be buried on Christian ground in 1611.

As he claimed to have met the explorer Jacques Cartier in 1534 as a grown man, he was likely aged about 100 when he died.

Birthplace: , Mi’kmaq nation

Died: September 18, 1611

Source: onthisday.com

June 24, 1896 – Booker T. Washington became the first African American to receive an honorary MA degree from Howard University.

Kris Snibbe
Harvard Staff Photographer

For example, on June 24, 1896, educator Booker T. Washington became the first African American to receive an honorary degree from Harvard University.
That evening, during an alumni dinner, Washington said: “In working out our destiny, while the main burden and center of activity must be with us, we shall need, in a large measure in the years that are to come, as we have in the past, the help, the encouragement, the guidance that the strong can give the weak. Thus helped, we of both races in the South soon shall throw off the shackles of racial and sectional prejudice and rise, as Harvard University has risen and as we all should rise, above the clouds of ignorance, narrowness and selfishness, into that atmosphere, that pure sunshine, where it will be our highest ambition to serve MAN, our brother, regardless of race or previous condition.”

Speech cited from Booker T. Washington’s Address at the Alumni Dinner of Harvard University.

news.harvard.edu

1314 – Scottish forces led by Robert the Bruce won over Edward II of England at the Battle of Bannockburn in Scotland.

1340 – The English fleet defeated the French fleet at Sluys, off the Flemish coast.

1497 – Italian explorer John Cabot, sailing in the service of England, landed in North America on what is now Newfoundland.

1509 – Henry VIII was crowned King of England.

1664 – New Jersey, named after the Isle of Jersey, was founded.

1675 – King Philip’s War began when Indians massacre colonists at Swansee, Plymouth colony.

1717 – The Freemasons were founded in London.

1793 – The first republican constitution in France was adopted.

1812 – Napoleon crossed the Nieman River and invaded Russia.

1844 – Charles Goodyear was granted U.S. patent #3,633 for vulcanized rubber.

1859 – At the Battle of Solferino, also known as the Battle of the Three Sovereigns, the French army led by Napoleon III defeated the Austrian army under Franz Joseph I in northern Italy.

1861 – Federal gunboats attacked Confederate batteries at Mathias Point, Virginia.

1862 – U.S. intervention saved the British and French at the Dagu forts in China.

1869 – Mary Ellen “Mammy” Pleasant officially became the Vodoo Queen in San Francisco, CA.

1896 – Booker T. Washington became the first African American to receive an honorary MA degree from Howard University.

1910 – The Japanese army invaded Korea.

1913 – Greece and Serbia annulled their alliance with Bulgaria following border disputes over Macedonia and Thrace.

1922 – The American Professional Football Association took the name of The National Football League.

1931 – The Soviet Union and Afghanistan signed a treaty of neutrality.

1940 – France signed an armistice with Italy.

1940 – TV cameras were used for the first time in a political convention as the Republicans convened in Philadelphia, PA.

1941 – U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt pledged all possible support to the Soviet Union.

1947 – Kenneth Arnold reported seeing flying saucers over Mt. Rainier, Washington.

1948 – The Soviet Union began the Berlin Blockade.

1955 – Soviet MIG’s down a U.S. Navy patrol plane over the Bering Strait.

1962 – The New York Yankees beat the Detroit Tigers, 9-7, after 22 innings.

1964 – The Federal Trade Commission announced that starting in 1965, cigarette manufactures would be required to include warnings on their packaging about the harmful effects of smoking.

1968 – “Resurrection City,” a shantytown constructed as part of the Poor People’s March on Washington D.C., was closed down by authorities.

1970 – The U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly to repeal the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.

1971 – The National Basketball Association modified its four-year eligibility rule to allow for collegiate hardship cases.

1982 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that no president could be sued for damages connected with actions taken while serving as President of the United States.

1985 – Natalia Solzhenitsyn the wife of exiled, Soviet author Alexander Solzhenitsyn, became a U.S. citizen.

1986 – The Empire State Building was designated a National Historic Landmark.

1997 – The U.S. Air Force released a report titled “The Roswell Report, Case Closed” that dismissed the claims that an alien spacecraft had crashed in Roswell, NM, in 1947.

1998 – AT&T Corp. struck a deal to buy cable TV giant Tele-Communications Inc. for $31.7 billion.

1998 – Walt Disney World Resort admitted its 600-millionth guest.
Disney movies, music and books

2002 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that juries, not judges, must make the decision to give a convicted killer the death penalty.

On June 23, 1972, President Richard Nixon’s advisor, H.R. Haldeman, tells the president to put pressure on the head of the FBI to “stay the hell out of this [Watergate burglary investigation] business.” In essence, Haldeman was telling Nixon to obstruct justice, which is one of the articles Congress threatened to impeach Nixon for in 1974.

Source: history.com for the complete article