June 7 is the 158th day of the year (159th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 207 days remaining until the end of the year.
Holidays
- Anniversary of the Memorandum of the Slovak Nation (Slovakia)
- Birthday of Prince Joachim (Denmark)
- Christian feast day:
- Battle of Arica Day (Arica y Parinacota Region, Chile)
- Flag Day (Peru)
- Journalist Day (Argentina)
- Ludi Piscatorii (Roman Empire)
- Sette Giugno (Malta)
- The first day of the Vestalia (Roman Empire)
- Union Dissolution Day (Norway)
History
In 421, Emperor Theodosius II marries Aelia Eudocia. The wedding was celebrated at Constantinople (Byzantine Empire).
In 879, Pope John VIII recognizes the Duchy of Croatia under Duke Branimir as an independent state.
In 1099, First Crusade: The Siege of Jerusalem begins.
In 1420, Troops of the Republic of Venice capture Udine, ending the independence of the Patria del Friuli.
In 1494, Spain and Portugal sign the Treaty of Tordesillas which divides the New World between the two countries.
In 1628, The Petition of Right, a major English constitutional document, is granted the Royal Assent by Charles I and becomes law.
In 1654, Louis XIV is crowned King of France.
In 1692, Port Royal, Jamaica, is hit by a catastrophic earthquake; in just three minutes, 1,600 people are killed and 3,000 are seriously injured.
In 1775, Landmark Day – from this day forward the United Colonies are called the United States.
In 1776, Richard Henry Lee presents the “Lee Resolution” to the Continental Congress. The motion is seconded by John Adams and will lead to the United States Declaration of Independence. (“These United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states”).
In 1788, French Revolution: Day of the Tiles: Civilians in Grenoble toss roof tiles and various objects down upon royal troops.
In 1791, The Bank of the United States — precursor to today’s Federal Reserve Banks — was established…in Philadelphia. Philadelphia would also be the site of the first U-S Mint.
In 1800, David Thompson reaches the mouth of the Saskatchewan River in Manitoba.
In 1810, The newspaper Gazeta de Buenos Ayres is first published in Argentina.
In 1832, Asian cholera reaches Quebec, brought by Irish immigrants, and kills about 6,000 people in Lower Canada.
In 1839, The Hawaiian Declaration of Rights is signed.
In 1861, The Tennessee legislature voted to secede from the Union becoming the last southern state to do so. In February 1861, secessionists in Tennessee’s state government—led by Governor Isham Harris—sought voter approval for a convention to sever ties with the United States, but Tennessee voters rejected the referendum by a 54–46% margin. The strongest opposition to secession came from East Tennessee (which later tried to form a separate Union-aligned state). Following the Confederate attack upon Fort Sumter in April and Lincoln’s call for troops from Tennessee and other states in response, Governor Isham Harris began military mobilization, submitted an ordinance of secession to the General Assembly, and made direct overtures to the Confederate government. The Tennessee legislature ratified an agreement to enter a military league with the Confederate States on May 7, 1861. On June 8, 1861, with people in Middle Tennessee having significantly changed their position, voters approved a second referendum calling for secession, becoming the last state to do so.
In 1862, The United States and the United Kingdom agree in the Lyons–Seward Treaty to suppress the African slave trade.
In 1862, William Bruce Mumford, a retired gambler in New Orleans, became the first U.S. citizen to be tried and hung for treason (for removing and desecrating the American Flag over the New Orleans Mint).
On April 25, 1862, as Union Navy ships approached Confederate New Orleans, Commodore David Farragut ordered two officers to send a message to Mayor John T. Monroe requesting removal of Confederate flags from the local customhouse, mint and city hall and their replacement with U.S. flags. Monroe refused, claiming it was beyond his jurisdiction. On April 26 Capt. Henry W. Morris sent ashore Marines from the USS Pocahontas to raise the U.S. flag over the mint. Morris did so without any order from Farragut, who was still trying to receive an official surrender from the mayor.
As the Marines raised the flag, a number of locals gathered around in anger. The Marines told them that the Pocahontas would fire on anyone attempting to remove the flag. However, a group of seven individuals, including Mumford, decided to remove the flag from the mint. The Pocahontas fired and Mumford was injured by a flying piece of brick. With cheers from local onlookers, he carried the flag to the mayor at city hall, but onlookers tore at it as he walked, reducing it to a stub.
Three days later Union Army Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler, the commander of the Union ground forces, heard about the incident and decided to arrest and punish Mumford. When the Union Army occupied the city on May 1, Mumford was arrested and charged with “high crimes and misdemeanors against the laws of the United States, and the peace and dignity thereof and the Law Martial.” On May 30 he was tried before a military tribunal and convicted, even though there was no clear attempt to determine whether the city was actually occupied when the event occurred.
On June 5 Butler issued the following Special Order No. 70:William B. Mumford, a citizen of New Orleans, having been convicted before a military commission of treason and an overt act thereof, tearing down the United States flag from a public building of the United States, after said flag was placed there by Commodore Farragut, of the United States navy: It is ordered that he be executed according to sentence of said military commission on Saturday, June 7, inst., between the hours of 8 a.m. and 12 a.m. under the directions of the provost-marshal of the District of New Orleans, and for so doing this shall be his sufficient warrant.
On June 7, a little before noon, Mumford was taken to be hanged in the courtyard of the mint itself, a place that Butler had decided “according to the Spanish custom” would be the ideal place. Many people came to the spot, and Mumford was allowed to give a final speech in which he spoke of his patriotism for the Confederacy and his love for what he considered the true meaning of the U.S. flag, a symbol he had fought under in the Seminole and Mexican-American wars.
In 1863, During the French intervention in Mexico, Mexico City is captured by French troops.
In 1864, Abraham Lincoln was nominated for another term as president at his Republican party’s convention in Baltimore.
In 1866, One thousand eight hundred Fenian raiders are repelled back to the United States after they looted and plundered around Saint-Armand and Frelighsburg, Quebec.
In 1880, War of the Pacific: The Battle of Arica, the assault and capture of Morro de Arica (Arica Cape), ends the Campaña del Desierto (Desert Campaign).
In 1892, Benjamin Harrison becomes the first President of the United States to attend a baseball game.
In 1892, Homer Plessy is arrested for refusing to leave his seat in the “whites-only” car of a train; he lost the resulting court case, Plessy v. Ferguson.
In 1892, the Republican National Convention began meeting in Minneapolis. In the days that followed, the delegates nominated President Harrison for re-election and Whitelaw Reid for vice president.
In 1893, Mohandas Gandhi commits his first act of civil disobedience.
In 1899, American Temperance crusader Carrie Nation begins her campaign of vandalizing alcohol-serving establishments by destroying the inventory in a saloon in Kiowa, Kansas.
In 1901, when 10-million dollars was still big money — Andrew Carnegie gave 10-million dollars to universities in Scotland.
In 1905, Norway’s parliament dissolves its union with Sweden. The vote was confirmed by a national plebiscite on August 13 of that year.
In 1906, Cunard Line‘s RMS Lusitania is launched from the John Brown Shipyard, Glasgow (Clydebank), Scotland.
In 1909, Mary Pickford makes her screen debut at the age of 16.
In 1917, World War I: Battle of Messines: Allied soldiers detonate ammonal mines underneath German trenches at Messines Ridge, killing 10,000 German troops.
In 1918, U.S. Marines win name of “Devil Dogs” for fierce fighting in France. According to United States Marine Corps legend, the moniker was used by German soldiers to describe U.S. Marines who fought in the Battle of Belleau Wood in 1918. The Marines fought with such ferocity that they were likened to “Dogs from Hell.” … The term “Devil Dog” has its origins at Belleau Wood. The moniker was used by German soldiers to describe U.S. Marines who fought in the Battle of Belleau Wood in 1918. The Marines fought with such ferocity that they were likened to “Dogs from Hell.” The reports were made by American media and not verified by actual Germans. The “Devil Dogs” nickname for Marines first appeared in newspapers in the United States in April 1918 – about two months before the Battle of Belleau Wood. The LaCrosse Tribune ran a story about the nickname on April 27, 1918, and other newspapers used the story as early as April 14, 1918. The Battle of Belleau Wood began on June 1, 1918. It was in a dispatch from the German front lines to their higher headquarters explaining the current battle conditions that described the fighting abilities of the new, fresh Americans as fighting like “Teufel Hunden” or “Hounds from Hell.”
In 1919, Sette Giugno: Four people are killed in a riot in Malta.
In 1919, N.Y. inaugurates written test for driver’s license applicants.
In 1929, The Lateran Treaty is ratified, bringing Vatican City into existence.
In 1936, The Steel Workers Organizing Committee, a trade union, is founded in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Philip Murray was elected its first president.
In 1938, The Douglas DC-4E makes its first test flight.
In 1938, Second Sino-Japanese War: The Chinese Nationalist government creates the 1938 Yellow River flood to halt Japanese forces. 500,000 to 900,000 civilians are killed.
In 1940, King Haakon VII, Crown Prince Olav and the Norwegian government leaves Tromsø and goes into exile in London. They return exactly five years later
In 1942, World War II: The Battle of Midway ends in American victory.
In 1942, World War II: Aleutian Islands Campaign: Imperial Japanese soldiers begin occupying the American islands of Attu and Kiska, in the Aleutian Islands off Alaska. U.S. forces retook the islands one year later.
In 1944, World War II: The steamer Danae, carrying 350 Cretan Jews and 250 Cretan partisans, is sunk without survivors off the shore of Santorini.
In 1944, World War II: Battle of Normandy: At Ardenne Abbey, members of the SS Division Hitlerjugend massacre 23 Canadian prisoners of war.
In 1946, The United Kingdom’s BBC returns to broadcasting its television service, which has been off air for seven years because of the Second World War.
In 1948, Edvard Beneš resigns as President of Czechoslovakia rather than signing the Ninth-of-May Constitution, making his nation a Communist state.
In 1954, STRATEGIC PLANNING The FORD MOTOR Company appoints a styling team to design their upcoming EDSEL line.
In 1955, Lux Radio Theatre signs off the air permanently. The show launched in New York in 1934, and featured radio adaptations of Broadway shows and popular films.
In 1955, President Dwight Eisenhower became the first to appear on color TV when he gave an address at West Point.
In 1965, The Supreme Court of the United States hands down its decision in Griswold v. Connecticut, effectively legalizing the use of contraception by married couples.
Catherine Roraback’s participation in the Supreme Court case Griswold v. Connecticut began with the case’s predecessor, Poe v. Ullman. In the late 1950s, the 1879 law banning contraceptives in Connecticut became a prominent issue for many women. Planned Parenthood executive director Estelle Griswold realized that the law was out of date and posed medical problems. She and Yale University chief of obstetrics and gynecology, Dr. Charles Buxton, along with Yale School of Law professor Fowler Harper, took the issue to the Supreme Court, with Roraback leading the litigation. Roraback argued that the banning of contraceptives was a medical concern for women and a problem for married couples, and should be overturned. However, the Supreme Court ruled that because the law had never been enforced, it was not a serious issue and voted 5–4 to keep the law in place.
As a result, Griswold and Buxton decided to test whether or not the law would be enforced, and opened a birth control clinic in New Haven. The clinic was shut down almost immediately and Griswold and Buxton were arrested and found guilty of violating the law by providing birth control. The case was taken to court, with Catherine Roraback representing Griswold and Buxton. She took a different approach to this case and argued that the law violated the right to privacy for married couples. During the trial, Roraback continued to argue the right to privacy for married couples. However, after a brief time, it was understood that the Connecticut courts were not going to change their stance on birth control and Roraback would lose the case. The courts valued the moral issues of the law to too great an extent to change. While defending Griswold and Buxton in what was then known to be the Buxton case in the Connecticut Superior Court, Roraback had already begun to file the appeals so that the case would be taken to the United States Supreme Court. Much to Roraback’s belief, the jury ruled against Griswold and Buxton, considering the law necessary for the “preservation of mankind”, a ruling that Roraback found ridiculous. She brought the case to the Supreme Court, where it came to be known as Griswold v. Connecticut.
In 1966, Movie actor RONALD REAGAN wins California’s Republican Primary, sending him up against Gov. PAT BROWN in that fall’s campaign
In 1967, Six-Day War: Israeli soldiers enter Jerusalem.
In 1971, The United States Supreme Court overturns the conviction of Paul Cohen for disturbing the peace, setting the precedent that vulgar writing is protected under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.
In 1971, The Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms Division of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service raids the home of Ken Ballew for illegal possession of hand grenades.
In 1973, Willy Brandt visited Israel, the first visit by a West German leader to the Jewish state.
In 1975, The inaugural Cricket World Cup begins in England.
In 1975, New Hampshire legislators “accidentally” repeal their state laws against homosexuality, courtesy of an ambiguously worded bill concerning rape penalties. It’s not until the local gay press starts trumpeting the bills passage that the lawmakers realize their “error.” Says one pundit, “Gays throughout the nation may well win their freedom through the fault and stupidity of straights.” While the local conservative press pushes for even tougher anti-sodomy laws, the repeal stands.
In 1977, Five hundred million people watch the high day of the Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II begin on television.
In 1977, Anita Bryant leads successful crusade against Miami gay rights law.
In 1981, The Israeli Air Force destroys Iraq‘s Osiraq nuclear reactor during Operation Opera.
In 1982, Priscilla Presley opens Graceland to the public; the bathroom where Elvis Presley died five years earlier is kept off-limits.
In 1988, Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis clinched the Democratic presidential nomination by defeating the Rev. Jesse Jackson in the New Jersey, California, Montana and New Mexico primaries.
In 1989, Surinam Airways Flight 764 crashes on approach to Paramaribo-Zanderij International Airport in Suriname because of pilot error, killing 176 of 187 aboard.
In 1990, Universal Studios Florida opens in Orlando, Florida.
In 1991, Mount Pinatubo erupts, generating an ash column 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) high.
In 1995, The long-range Boeing 777 enters service with United Airlines.
In 2000, The United Nations defines the Blue Line as the border between Israel and Lebanon.
In 2011, United Nations Security Council Resolution 1983 is adopted.
In 2012, United Nations Security Council Resolution 2049 is adopted.
In 2013, A bus catches fire in the Chinese city of Xiamen, killing at least 47 people and injuring more than 34 others.
In 2013, A gunman opens fire at Santa Monica College in Santa Monica, California, after setting a house on fire nearby, killing six people, including the suspect.
In 2014, At least 37 people are killed in an attack in the Democratic Republic of the Congo‘s South Kivu province.
Additional Notes:
In 1990, South African President F.W. de Klerk announced he was lifting a 4-year-old state of emergency in three of the country’s four provinces, with the exception of Natal.
In 1991, A U.S. District Court judge rejected a request by San Francisco TV station KQED for permission to televise the execution of convicted murderer Robert Alton Harris.
In 1991, The government reported the nation’s unemployment rate had worsened to a four-year high of 6.9 percent in May, up three-tenths of a percentage point from April.
In 1992, President Bush, who’d been meeting with British Prime Minister John Major at Camp David, Maryland, voiced confidence he would win re-election, but eagerly embraced the role of underdog, saying, “I do better when I’m coming from behind.
In 1994, President Clinton addressed the French National Assembly, challenging his generation of Allied leaders to strive for greater European unity or face “the grim alternative” of violence like that rending Bosnia.
In 1995, President Clinton vetoed his first bill, striking down a Republican plan to cut $16.4 billion in spending.
In 1996, The Clinton White House acknowledged it had obtained the FBI files of House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s press secretary, former Bush chief of staff James A. Baker III and other appointees from Republican administrations, calling it “an innocent bureaucratic mistake.”
In 1999, The FBI put alleged terrorist mastermind Osama Bin Laden and anti-abortion activist and accused doctor killer James Charles Kopp on the bureau’s list of the Ten Most Wanted fugitives.
In 2000, The United Nations defines the Blue Line as the border between Israel and Lebanon.
War, Crime and Disaster events on June 7th
In 1557, England declared war on France
In 1692, Porte Royale Jamaica slid into harbor after earthquake; 3000 killed.
In 1755, An earthquake hit Persia, today’s Iran, killing 40-thousand people. And on this day in 1733 an earthquake rocked Central American…completely destroying a city in Guatemala. There was a damaging earthquake in southern Italy on this day in 1910…and exactly one year later on this day in 1911, an earthquake in Mexico City killed 63 people.
In 1863, Mexico City is captured by French troops.
In 1866, Irish Fenians raid Pigeon Hill, Quebec.
In 1912, US army tests first machine gun mounted on a plane.
In 1942, Germany Armys march into Sebastopol.
In 1968, Sirhan Sirhan indicted for Bobby Kennedy assassination.
In 1981, Israeli F-15/F-16 military planes destroyed a nuclear power plant in Osirak, Iraq, a plutonium production facility the Israelis charged could have been used to make nuclear weapons.
In 1982, Israeli jets bombed central Beirut while Israeli ground forces captured Beaufort Castle and surrounded the Lebanese city of Sidon.
In 1989, Paramaribo, Suriname: A Surinam Airways DC-8 carrying 174 passengers and nine crew members crashed into the jungle while making a third attempt to land in a thick fog, killing 168 aboard.
In 1998, in a crime that shocked the nation, James Byrd Junior, a 49-year-old black man, was chained to a pickup truck and dragged to his death in Jasper, Texas. (Three white men were arrested; so far, one of them, John William King, has been convicted of murder and sentenced to death.)
In 1999, The FBI put alleged terrorist mastermind Osama Bin Laden and anti-abortion activist and accused doctor killer James Charles Kopp on the bureau’s Ten Most Wanted list. Gunmen killed popular Mexican television host Francisco “Paco” Stanley.
In 2006, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, is killed in an airstrike by the United States Air Force.
Royalty and Religious events on June 7th
In 555, A.D., Vigilius ends his reign as Catholic Pope.
In 1002, Henry II elected King of Germany
In 1099, the Christian Crusaders reach Jerusalem.
In 1304, Pope Benedict XI excommunicates William de Nogaret for his part in leading the attack on Pope Boniface
In 1329, Death of Robert I “the Bruce,” King of Scotland, of leprosy
In 1394, Death of Anne of Bohemia, Queen to Richard II of England
In 1545, Charles V allies with Pope Paul III
In 1614, second parliament of King James I, dissolves passing no legislation.
In 1628, Charles I of England assents to Parliament’s Petition of Rights
In 1654, Louis XIV was crowned King of France in Rheims.
In 1893, Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy of passive resistance was born when he was thrown off a segregated train in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, where he spent 21 years.
In 1929, the sovereign state of Vatican City came into existence as copies of the Lateran Treaty were exchanged in Rome.
In 1939, King George VI and his wife, Queen Elizabeth, arrived at Niagara Falls, N.Y., from Canada on the first visit to the United States by a reigning British monarch.
In 1963, COVER OF “LIFE” POPE JOHN XXIII (a tribute)
In 1973, COVER OF “ROLLING STONE” JESUS FREAKS
In 1992, a British newspaper reported that Princess Diana, in despair over her marriage to Prince Charles, made five attempts at suicide and has suffered from depression-linked illnesses.
Human Achievement and Science events on June 7th
In 1498, Columbus leaves on his third voyage
In 1576, Frobisher sails in search of the Northwest Passage
In 1769, according to Kentucky’s Historical Society, frontiersman Daniel Boone first began to explore the present-day Bluegrass State of Kentucky.
In 1870, Thomas S. Hall patents the automatic electric block railroad signal system.
In 1887, Tolbert Lanston patents the monotype typesetting machine.
In 1892, J. F. Palmer of Chicago, Illinois is granted the first bicycle tire patent. Not quite a steel belted radial for bikes, but a lot better than what had been called a tire, to be sure.
In 1896, G Harpo & F Samuelson leave NY to row the Atlantic (takes 54 days).
In 1914, the first vessel, the Alliance, passes through the Panama Canal.
In 1924, George Leigh-Mallory disappeared 775 ft. from Everest’s summit.
In 1938, the first Boeing 314 Clipper “Flying Boat” is flown by Eddie Allen.
In 1954, the first microbiology laboratory was dedicated in New Brunswick, New Jersey.
In 1962, NASA civilian test pilot Joseph A Walker takes X-15 to 31,580 m.
In 1965, Gemini 4 completes 62 orbits and returns to Earth.
In 1971, Soviet Soyuz 11 crew completes first transfer to orbiting Salyut.
In 1994, Vicki Van Meter of Meadville, Pa., completed a trans-Atlantic flight, landing in Glasgow, Scotland; she’s believed to be the youngest girl to pilot a plane to Europe.
In 1997, an 18-member presidential commission approved a report saying that cloning a human being was “morally unacceptable,” but adding that research using cells of humans and animals should be allowed. Well, there goes D.T.’s chances of getting a clone of Cindy Crawford for a family member. Rats!
Arts and Prose events on June 7th
In 1801, The first booksellers association, American Company of Booksellers, is organized in New York City.
In 1860, the first American “dime novel” is published: “Malaseka, The Indian Wife of the White Hunter,” by Mrs. Ann Stevens.
In 1924, Batman’s parents are killed.
In 1930, NY Times agrees to capitalize the n in “Negro”
In 1965, the Cosmopolitan girl first appears.
