On June 11th...

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1488 King James III of Scotland died.

1509 King Henry VIII of England married Catherine of Aragon.

1557 King João III of Portugal died.

1578 England granted Sir Humphrey Gilbert a patent to explore and colonize North America.

1685 James Scott, Duke of Monmouth, rebelled against King James II.

1727 King George I of England died.

1770 Captain James Cook discovered the Great Barrier Reef.

1775 The Battle of Machias, the first naval engagement of the American Revolutionary War, was fought.

1776 The Continental Congress appointed a committee to draw up a declaration of independence.
1776 Painter John Constable was born.

1793 The firstAmerican stove patent was granted to Robert Haeterick.

1811 William Eaton, American soldier and diplomat, died.

1825 American politician Daniel D. Tompkins died.

1837 The Broad Street Riot took place in Boston, Massachusetts.

1838 Iowa Territory was organized.

1847 Arctic explorer John Franklin died while trying to sail through the Northwest Passage.

1859 The Comstock silver lode was discovered.

1864 Composer Richard Strauss was born.

1878 The District of Columbia was given a new government by the U. S. Congress (3 commissioners appointed by the President).

1879 Crown Prince Willem of Orange died.

1880 Jeannette Rankin, the first woman to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, was born.

1888 Anarchist Bartolomeo Vanzetti was born.

1894 Kiichiro Toyoda, founder of Toyota, was born.

1895 Charles E. Duryea patented a gasoline-powered automobile.
1895 Nikolai Bulganin, Premier of the Soviet Union, was born.

1898 Willie Simms rode Sly Fox to victory in the Preakness Stakes.

1901 The Cook Islands were annexed and made part of New Zealand.

1903 King Alexander I and Queen Draga of Serbia were assassinated by army officers during a coup.
1903 Harry Vardon won the British Golf Open.

1909 J. H. Taylor won the British Golf Open.

1910 Oceanographer Jacques Cousteau was born.

1911 The Universal Negro Improvement Association was founded by Marcus Garvey.
1911 Temperance advocate Carry Nation died.

1913 Football coach Vince Lombardi was born.

1917 King Constantine I of Greece abdicated under pressure from Allied occupiers.

1919 Walter Hagen won the U. S. Golf Open.
1919 J. Lotus rode Sir Barton to victory in the Belmont Stakes.

1921 Brazil granyed suffrage to women.
1921 Earl Sande rode Grey Lag to victory in the Belmont Stakes.

1927 Earl Sande rode Chance Shot to victory in the Belmont Stakes.

1928 Alfred Hitchcock's first film, Case of Jonathan Drew, was released.

1933 Actor Gene Wilder was born.

1935 Edwin Armstrong gave the first public demonstration of FM broadcasting in the United States, at Alpine, New Jersey.

1936 The Presbyterian Church of America was founded at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1936 Actor Chad Everett was born.

1937 The Marx Brothers film A Day at the Races was released.

1938 A magnitude 5.0 earthquake killed 2 persons in Belgium.
1938 Ralph Guldahl won the U. S. Golf Open.

1939 Auto racer Jackie Stewart was born.

1941 Daniel Carter Beard, founder of the Boy Scouts of America, died.

1942 A German army was defeated at El-Alamein, North Africa.

1944 The battleship USS Missouri was commissioned.

1945 Actress Adrienne Barbeau was born.

1949 Cary Middlecoff won the U. S. Golf Open.
1949 Ted Atkinson rode Capot to victory in the Belmont Stakes.
1949 ZZ Top drummer Frank Beard was born.

1951 Mozambique became an overseas province of Portugal.

1953 The last new episode of "Amos 'n Andy" aired on CBS-TV.

1955 A car lost control during the 24 Hours Le Mans race and crashed into stands filled with spectators, killing 82 people.
1955 Eddie Arcaro rode Nashua to victory in the Belmont Stakes.

1956 Football player Joe Montana was born.

1957 A train crash in Vroman, Colorado, killed 12 persons.

1959 U. S. Postmaster General Arthur E. Summerfield banned the mailing of D. H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover.
1959 Charlie Sifford became the first black to play in a U. S. Golf Open.
1959 Actor Hugh Laurie was born.

1960 Bill Hartack rode Celtic Ash to victory in the Belmont Stakes.

1962 Three princes formed a coalition government in Laos.
1962 Forty-one persons, most of them children, were killed and another 81 injured when a school bus was hit by a commuter train on a grade crossing in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
1962 A bus was hit by a passenger train at Jaipur, India, killing 25 persons and injuring 23 others.

1963 Thich Quang Duc, a Buddhist monk, set himself on fire in the middle of a busy street in Saigon, South Vietnam.
1963 Two black students were admitted to Alabama State University at Tuscaloosa.
1963 Greek Premier Constantine Caramanlis resigned.

1965 José Mendes Cabeçadas, former President and Prime Minister of Portugal, died.

1967 Israel and Syria agreed to observe the UN mediated cease-fire ending six days of Israeli fighting against Egypt, Jordan and Syrian forces.
1967 National Guardsmen were called out to quell race riots in Tampa, Florida, and Cincinnati, Ohio.
1967 A. J.Foyt and Dan Gurney won the Le Mans Grand Prix.

1969 David Bowie released Space Oddity.
1969 John L. Lewis, president of the United Mine Workers, died.

1972 Kathy Ahern won the LPGA Championship.

1975 The first oil was pumped from the North Sea oil field.

1977 Jean Cruguet rode Seattle Slew to victory in the Belmont Stakes.

1978 Joseph Freeman Jr. became the first black priest in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
1978 The film Grease was released.
1978 Nancy Lopez won the LPGA Championship.
1978 Christa Tybus set a record by keeping a hula-hoop going for 24½ hours.

1979 Actor John Wayne died.

1981 A magnitude 6.9 earthquake killed more than 2,000 people in Golbaf, Iran.

1982 E.T., the Extra-Terrestrial was released.

1983 Laffit Pincay, Jr., rode Caveat to victory in the Belmont Stakes.

1985 The Russian space probe Vega 1 landed on Venus.

1988 Eddie Delahoussaye rode Risen Star to victory in the Belmont Stakes.
1988 Actor Nathan Cook died.
1988 Giuseppe Saragat, former President of Italy, died.

1990 The U. S. Supreme Court ruled that a law prohibiting desecration of the U.S. flag was unconstitutional.

1992 Major League Baseball owners approved the sale of the Seattle Mariners to a Japanese group.

1993 Actor Ray Sharkey died.

1994 A drunken police officer shot 7 persons to death in Falun, Sweden.
1994 Pat Day rode Tabasco Cat to victory in the Belmont Stakes.
1994 Animator Jack Hannah died.

1998 Author Leo Buscaglia died.

1999 Actor DeForest Kelley died.

2001 Timothy McVeigh was executed by lethal injection for his role in the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.

2002 "American Idol" premiered on Fox-TV.

2003 Television journalist David Brinkley died.

2005 Jeremy Rose rode Afleet Alex to victory in the Belmont Stakes.

2006 Se Ri Pak won the LPGA Championship.

2011 Jose Valdivia, Jr., rode Ruler On Ice to victory in the Belmont Stakes.

2012 Attacks on two villages in northern Nigeria killed 23 persons.
2012 The Los Angeles Kings defeated the New Jersey Devils for the Stanley Cup.

2014 Actress Ruby Dee died.

2016 Irad Ortiz, Jr., rode Creator to victory in the Belmont Stakes.

2017 The Pittsburgh Pirates defeated the Nashville Preadtors for the Stanley Cup.

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This page was last updated on June 11, 2018.