On June 13th...

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1774 Rhode Island became the first American colony to prohibit importation of slaves.

1777 Leonard Norcross patented a submarine diving suit.
1777 Marquis de Lafayette landed in America.

1786 American General Winfield Scott was born.

1792 King Louis XVI dismissed the French government.

1798 Mission San Luis Rey de Francia was founded in California.

1854 Inventor Charles Algernon Parsons was born.

1865 Poet and playwright William Butler Yeats was born.

1866 The U.S. House of Representatives passed the 14th Amendment.

1875 Miriam Ferguson, the second woman to be elected Governor of a U.S. state, was born.

1886 Fire destroyed nearly 1,000 buildings in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
1886 King Ludwig II of Bavaria was found in Lake Starnberg, south of Munich.

1888 The U.S. Department of Labor was created by Congress.

1892 Actor Basil Rathbone was born.

1898 The Yukon Territory was organized.

1899 Composer Carlos Chávez was born.

1901 Swedish Prime Minister Tage Erlander was born.

1903 Football player Red Grange was born.

1911 Ismaili Prince Aly Khan was born.

1913 Game show host and producer Ralph Edwards was born.

1917 A German air raid on London, England, killed 162 persons, including 46 children, and injured 432.

1925 Charles Jenkins demonstrated the transmission of synchronized pictures and sound (television).

1926 Comedian Paul Lynde was born.

1927 Aviator Charles Lindbergh was honored by New York City with what was at that time the largest ticker tape parade ever held.

1930 A hail storm killed 22 persons in Siatista, Greece.

1933 The German Secret State Police (Gestapo - Geheime Staats Polizei) was established by Hermann Göring.
1933 The first sodium vapor lamps were installed in Schenectady, New York.
1933 The Federal Home Owners Loan Corporation was authorized.

1935 Artist Christo was born.

1942 Germany launched its first V-2 rocket.
1942 The U.S. Office of Strategic Services was created.

1943 Actor Malcolm McDowell was born.

1946 King Umberto II of Italy abdicated.

1951 Actor Richard Thomas was born.

1953 Actor Tim Allen was born.

1956 The last British troops left the Suez Canal Zone in Egypt.

1960 Eighteen school children, a teacher, and two boatmen drowned when an excursion boat capsized in the Dunajec River of Poland.

1961 A commuter train collision near Stuttgart, West Germany, killed 35 persons.

1962 The last new episode of "The Bob Newhart Show" aired on NBC-TV.
1962 Actress Ally Sheedy was born.

1966 The U.S. Supreme Court ruled "that criminal suspects must be informed of their right to consult with an attorney and of their right against self-incrimination prior to questioning by police."

1967 Thurgood Marshall was nominated as the first black Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

1971 The New York Times began publishing the "Pentagon Papers."

1977 Tom C. Clark, former Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, died.

1978 Israeli Defense Forces withdrew from Lebanon.

1981 Tom Snyder interviewed Charles Manson.

1985 The film Prizzi's Honor was released.

1986 Actresses Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen were born.
1986 Jazz clarinetist Benny Goodman died.

1987 Actress Geraldine Page died.

1991 A spectator was killed by lightning at the U.S. Open golf tournament.

1993 Astronaut Deke Slayton died.

1994 A Jury in Anchorage, Alaska, blamed recklessness by Exxon and Captain Joseph Hazelwood for the Exxon Valdez oil spill.

1996 Montana Freemen surrendered, ending an 81-day stand-off with FBI agents.

1997 Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh was sentenced to death.

2000 South Korean President Kim Dae Jung met North Korean leader Kim Jong-il for the beginning of the first ever inter-Korea summit, in the northern capital of Pyongyang.
2000 Italy pardoned Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turkish gunman who tried to assassinate Pope John Paul II in 1981.

2002 The United States withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

2003 Roger Clemens became the only Major League pitcher to get his 400th win and 4,000th strike-out in the same game.

2005 A jury in Santa Maria, California, acquited Michael Jackson of molesting 13-year-old Gavin Arvizo at his Neverland Ranch.

2006 Charles James Haughey, three-time Prime Minister of Ireland, died.

2008 Meet the Press correspondent Tim Russert died.

2010 Singer Jimmy Dean died.

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This page was last updated on December 21, 2017.