On June 15th...

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923 King Robert I of France was killed and King Charles the Simple was arrested at the Battle of Soissons.

1184 King Magnus V Erlingsson of Norway was killed in the Battle of Fimreite.

1215 King John granted the Magna Carta.

1219 According to legend, the Danish flag (the Dannebrog) fell from the sky during the Battle of Lyndanisse.

1246 Duke Frederick II died, ending the Babenberg Dynasty in Austria.

1590 Pope Leo X threatened to excommunicate Martin Luther.

1626 King Charles I disbanded the English Parliament.

1667 The first fully documented human blood transfusion was performed on a 15-year-old boy by Dr. Jean-Baptiste Denys.

1775 George Washington was appointed Commander in Chief of the Continental Army.

1785 Two French balloonists died in the world's first fatal aviation accident.

1802 Toussaint L'Ouverture left Haiti, as a prisoner on the French ship Héros.

1804 The 12th Amendment, changing how the President and Vice-President are elected, was ratified.

1808 Joseph Bonaparte became King of Spain.

1836 Arkansas became the 25th state.

1843 Composer Edvard Grieg was born.

1844 Charles Goodyear was granted a patent for rubber vulcanization.

1846 The Oregon Treaty setting the U.S.-Canada border at 49°N was signed.

1849 James Knox Polk, 11th President of the United States, died.

1851 Baltimore dairyman Jacob Fussell established the first ice cream factory.

1859 The "Pig War" between U. S. and British/Canadian settlers in the Oregon Treaty began.

1860 The first white settlement in Idaho was founded, at Franklin.

1861 Singer Ernestine Schumann-Heink was born.

1864 Robert E. Lee's home in Arlington, Virginia, became a military cemetery.
1864 The U. S. Congress passed legislation equalizing pay for black soldiers.

1869 Celluloid was patented by John Wesley Hyatt.

1871 Phoebe Couzins became the first woman graduate of a U. S. collegiate law school.

1876 Sara Spencer became the first woman to address a U. S. presidential nominating convention.
1876 Tsunamis spawned by an earthquake killed 28,000 people along the northeastern coast of Japan.

1877 Henry Ossian Flipper became the first African-American to graduate from West Point Military Academy.

1888 Wilhelm II became Emperor of Germany.
1888 Bertha Townsend defeated Ellen Hansell 6-3, 6-5 to win the U. S. Women's National Championship.

1889 Bertha Townsend defeated Lida Vorhees 7-5, 6-2 to win the U. S. Women's National Championship.

1894 Composer Robert Russell Bennett was born.

1896 A tsunami struck a Shinto festival on the beach at Sanriku, Japan, killing 27,000 people, injuring 9,000, and destroying 13,000 homes.

1898 J. Lindsay Almond, Jr., Governor of Virginia, was born.

1901 Willie Anderson won the U. S. Golf Open.

1902 Corsicana defeated Texarkana by a score of 51-3 for the most lopsided Minor League Baseball game ever played.

1903 The Serbian Assembly elected Prince Peter Karageorgevich king.

1904 The side-wheeler General Slocum burned in the East River off New York, New York, killing 1,031 persons.

1906 James Braid won the British Golf Open.

1911 Tabulating Computing Recording Corporation (now IBM) was incorporated.

1912 Mary Browne defeated Eleonara Sears 6-4, 6-2 to win the U. S. National Women's Championship.

1915 The U. S. government minted the first $50 gold pieces, for the Panama Pacific Expo.

1919 The first non-stop transatlantic flight landed in Ireland.

1920 Black circus workers Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson, and Isaac McGhie were taken from a jail and lunched by a white mob in Duluth, Minnesota.

1921 Bessie Coleman reached France as the first black American pilot.

1923 Arthur Havers won the British Golf Open.
1923 Alexander Stamboeliski, Premier of Bulgaria, died.

1924 Native Americans were proclaimed U. S. citizens.
1924 J. Edgar Hoover became Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

1943 The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) was formed.

1947 Lew Worsham won the U. S. Golf Open.

1953 The New York City Transit Authority was established.

1957 Bill Shoemaker rode Gallant Man to victory in the Belmont Stakes.

1963 Eddie Perkins outpointed Roberto Cruz in Manila, Philippines, to capture the world junior welterweight boxing title vacated by the retirement of Dulio Loi.

1964 The U. S. Supreme Court ruled that states must apportion their legislatures on a basis of equal population of legislative districts.

1969 More than 50 persons were killed and 175 injured when a new restaurant collapsed in Los Angeles de San Rafael, Spain.
1969 Orville Moody won the U. S. Open Golf Tournament.
1969 "Hee Haw" premiered on CBS-TV.

1970 Shirley Englehorn won the LPGA Championship.

1972 Rock fall inside France's Vierzy Tunnel caused two trains to crash, killing 107 persons.

1977 Spain held its first free elections since 1936.

1978 King Hussein of Jordan married Elizabeth Halaby, an American woman 16 years his junior.
1978 Vladimir Kovalenok and Aleksandr Ivanchenkov arrived at the Soviet Salyut 6 space station.

1980 Jack Nicklaus won the U. S. Golf Open.

1982 The U. S. Supreme Court ruled that all children, regardless of citizenship, are entitled to a public education.

1983 The U. S. Supreme Court struck down state and local restrictions on abortion.

1984 Composer Meredith Willson died.

1985 Pinklon Thomas KO'd Mike Weaver in the 9th round for the heavyweight boxing title.

1986 Ray Flood won the U. S. Golf Open.

1987 Michael Spinks TKO'd Gerry Cooney in the 5th round for the heavyweight boxing title.

1989 Actor Victor French died.

1991 One of the most explosive eruptions in recorded history occurred at Mount Pinatubo, in the Philippines.

1993 John B. Connally, U. S. Secretary of the Navy, Governor of Texas, and Secretary of the Treasury, died.

1996 An IRA bomb wrecked the city center of Manchester, England, and injured 200 people.
1996 Singer Ella Fitzgerald died.

1997 Ernie Els won the U. S. Golf Open.

2001 The Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Philadelphia 76ers for the NBA Championship.

2002 Near-earth asteroid 2002 MN missed the Earth by 75,000 miles.

2003 The San Antonio Spurs defeated the New Jersey Nets for the NBA Championship.
2003 Jim Furyk won the U. S. Golf Open.
2003 Actor Hume Cronyn died.

2004 The Detroit Pistons defeated the Los Angeles Lakers for the NBA Championship.

2011 The Boston Bruins defeated the Vancouver Canucks for the Stanley Cup.

2014 Martin Kaymer won the U. S. Golf Open.
2014 The San Antonio Spurs defeated the Miami Heat for the NBA Championship.
2014 Radio personality Casey Kasem died.

2015 The Chicago Blackhawks defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning for the Stanley Cup.

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This page was last updated on June 15, 2018.