On June 16th...

Links will open in a new window.

1216 Pope Innocent III died.

1487 The War of the Roses ended with the Battle of Stoke.

1567 Mary, Queen of Scots, was imprisoned in Lochleven Castle.

1624 Virginia became an English Crown Colony.

1673 King Louis XIV of France and Frederik Willem of Brandenburg signed the Peace of Vossem.

1774 Harrodsburg, Kentucky, was founded.

1779 Spain declared war on Great Britain in support of the American Revolution.

1822 Denmark Vessey led a slave rebellion in South Carolina.

1836 The London Working Men's Association was formed.

1858 William D. Boyce, founder of Boy Scouts of America, was born.
1858 King Gustav V of Sweden was born.

1861 Filipino nationalist and reformist José Rizal was born.

1874 Arthur Meighen, two-time Prime Minister of Canada, was born.

1878 Crawford Williamson Long, the first surgeon to use ether as an anesthetic, died.

1880 The Salvation Army was formed in London, England.

1881 Austria-Hungary and Serbia signed a military treaty.

1883 Panic at the Victoria Hall theater in Sunderland, England, killed 183 children.

1884 The first American roller coaster opened at Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York.

1890 Film comedian Stan Laurel was born.

1893 R. W. Ruckerheim invented Cracker Jack.

1894 Helen Hellwig defeated Aline Terry for the U. S. Women's National Championship.

1897 A treaty annexing the Republic of Hawaii to the United States was signed.

1903 The Ford Motor Company was incorporated.
1903 The Pepsi Cola Company was formed.
1903 Singer Helen Traubel was born.

1904 Eugen Schauman assassinated Nikolai Bobrikov, Governor-General of Finland.

1907 Actor Jack Albertson was born.

1909 Jim Thorpe made his professional baseball pitching debut.

1913 South Africa passed the Native Land Act, restricting the purchase or lease of land by native Africans.

1916 Basketball player Hank Luisetti was born.

1917 James Butwell rode Hourless to victory in the Belmont Stakes.

1920 José López Portillo, President of Mexico, was born.

1921 Bernard W. Rogers, U.S. Army Chief of Staff and NATO Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, was born.

1927 Tommy Armour won the U. S. Golf Open.

1930 Ezra Fitch, of Abercrombie & Fitch, died.

1931 The Harding Memorial was dedicated.

1933 The National Industrial Recovery Act was signed into law.
1933 The U. S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation was created.

1937 Author Erich Segal was born.

1938 Author Joyce Carol Oates was born.

1939 Jazz musician Chick Webb died.

1941 The first federally-owned airport in the United States opened in Washington, D. C.

1943 Actress Joan Van Ark was born.

1945 Wayne D. Wright rode Polynesian to victory in the Preakness Stakes.

1946 Lloyd Mangrum won the U. S. Golf Open.

1951 Ben Hogan won the U. S. Golf Open.
1951 David Gorman rode Counterpoint to victory in the Belmont Stakes.
1951 Boxer Roberto Duran was born.

1952 George A. Papendreou, Prime Minister of Greece, was born.

1955 Actress Laurie Metcalf was born.

1956 Gary Middlecoff won the U. S. Golf Open.
1956 David Erb rode Needles to victory in the Belmont Stakes.

1957 Dick Mayer won the U. S. Golf Open.
1957 Actor Ian Buchanan was born.

1958 A Cruzeiro do Sul Convair hit a tree while landing in a storm near Curitiba, Brazil, killing 21 of the 27 persons aboard.
1958 A Pacific storm sank 21 fishing vessels off Oaxaca State, Mexico, with an estimated death toll of 200.

1959 Actor George Reeves died.

1960 The confederation of Chad, Congo, and Central African Republic as the Union of Central African Republics was announced.
1960 The Alfred Hitchcock movie Psycho was released.

1961 Russian ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev defected.

1963 Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space.
1963 David Ben-Gurion resigned as Prime Minister of Israel.
1963 A Romanian Ilyushin-14 crashed near Tókomlós, Romania, killing all 31 persons aboard.
1963 The driving teazm of Ludovico Scarfiotti and Lorenzo Bandini won the Le Mans Grand Prix.

1964 An earthquake hit Niigata, Yamagata, and Akita prefectures, Japan, killing about 30 persons.
1964 A Continental Trailways bus fell off the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway (in Louisiana); 6 passengers drowned.

1967 The Monterrey International Pop Festival opened in Monterrey, California.
1967 Actor Reginald Denny died.

1968 Lee Trevino won the U. S. Golf Open.

1970 Golfer Phil Mickelson was born.
1970 Football player Brian Piccolo died.

1971 Rapper Tupac Shakur was born.

1974 Hale Irwin won the U. S. Golf Open.

1977 Rocket scientist Wernher von Braun died.

1978 The movie Grease was released.

1979 Terrorists attacked a military academy in Aleppo, Syria, killing some 50 cadets.
1979 Film director Nicholas Ray died.

1980 The U. S. Supreme Court ruled that laboratory-created life forms can be patented.

1983 Pope John Paul II visited Poland.

1985 Andy North won the U. S. Golf Open.
1985 Willie Banks set a triple jump record of 58 feet 11 inches during a meet in Indianapolis, Indiana.

1987 Joe Robbie Stadium opened in Miami, Florida.

1989 The movie Ghostbusters II was released.

1991 Boris Yeltsin was elected President of Russia.
1991 Payne Stewart won the U. S. Golf Open.

1995 The movie Batman Forever was released.
1995 The Disney movie Pocahontas was released.

1996 The Chicao Bulls defeated the Seattle Supersonics for the NBA Championship.
1996 Steve Jones won the U. S. Golf Open.
1996 Sports journalist Mel Allen died.

1997 Guerrillas killed about 50 people in Dairat Labguer, Algeria.

1998 The Detroit Red Wings defeated the Washington Capitals for the Stanley Cup.

2002 Tiger Woods won the U. S. Golf Open.

2008 Tiger Woods won the U. S. Golf Open.

2012 A car bomb killed 32 persons in Baghdad, Iraq.
2012 A bus fell into a gorge in Osmanabad, India, killing 30 persons and injuring 15 others.

2013 Justin Rose won the U. S. Golf Open.

2015 The Golden State Warriors defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers for the NBA Championship.

Questions or comments about this page?

This page was last updated on August 16, 2018.