On June 20th...

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1214 The University of Oxford was chartered.

1597 Explorer Willem Barents died.

1633 Lord Cecil Baltimore was granted a charter for what is now Maryland.

1779 The Battle of Stone Ferry (South Carolina) was fought.

1782 Congress adopted the design for the Great Seal of the United States.

1787 Oliver Ellsworth moved at the Federal Convention to call the government the United States.

1789 The Tennis Court Oath, for a new French constitution, was made at Versailles.

1791 King Louis XVI was caught attempting to flee the French Revolution.

1793 Eli Whitney applied for a patent on the cotton gin.

1819 The SS Savannah arrived at Liverpool, England, becoming the first steamship to cross the Atlantic.
1819 Composer Jacques Offenbach was born.

1825 Charles X was crowned King of France.

1837 The world's first postage stamp was issued by Great Britain.
1837 Victoria became Queen of Great Britain.

1840 Samuel F.B. Morse patented the telegraph.

1862 Romanian Prime Minister Barbu Catargiu was assassinated.

1863 West Virginia became the 35th state.

1866 Italy declared war on Austria.

1867 President Andrew Johnson announced the purchase of Alaska from Russia.
1867 Mexican forces led by Porfírio Díaz recaptured Mexico City and ended the French presence in Mexico.

1874 The first U.S. Lifesaving Medal was awarded, to Lucian Clemons.

1876 Mexican leader Antonio López de Santa Anna died.

1893 Lizzie Borden was acquitted of the murders of her parents.

1895 Caroline Willard Baldwin became the first woman to earn a PhD from an American university (Cornell).
1895 Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Honduras formed a confederation.

1901 Charlotte Manye became the first African-born person to graduate from an American college (Wilberforce University).

1902 Illustrator Henry Worrall died.

1905 Playwright Lillian Hellman was born.

1909 Actor Erroll Flynn was born.

1910 "Krazy Kat" comic strip by George Herriman debuted in the New York Journal.

1911 The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was incorporated in New York.

1924 Guitarist Chet Atkins was born.
1924 War hero-turned-actor Audie Murphy was born.

1926 Mordecai W. Johnson became the first black president of Howard University.

1930 Bobby Jones won the British Golf Open.
1930 Astronaut Charles "Pete" Conrad was born.

1931 Actress Olympia Dukakis was born.
1931 Actor Martin Landau was born.

1933 Actor Danny Aiello was born.

1935 Football player Len Dawson was born.

1940 Joe Louis TKO'd Arturo Godoy in 8 rounds for the heavyweight boxing title.

1941 German astronaut Ulf Merbold was born.

1942 Singer Brian Wilson was born.

1943 The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) was founded in Chicago, Illinois.

1944 U.S. forces defeated Japanese forces in the Battle of the Philippine Sea.
1944 The Central Intelligence Agency was chartered by the U. S. Congress.

1945 Singer Anne Murphy was born.

1946 Television personality Bob Vila was born.

1947 Mobster Bugsy Siegel was murdered in Las Vegas, Nevada.

1948 "Toast of the Town," hosted by Ed Sullivan, premiered on CBS-TV.
1948 The Deutsche Mark was introduced in West Germany.

1949 Singer Lionel Richie was born.

1952 Actor John Goodman was born.

1954 Bassist Michael Anthony was born.

1960 Floyd Patterson knocked out Ingemar Johansson to become the first man ever to regain the world heavyweight boxing championship.
1960 The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Civil Rights Commission has the power to subpoena voting registrars and compel them to testify without giving the names of persons charging voting irregularities.
1960 Senegal and the Sudanese Republic attained independence from France as the Federation of Mali.

1964 Ken Venturi won the U. S. Open golf tournament.

1967 Muhammad Ali was convicted of refusing induction into the armed services.
1967 Actress Nicole Kidman was born.

1969 A constitutional referendum on declaring Rhodesia a republic was approved by 72% of the voting population.

1973 Juan Perón returned from exile to Argentina.

1974 The film Chinatown was released.

1975 The film Jaws was released.

1977 Oil first entered the Trans-Alaska Pipeline.

1980 Roberto Duran took the WBC welterweight title from Sugar Ray Leonard by unanimous decision at Olympic Stadium in Montreal, Canada.

1987 New Zealand beat France 29-9 to win the first Rugby World Cup.

1988 The U.S. Supreme Court upheld a law that made it illegal for private clubs to discriminate against women and minorities.
1988 The government of Haiti was overthrown by a coup led by Henri Namphy.

1991 The German parliament voted to move the capital from Bonn back to Berlin.

1993 The Chicago Bulls defeated the Phoenix Suns to win the NBA Championship.

2005 Jack St. Clair Kilby, inventor of the integrated circuit, died.

2013 The Miami Heat defeated the San Antonio Spurs to win the NBA Championship.

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This page was last updated on June 19, 2018.