This Day In History - June 16 363 – Emperor Julian marches back up the Tigris and burns his fleet of supply ships. During the withdrawal Roman forces suffering several attacks from the Persians. 1487 – Battle of Stoke Field, the final engagement of the Wars of the Roses. 1586 – Mary, Queen of Scots, recognizes Philip II of Spain as her heir and successor. 1745 – British troops take Cape Breton Island, which is now part of Nova Scotia, Canada. 1745 – War of the Austrian Succession: New England colonial troops under the command of William Pepperrell capture the French Fortress of Louisbourg in Louisbourg, Nova Scotia (Old Style). 1755 – French and Indian War: the French surrender Fort Beauséjour to the British, leading to the expulsion of the Acadians. 1779 – Spain declares war on the Kingdom of Great Britain, and the Great Siege of Gibraltar begins. 1795 – First Battle of Groix otherwise known as Cornwallis Retreat. 1815 – Battle of Ligny and Battle of Quatre Bras, two days before the Battle of Waterloo. 1816 – Lord Byron reads Fantasmagoriana to his four house guests at the Villa Diodati, Percy Shelley, Mary Shelley, Claire Clairmont, and John Polidori, and inspires his challenge that each guest write a ghost story, which culminated in Mary Shelley writing the novel Frankenstein, John Polidori writing the short story The Vampyre, and Byron writing the poem Darkness. 1858 – Abraham Lincoln delivers his House Divided speech in Springfield, Illinois. 1884 – The first purpose-built roller coaster, LaMarcus Adna Thompsons Switchback Railway, opens in New Yorks Coney Island amusement park. 1897 – A treaty annexing the Republic of Hawaii to the United States is signed; the Republic would not be dissolved until a year later. 1903 – The Ford Motor Company is incorporated. 1903 – Roald Amundsen commences the first east-west navigation of the Northwest Passage, leaving Oslo, Norway. 1904 – Irish author James Joyce begins a relationship with Nora Barnacle and subsequently uses the date to set the actions for his novel Ulysses; this date is now traditionally called Bloomsday. 1911 – IBM founded as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company in Endicott, New York. 1922 – General election in the Irish Free State: the pro-Treaty Sinn Féin win a large majority. 1933 – The National Industrial Recovery Act is passed. 1940 – World War II: Marshal Henri Philippe Pétain becomes Chief of State of Vichy France (Chef de lÉtat Français). 1944 – At age 14, George Junius Stinney, Jr. becomes the youngest person executed in the United States in the 20th century. 1955 – In a futile effort to topple President Juan Perón, rogue aircraft pilots of the Argentine Navy drop several bombs upon an unarmed crowd demonstrating in favor of Perón in Buenos Aires, killing 364 and injuring at least 800. At the same time on the ground, some forces soldiers attempt to stage a coup but are suppressed by loyal forces. 1961 – Rudolf Nureyev defects from the Soviet Union. 1981 – U.S. President Ronald Reagan awards the Congressional Gold Medal to Ken Taylor, Canadas former ambassador to Iran, for helping six Americans escape from Iran during the hostage crisis of 1979-81; he is the first foreign citizen bestowed the honor. Births: 1829 – Geronimo, American tribal leader (d. 1909) 1951 – Roberto Durán, Panamanian boxer Deaths: 1881 – Marie Laveau, American voodoo practitioner (b. 1801) 1959 – George Reeves, American actor and director (b. 1914) 1970 – Brian Piccolo, American football player (b. 1943) 1977 – Wernher von Braun, German-American engineer (b. 1912) 1982 – James Honeyman-Scott, English guitarist and songwriter (The Pretenders) (b. 1956) 1999 – Screaming Lord Sutch, English singer (b. 1940)
Posted on: Mon, 16 Jun 2014 05:44:09 +0000
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