On this day thread

[Darran]

https://twitter.com/bbcarchive/status/1402947148078063619?s=21

 

[Muteswan]

10th June
323BC Alexander the Great, Macedonian king, dies from either fever or excessive wine at 32, (or the 11th June).
1692 The first victim of the Salem witch trials, Bridget Bishop, is hanged for witchcraft in the colony of Massachusetts.
1752 Benjamin Franklin tests the lightning conductor with his kite-flying experiment.
1786 A landslide dam on the Dadu River caused by earthquake ten days earlier collapses, killing 100,000 in the Sichuan province of China.
1793 1st public zoo opens in Paris.
1829 The Oxford team won the first-ever Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race.
1857 Britain passes an act putting Canada on the decimal currency system.
1910 Howlin' Wolf [Chester Arthur Burnett], American blues musician (Smokestack Lightnin', Killing Floor), born in White Station, Mississippi (d. 1976).
1864 Cricket authorities in England legalised over-arm bowling.
1921 Philip Mountbatten, Duke of Edinburgh and consort of Great Britain's Elizabeth II, born in Mon Repos, Corfu, Greece (d. 2021)
1922 Judy Garland [Frances Gumm], American actress (The Wizard of Oz; Meet Me In St. Louis; Easter Parade), and singer ("Over The Rainbow"), born in Grand Rapids, Minnesota (d. 1969).
1933 Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker flip their car into a ravine. Parker suffers serious third degree burns from the accident which would affect her for the rest of her life.
1940 World War II: Italy officially declared war on Britain and France.
1955 1st separation of virus into component parts reported.
1965 Elizabeth Hurley, English actress (Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, Christabel) and model, born in Basingstoke, England.
1970 Born this day in Swansea,Chris Coleman, former Wales football international and manager.
1972 Elvis Presley records a live album at NYC's Madison Square Garden.
1972 The Rolling Stones double album Exile on Main Street went to No.1 on the UK chart.
1985 Coca-Cola announces they're bringing back their 99-year-old formula.
1986 Patrick Joseph Magee was found guilty of planting the Brighton bomb which had killed five people two years previously.
1996 Intel releases 200 mhz pentium chip.
2000 Brian Statham, English cricket fast bowler (70 Tests, 252 wickets @ 24.84), dies at 69.
2000 London's new Millennium Bridge was closed for safety checks after large crowds caused it to sway violently.
2003 The Spirit Rover is launched, beginning NASA's Mars Exploration Rover mission.
2004 Ray Charles [Robinson], American singer and pianist who pioneered soul music (Georgia on My Mind, Mess Around), dies at 73

 

[Muteswan]

11th June
1509 Eighteen year old King Henry VIII married Catherine of Aragon, the first of his six wives.
1770 Captain James Cook discovers Great Barrier Reef off Australia.
1776 John Constable, English landscape painter was born.
1870 1st-stone Amstel Brewery opens in Amsterdam.
1933 Gene Wilder [Jerome Silberman], American actor (Blazing Saddles, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory), born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (d. 2016).
1937 Marx Brothers' "A Day At The Races", directed by Sam Wood, is released in the US.
1952 Opening batsman Len Hutton becomes the 1st professional cricketer to captain England in Tests.
1955 Eighty three people were killed and at least 100 were injured after an Austin-Healey and a Mercedes-Benz collided at the 24 Hours Le Mans race.
1959 The Hovercraft, invented by Christopher Cockerell was officially demonstrated for the first time, at Southampton.
1962 Brothers John and Clarence Anglin and fellow inmate Frank Morris escape from Alcatraz Island prison, the only ones to do so.
1963 Buddhist monk Thích Quảng Đức sets fire to himself at a Saigon intersection, creating one of the Vietnam War's most iconic images.
1966 "Paint It Black" by The Rolling Stones peaks at #1 in the US.
1966 "Sloop John B" by The Beach Boys hits #1 in UK.
1969 Peter Dinklage, American actor (Games of Thrones), born in Morristown, New Jersey.
1975 1st oil pumped from North Sea oilfield.
1976 Australian band AC/DC begin their 1st headline tour of Britain.
1979 John Wayne [Marion Mitchell Morrison], American actor (Green Berets, True Grit), dies of stomach cancer at 72.
1979 Chuck Berry pleads guilty to income tax evasion, sentenced to 4 months.
1982 "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial", directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Henry Thomas and Drew Barrymore, is released.
1987 Margaret Thatcher is 1st British Prime Minister in 160 years to win a third consecutive term.
1991 Microsoft releases MS DOS 5.0.
1993 Flash flooding in Llandudno resulted in 500 residents being evacuated. Streets were left under several feet of water, with at least 1,000 properties damaged. Patients at the town's general hospital had to be evacuated to higher wards when a 3ft torrent flowed through the building.
1997 The British House of Commons voted for a total ban on handguns in a free vote.
1999 DeForest Kelley, American actor (Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy-Star Trek), dies of stomach cancer at 79.
2009 The World Health Organization declares H1N1 swine flu to be a global pandemic, the first such incident in over forty years.
2011 Pink Floyd's 1973 album The Dark Side Of The Moon, re-entered the Billboard Album chart at No. 47.
2019 "The New York Times" reveals an estimated 500,000 song titles, including masters of Chuck Berry, Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald, lost in 2008 warehouse fire on Universal backlot in Los Angeles.
2021 European Championships start with Turkey v Italy.

 

[Muteswan]

12th June
1665 New Amsterdam legally becomes an English colony and renamed New York after English Duke of York.
1889 Seventy eight people were killed and 260 injured, almost a third of them children, in the Armagh rail disaster in Northern Ireland.
1897 Possibly the most severe quake in history strikes Assam, India, Shock waves felt over an area size of Europe (low mortality rate given size of earthquake, 1,500 casualties).
1923 Harry Houdini frees himself from a straight jacket while suspended upside down, 40 feet (12 m) above ground in NYC.
1924 George H. W. Bush, 41st US President (R, 1989-93) and 43rd US Vice President (R, 1981-89), born in Milton, Massachusetts.
1929 Anne Frank, Dutch Diarist and Jewish victim of the Nazi Holocaust (Diary of Anne Frank), born in Frankfurt, Germany (d. 1945).
1941 Armando "Chick" Corea, American jazz-fusion pianist and composer; 23 time Grammy winner (Return To Forever, Delhpi I, Toy Dance), born in Chelsea, Massachusetts (d. 2021).
1944 1st V-1 rocket assault on London.
1948 In his farewell Ashes Tour, Australian cricket batting maestro Don Bradman scores 138 in 1st Test against England at Trent Bridge.
1949 John Wetton, British rock vocalist and bassist (Asia, King Crimson), born in Willington (d. 2017).
1957 Javed Miandad, Pakistani cricket captain (124 Tests, 8,832 runs), born in Karachi, Pakistan.
1963 "Cleopatra" directed by Joseph Mankiewicz and starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton premieres in NYC, then most expensive film ever made.
1964 Nelson Mandela is sentenced to life in prison in South Africa.
1965 Big Bang theory of creation of universe is supported by announcement of discovery of new celestial bodies know as blue galaxies.
1967 "You Only Live Twice", 5th James Bond film starring Sean Connery, screenplay by Roald Dahl, premieres in London.
1973 Coleraine bombings: six Protestant civilians were killed and 33 wounded by a Provisional Irish Republican Army car bomb in Coleraine, County Londonderry.
1976 The Who, The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Little Feat, Outlaws and Streetwalkers all appeared at Swansea City Football Club, Swansea Wales, Tickets cost £4.
1980 Billy Butlin, English holiday camp entrepreneur, died. He opened his first Butlins camp at Skegness on 11th April 1936.
1981 "Raiders of the Lost Ark" (the first Indiana Jones film) directed by Stephen Spielberg, produced by George Lucas, and starring Harrison Ford premieres.
1989 Members of Parliament voted to allow television cameras to broadcast proceedings in the House of Commons.
1994 Nicole Brown Simpson, German-American ex-wife of O.J. Simpson, murdered at 35.
1997 Queen Elizabeth II reopened the Globe Theatre in London. The new theatre was approximately 750 feet (230 m) from the site of Shakespeare's original theatre, built in 1599.
2003 Gregory Peck, American actor (To Kill a Mockingbird, MacArthur), dies of bronchopneumonia at 87.
2012 World Health Organization concludes that diesel exhaust causes cancer.
2015 Zimbabwe discards its own currency, offering an exchange of $1 for 35 quadrillion Zimbabwean dollars.
2018 Singapore Summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump - first time a North Korean leader and an incumbent US President have ever met.
2019 Violent protests in Hong Kong as tens of thousands of protesters block and try to storm government buildings to stop extradition law.
2020 Welsh singer Ricky Valance died at his home in Spain at the age of 84. He became the first Welshman to have a solo UK No.1 hit with the song 'Tell Laura I Love Her' in 1960.
2021 French Open Women's Tennis: Czech doubles specialist Barbora Krejčíková wins her first major singles title 6-1, 2-6, 6-4 over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia.
2021 Wales draw 1-1 with Switzerland at European Championships in Baku.

 

[Muteswan]

13th June
1665 The Great Plague began to take hold, as the official death toll reached 112.
1837 1st Mormon missionaries to British Isles leave Kirtland, Ohio.
1842 Queen Victoria travelled by train for the first time, from Slough to Paddington, accompanied by Prince Albert.
1895 Emile Levassor wins the first automobile race in history the Paris-Bordeaux-Paris, taking 48 hours and 48 minutes (1,178 km).
1920 US Post Office says children cannot be sent by parcel post.
1922 Longest recorded attack of hiccups begins: Charlie Osborne gets the hiccups and continues for 68 years, dies 11 months after it stops.
1931 Jesse Boot, (Boots - the chemist) English pharmacist, drug manufacturer, and philanthropist died.
1933 German Secret State Police (Gestapo - Geheime Staats Polizei) established by Hermann Goering.
1953 Alec Bedser takes 14-99 (7-55 & 7-44) v Australia.
1958 Frank Zappa graduates from Antelope Valley High School in Lancaster, California.
1966 Frank Sinatra was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Strangers in the Night’.
1969 Mick Taylor leaves John Mayall Band and joins The Rolling Stones.
1970 'The Long and Winding Road' became the Beatles' last Number 1 single in the United States.
1970 "In The Summertime" by Mungo Jerry hits #1 in UK.
1975 Peter Frampton played the first of two nights at the Winterland Ballroom, San Francisco, California. Recordings from these two shows were used as part of his No.1 double album 'Frampton Comes Alive'.
1980 UN Security Council calls for South Africa to free Nelson Mandela.
1986 Benny Goodman, American clarinetist and bandleader (King of Swing), dies at 77.
2003 English county cricket teams play the 1st official Twenty20 matches.
2018 Antarctica is melting at an accelerating rate - 200 billion tonnes a year, 3 trillion tonnes in 25 years, in report published in "Nature" journal.
2018 Volkswagen fined €1 billion (£880m) by German prosecutors over diesel emissions scandal.

 

[Muteswan]

14th June
1645 Battle of Naseby, Leicestershire: "New Model Army" under Oliver Cromwell & Thomas Fairfax beat royalists forces of English King Charles I.
1789 Captain William Bligh and his loyal men cast off from HMS Bounty reach Timor, after sailing 5,800 km in a 6-metre launch.
1822 Englishman Charles Babbage proposed an automatic, mechanical calculator (he called it a difference engine). He is considered a 'father of the computer' and is credited with inventing the first mechanical computer that eventually led to more complex designs.
1834 Sandpaper patented by Isaac Fischer Jr, Springfield, Vermont.
1839 First Henley Regatta held (it became the Henley Royal Regatta in 1851).
1847 Robert Bunsen invents the Bunsen burner.
1864 Alois Alzheimer, German psychiatrist and neuropathologist (Alzheimer Disease), born in Marktbreit, Bavaria (d. 1915).
1919 1st nonstop air crossing of Atlantic (Alcock & Brown) leaves Newfoundland.
1928 Ernesto "Che" Guevara, Argentine Marxist revolutionary (Cuban Revolution), author and physician, born in Rosario, Argentina (d. 1967).
1928 Emmeline Pankhurst, British suffragette who formed the Women's Social & Political Union (1903), dies at 69.
1940 Auschwitz concentration camp opens in Nazi controlled Poland with Polish POWs (approx. 3 million would die within its walls).
1944 World War II: After several failed attempts, the British Army abandoned Operation pErCh, its plan to capture the German-occupied town of Caen.
1945 Rod Argent, English rock musician (The Zombies - "She's Not There"; Argent - "Hold Your Head Up"), born in St Albans, Hertfordshire.
1946 John Logie Baird, Scottish inventor and father of the television, dies of a stroke at 57.
1946 Donald Trump, 45th US President (2017-21), real estate tycoon (Trump Towers) and TV personality (The Apprentice), born in NYC, New York.
1949 Alan White, English rock drummer (Yes, Ramshackled), born in Pelton, County Durham, England.
1950 Rowan Williams, 104th Archbishop of Canterbury, born in Ystradgynlais, Glamorgan, Wales.
1953 Elvis Presley graduates from L. C. Humes High School in Memphis, Tennessee.
1962 The European Space Research Organisation is established in Paris - later becoming the European Space Agency.
1969 Steffi Graf, German tennis player (Golden Slam 1988, 22 Grand Slam singles titles), born in Mannheim, Germany.
1982 Argentine forces surrendered at Port Stanley, ending the Falklands War. 255 Britons and 652 Argentines died in the conflict.
1994 Henry Mancini, American composer and conductor (Pink Panther, Moon River), dies at 70.
1995 Irish guitarist Rory Gallagher died after a chest infection set in following a liver transplant.
2002 "The Bourne Identity" directed by Doug Liman and starring Matt Damon is released in the US.
2017 A fire in the 24-storey Grenfell Tower block at North Kensington, West London caused 72 deaths. The fire started accidentally in a fridge-freezer on the fourth floor and the building burned for about 60 hours. The rapid spread of the fire destroyed the building and was thought to have been accelerated by the building's exterior cladding, which at the time was of a common type in widespread use.
2018 21st FIFA World Cup opens at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, Russia
2018 US government confirms 1500 boys being held separated from their parents in Casa Padre, shelter facility for illegal immigrants in a former Walmart in Brownsville, Texas.
2160 Montgomery Edward Scott, (Scottie) Fictional engineer from Star Trek, born in Aberdeen, Scotland.

 

[Muteswan]

15th June
1215 King John agreed to put his royal seal on the Magna Carta, or Great Charter of English liberties, at Runnymede, near Windsor.
1219 Dannebrog is the flag of Denmark and the oldest national flag in the world. According to legend, it fell from the sky during the Battle of Lyndanisse (now Tallinn) in Estonia, and turned the Danes' luck.
1667 1st fully documented human blood transfusion is performed by French physician, Dr. Jean-Baptiste Denys, when a small amount of sheep blood is transfused into a 15-year old boy, who survives the procedure.
1762 Austria uses 1st paper currency.
1844 Charles Goodyear patents the vulcanization of rubber.
1860 British nurse Florence Nightingale, famous for tending British wounded during the Crimean War, opened a school for nurses at St Thomas's Hospital in London.
1878 World's first moving pictures caught on camera (used 12 cameras, each taking 1 picture) done to see if all 4 of a horse's hooves leave the ground.
1896 Tsunami strikes Shinto festival on beach at Sanriku, Japan; 27,000 are killed, 9,000 injured and 13,000 houses destroyed.
1909 Representatives from England, Australia and South Africa met at Lords and formed the Imperial Cricket Conference. It was renamed the International Cricket Conference (ICC) in 1965.
1911 The birth of the Reverend Wilbert Vere Awdry, English Anglican cleric, railway enthusiast, and children's author. He was the creator of Thomas the Tank Engine, the central figure in his acclaimed railway stories.
1911 Tabulating Computing Recording Corporation (IBM) is incorporated.
1916 Boeing Model 1 [B & W Seaplane], the 1st Boeing product, flies for the 1st time.
1919 1st nonstop Atlantic flight (Alcock & Brown) lands in Ireland.
1924 J. Edgar Hoover assumes leadership of the FBI.
1924 Ford Motor Company manufactures its 10 millionth automobile.
1940 World War II: France surrenders to NAZI Germany, German troops occupy Paris.
1946 (Neville) "Noddy" Holder, British rock vocalist, songwriter, and guitarist (Slade - "Cum On Feel The Noize"), born in Walsall, England.
1948 In his farewell Ashes Tour, Don Bradman is out for a duck (0) in the Australian 2nd innings, but tourists win 1st Test against England by 8 wickets at Nottingham.
1964 Courteney Cox, American actress (Monica Geller on Friends), born in Birmingham, Alabama.
1964 Michael Laudrup, Danish footballer was born.
1968 John "Wes" Montgomery, American influential jazz guitarist and Grammy Award winner, dies of a heart attack at 45.
1973 Motown Records released ‘Let's Get It On’ by Marvin Gaye.
1974 Novelty song "The Streak" by Ray Stevens hits #1 on UK pop chart.
1974 "All the President's Men" by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward detailing their Watergate investigation is published by Simon and Schuster in the US.
1977 Spain's 1st free elections since 1936 (41 years).
1982 Art Pepper, American jazz alto saxophonist and clarinetist, dies of a stroke at 56.
1983 "Black Adder" TV comedy premieres starring Rowan Atkinson and Tony Robinson and written by Richard Curtis and Rowan Atkinson on BBC1.
1993 James Hunt, English auto racer (Formula 1 World Drivers Champion 1976), dies of a heart attack at 45.
1996 Ella Fitzgerald, American jazz, swing, pop, and blues singer, known as "The First Lady of Song" (Verve "Songbook" series), dies from a stroke at 78.
1996 An IRA bomb, the biggest ever to go off on the British mainland, devastated the centre of Manchester. Miraculously no-one was killed but 200 people were taken to hospital. The explosion caused £100 million worth of damage.
1998 Britain introduced a £2 coin.
2002 Near earth asteroid 2002 MN missed the Earth by 75,000 miles (120,000 km), about one-third of the distance between the Earth and the Moon.
2012 On his birthday, Michael Laudrup was appointed the manager of Premier League club Swansea City on a two-year contract. In his first season in south Wales, he won the League Cup, the first major English trophy in Swansea's 100-year history.
2017 Scotland Yard launches criminal inquiry and British Prime Minister Theresa May announces a public inquiry a day after the Grenfell Tower fire.
2018 Physicist Stephen Hawking's ashes are interred in Westminster Abbey, London, between the remains of Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin.

 

[Muteswan]

16th June
1779 Spain declared war on Britain, and the Great Siege of Gibraltar began.
1784 Holland forbids the wearing of orange clothes.
1824 The RSPCA Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was founded.
1829 Geronimo, Apache leader and resistance fighter, born in No-doyohn Canon, Mexico (d. 1909).
1882 17" hailstones weighing 1.75 lbs fall in Dubuque Iowa. ️
1890 Stan Laurel [Arthur Stanley Jefferson], English comedian (Laurel & Hardy films), born in Ulverston, England (d. 1965).
1903 Ford Motors under Henry Ford incorporates.
1912 Enoch Powell, British Conservative MP and shadow cabinet member infamous for his "Rivers of Blood" speech, born in Birmingham, England (d. 1998).
1915 The foundation of the Women's Institute, regularly referred to as simply the WI.
1927 Tom Graveney, England cricket batsman (79 Tests; top score 258; 732 first class games), born in Riding Mill, Northumberland (d. 2015).
1930 Mixed bathing was permitted for the first time in Hyde Park, London.
1932 Sutcliffe and Holmes make 555 opening cricket stand for Yorks v Essex.
1944 George Stinney, a 14-year-old African-American boy, is wrongfully executed for the murder of two white girls, becoming the youngest person ever executed in 20th-century America.
1958 Yellow ‘No Waiting’ lines were introduced to British streets.
1963 Soviet space mission Vostok 6 is launched with Valentina Tereshkova onboard, who becomes the 1st woman in space.
1967 Pink Floyd released their second single 'See Emily Play' which was written by original frontman Syd Barrett.
1970 Phil Mickelson, American golfer (6-time PGA Tour major winner, US Masters 2004, 06, 10), born in San Diego, California.
1977 Kenny Rogers was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'Lucille'.
1978 Film "Grease" opens, starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, based on the 1971 musical.
1980 Musical comedy film "The Blues Brothers", starring Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi, and directed by John Landis, premieres in Chicago.
1982 South Wales Coalfield came to a standstill as miners went on strike in support of health workers who were demanding a 12% pay rise.
1983 The inaugural BBC Cardiff Singer of the World began today.
1989 Only 17 holes-in-one recorded since US open began, today 4 more are made all on 6th hole (Weaver, Wiebe, Pate & Price)️
1999 Screaming Lord [David Edward] Sutch, English rocker and politician (founder of Official Monster Raving Loony Party), committed suicide at 58.
2015 TV personality and Real estate mogul Donald Trump launches his campaign for the Republican nomination for US President at Trump Towers.
2016 Meat Loaf was rushed to hospital after collapsing on stage during a concert in in Edmonton, Canada.
2016 Jo Cox, the Labour MP for Batley and Spen, died after being shot and stabbed multiple times in Birstall, West Yorkshire. On 23rd November 2016 local man Thomas Mair was found guilty of murder and other offences connected to the killing. Mair was sentenced to life imprisonment with a whole life order.
2018 World Cup: Video Assistant Referee (VAR) technology is used for the first time, awarding France a penalty in 2-1 win over Australia in Kazan.
2021 Wales win their second match at the European Championships against Turkey 2-0, after a 1-1 draw with Switzerland, with goals by Aaron Ramsey and Swansea’s Connor Roberts.

 

[Muteswan]

17th June
1239 Edward I, King of England (1272-1307) who subdued Wales, warred against Scotland and expelled Jews from England, born in London.
1579 English navigator Francis Drake lands on the coast of California at Drakes Bay, names it "New Albion".
1631 Mumtaz Mahal dies during childbirth. Her husband, Mughal emperor Shah Jahan I, then spends more than 20 years building her tomb, the Taj Mahal.
1867 Pioneer doctor Joseph Lister amputated a cancerous breast from his sister Isabella using carbolic acid as an antiseptic. The operation in the Glasgow Royal Infirmary was the first under antiseptic conditions.
1882 Igor Stravinsky, Russian composer (Le Sacre du Printemps - The Rite of Spring; The Firebird), born in Oranienbaum, Russia (d. 1971).
1882 Harold Gillies, New Zealand father of modern plastic surgery who pioneered skin graft techniques on injured soldiers in WWI, born in Dunedin, New Zealand (d. 1960).
1885 Statue of Liberty arrives in NYC aboard French ship `Isere'.
1939 Donald Anderson, British Labour Party politician, born in Swansea, Wales.
1939 Last public guillotining in France. Eugen Weidmann, a convicted murderer, is guillotined in Versailles outside the prison Saint-Pierre.
1943 Barry Manilow [Pincus], American pop singer, and piano player ("Mandy": "Daybreak"; "I Write The Songs"; "Copacabana"), born in New York City.
1965 Working at Abbey Road studios in London The Beatles completed work on the new Paul McCartney song 'Yesterday' with the overdubbing of an additional vocal track by McCartney and a string quartet.
1969 "Oh! Calcutta!" opens in NYC (almost entirely in the nude).
1971 Carole King's album "Tapestry" goes to #1 on US album charts and stays there for 15 weeks.
1972 Five men arrested after trying to bug Democratic National Committee office in Watergate Complex, Washington.
1972 Don McLean had his first UK No.1 single with 'Vincent.' The song was written about the 19th century artist Vincent Van Gogh.
1974 The Provisional Irish Republican Army bombs the Houses of Parliament in London, injuring 11 people and causing extensive damage.
1978 'You're The One That I Want' by John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John started a nine week run at No.1 on the UK singles chart.
1980 The locations for the first US nuclear missiles to be stored on British soil (at Greenham Common and Molesworth military bases) were revealed by the government.
1982 Jodie Whittaker, British actress (1st female "Doctor Who"), born in Skelmanthorpe, England.
1991 South Africa abolishes last of its apartheid laws.
1994 O.J. Simpson doesn't turn himself in on murder charges, LA police chase his Ford Bronco for 1½ hours before he eventually gives up (seen live on national TV).
2012 Rodney King, African American motorist beaten by LA cop, dies in an accidental drowning at 47.
2019 Mayor of Phoenix, Arizona, Kate Gallego apologies for local police threatening to shoot African American family after their four-year shoplifted a doll.
2020 Willie Thorne, English snooker player (1985 Classic), dies of leukaemia at 66.

 

[Muteswan]

18th June
1541 Irish parliament selects Henry VIII of England as King of Ireland.
1682 English Quaker William Penn founds Philadelphia, in the Pennsylvania Colony.
1815 The Battle of Waterloo:- Napoleon Bonaparte suffered defeat at the hands of the Duke of Wellington, bringing an end to the Napoleonic era of European history.
1847 American photographer Thomas Martin Easterly takes the earliest known photograph of lightning using the daguerreotype process in St. Louis, Missouri. ️
1850 The first section of the South Wales Railway, operated by the Great Western Railway, between Chepstow and Swansea, was opened today. The connection to the Gloucester and London Paddington line was then completed in July 1852, with the opening of the bridge at Chepstow. Construction of the line west of Swansea to New Milford (Neyland) was completed in 1856.
1898 Steel Pier, 1st amusement pier opens in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
1928 Amelia Earhart, along with pilot Wilmer Stultz and copilot/mechanic Louis Gordon flew from Newfoundland (17th June) landing at Pwll near Burry Port, South Wales on 18th June, thus becoming the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean.
1940 Winston Churchill's "this was their finest hour" speech urging perseverance during Battle of Britain delivered to British House of Commons.
1942 Paul McCartney, British rock singer-songwriter, bassist, piano player (The Beatles - "Yesterday";Wings -"Silly Love Songs"), born in Liverpool, England.
1945 William Joyce (Lord Haw-Haw), fascist politician and Nazi propaganda broadcaster, charged with treason in England.
1963 Henry Cooper knocked Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) to the floor in round four at Wembley Stadium, London, but by the sixth, with Cooper badly cut, the fight was stopped and Clay remained world heavyweight boxing champion.
1965 The government announced it would introduce a blood alcohol limit for drivers, with penalties for those caught above it.
1970 Edward Heath's Conservative Party win the General Election in UK, replacing the Labour Party.
1971 Nigel Owens, Welsh rugby union referee (record holder for most Test matches refereed), born in Mynyddcerrig, Carmarthenshire.
1972 A flight from London Heathrow to Brussels crashed minutes after take-off killing all 118 people on board.
1977 Space Shuttle test model "Enterprise" carries a crew aloft for 1st time, it was fixed to a modified Boeing 747.
1981 The AIDS epidemic is formally recognized by medical professionals in San Francisco, California.
1995 All Black Jonah Lomu scores the try of the Rugby World Cup, running over Mike Catt in New Zealand's 45-29 defeat of England.
2005 David Tennant's first appearance as the Tenth Doctor in BBC "Doctor Who" episode "The Parting of the Ways".
2009 The first race meeting was held at Ffos Las racecourse today. It is the first new National Hunt racecourse to be built in the United Kingdom for 80 years. Situated north of Llanelli, Ffos Las is also used as equestrian sports and conferencing venue and was built on the site of a disused opencast coal mine at a cost of £20 million.
2010 John Lennon's handwritten lyrics to The Beatles song 'A Day In The Life' sold for $1.2m (£810,000) at an auction at Sotheby's in New York.
2012 Victor Spinetti, Welsh actor (A Hard Day's Night, Help!), dies from prostate cancer at 82.
2016 Tim Peake, the first British ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut and the seventh UK-born person in space, returned to earth after his 186 day Principia mission working on the International Space Station.
2020 The death, aged 103, of Dame Vera Lynn at her home in East Sussex .She was known as "The Forces' Sweetheart" and her songs helped raise morale in World War Two.

 

[Muteswan]

19th June
1829 Robert Peel's Act was passed, to establish a new police force in London and its suburbs. They were known as Peelers and then Bobbies, derived from his surname and Christian name respectively.
1862 Slavery outlawed in US territories.
1865 Union General Gordon Granger declares slaves are free in Texas, now the date the end of slavery is celebrated across the US as Juneteenth.
1896 Wallis Simpson [Duchess of Windsor], American divorcee whom British King Edward VIII abdicated his throne to marry, born in Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania (d. 1986).
1910 Father's Day celebrated for 1st time (Spokane, Washington).
1917 The British royal family renounced the German names and titles of Saxe-Coburg, (responding to anti-German sentiment) and became Windsor.
1921 Census held in Great Britain.
1925 The birth of Charlie Drake (Charles Springall) slapstick English comedian. His catchphrase 'Hello, my darlings' came about because his short (5' 1") stature placed his eyes directly level with a lady's bosom!
1937 J. M. [James Matthew] Barrie, Scottish novelist and playwright (Peter Pan), dies at 77.
1947 Salman Rushdie, British-Indian novelist (Midnight's Children, Satanic Verses), born in Mumbai, India.
1957 Karl Plagge, German officer and Nazi Party member who during World War II used his position as a staff officer in the German Army to employ and protect some 1,240 Jews, dies at 59.
1958 On this day at the FIFA World Cup in Gothenburg, Sweden, Wales played Brazil, losing 1 - 0 to the eventual champions. The winning goal was the first international goal scored by the great Pele. Wales had caused a shock in progressing to the quarter-finals by beating Hungary 2-1 in a play-off, with goals from Ivor Allchurch and Terry Medwin, after the two ended level on points in their group. The Welsh had earlier drawn against Hungary, Mexico and hosts Sweden. Critically Wales were without their best player, the 'Gentle Giant' John Charles, who was injured for the Brazil match.
1964 Boris Johnson, British Conservative politician, (Prime Minister, 2019-present; Mayor of London, 2008-2016), born in NYC, New York.
1967 Paul McCartney admits on TV that he took LSD.
1968 The Rolling Stones scored their seventh UK No.1 single when 'Jumpin Jack Flash' hit the top of the charts.
1975 An inquest jury decided that the missing Lord Lucan murdered the 29-year-old nanny of his three young children.
1978 Cricketing star Ian Botham became the first man in the history of the game to score a century and take eight wickets in one innings of a Test match.
1978 Garfield, created by Jim Davis, 1st appears as a comic strip.
1983 Mark Selby, British snooker player, born in Leicester, England.
1987 Guns N' Roses made their UK live debut at a sold out The Marquee Club in London.
1993 William Golding, English author (Lord of the Flies, Nobel Prize for Literature 1983), dies at 81.
2011 US Open Men's Golf, Congressional CC: Irishman Rory McIlroy wins by 8 strokes ahead of Australian Jason Day; sets 11 tournament records, including lowest total 72-hole score (268) and lowest total under par (−16).
2012 A man is beheaded for witchcraft and sorcery in Saudi Arabia.
2013 James Gandolfini, American actor (The Sopranos), dies from a heart attack at 51.
2017 Bexit negotiations begin between United Kingdom and the European Union in Brussels.
2018 England smash the highest score (481/6) in one day international cricket history in a 242 run defeat of Australia (239) at Trent Bridge.
2020 Ian Holm, English actor (The Lord of the Rings, Alien, King Lear), dies at 88.

 

[Muteswan]

20th June
1214 The University of Oxford received its charter. Oxford is the second-oldest surviving university in the world (Bologna in Italy is the oldest) and the oldest in the English-speaking world.
1756 In India, the night of the infamous 'Black Hole of Calcutta', where more than 140 British soldiers and civilians were placed in a small prison cell - 18 feet by 14 feet - by the Nawab of Bengal. The following morning only 23 emerged alive.
1820 Manuel Belgrano, Argentine politician and Military Leader who took part in the Argentine Wars of Independence and created the Flag of Argentina, dies at 50.
1837 Queen Victoria at 18 ascends British throne following death of uncle King William IV. She rules for 63 years till 1901.
1840 Samuel Morse patents his telegraph.
1871 Ku Klux Klan trials began in federal court in Oxford, Mississippi.
1916 Born this day in Newport, Gwent, Johnny Morris, Television presenter, best remembered for the BBC children's programme Animal Magic.
1939 Test flight of 1st rocket plane using liquid propellants.
1942 Brian Wilson, American singer-songwriter and producer (Beach Boys), born in Inglewood, California.
1944 Nazis begin mass extermination of Jews at Auschwitz.
1949 Lionel Richie, American singer (Commodores, Hello, Penny Lover), born in Tuskegee, Alabama.
1949 American tennis star 'Gorgeous' Gussie Moran shocks Wimbledon by wearing a short dress "to look good” and "move more freely on the court".
1962 Born this day in Abergavenny, Suzanne Packer, actress who is best known for playing the role of Tess Bateman in the long-running television series, Casualty. She is the elder sister of the Olympic athlete Colin Jackson.
1967 Nicole Kidman, Australian-American actress (Dead Calm, The Hours), born in Honolulu, Hawaii.
1967 Mohammed Ali [Cassius Clay] sentenced to 5 years by jury after 21 minutes of deliberation for refusing to be inducted into the armed forces during the Vietnam War.
1969 David Bowie recorded 'Space Oddity' at Trident Studios London. The track went on to become a UK No.1 when re-released in 1975.
1970 British government of Edward Heath forms (with Margaret Thatcher in the Cabinet).
1975 "Jaws", based on the book by Peter Benchley, directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Roy Scheider is released.
1975 Born this day in Swansea, Non Evans, sportswoman who has represented Wales at four different sports, rugby union, wrestling, weightlifting and judo, She is the first woman to have competed at the Commonwealth Games in three different sports. . .
1978 Frank Lampard, English footballer, born in Romford, London.
1984 The biggest exam shake up for over 10 years was announced with O Level and CSE exams to be replaced by new examinations, to be known as GCSEs.
1987 1st Rugby World Cup Final, Eden Park, Auckland: New Zealand fly-half Grant Fox lands 4 penalties, a conversion and drop goal as the All Blacks beat France, 29-9.
1994 Former NFL running back, broadcaster and actor O.J. Simpson arraigned on murder of Nicole Simpson & Ronald Goldman.
1996 English cricket umpire Harold 'Dickie' Bird received a standing ovation by players and spectators at Lords when he took the field to officiate in his final Test Match.
1998 Baddiel, Skinner & Lightning Seeds went to No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'Three Lions '98' released for the football World Cup 98.
2017 Tiger Woods checks into a clinic to manage his pain medication and sleep disorder, following his arrest for driving under the influence.
2018 US President Donald Trump signs Executive Order ending family separation at the border for illegal immigrants.
2019 David Gilmour’s guitar collection set several auction records when nearly 130 instruments went up for bid at Christie’s in New York. The former Pink Floyd frontman’s most iconic instrument, the so-called Black Strat, fetched $3,975,000. Other items sold included a 1954 Fender Stratocaster with the serial number 0001, which was used on the recording of 'Another Brick in the Wall Part 2' went for over $1.8 million, a 1958 Gretsch White Penguin went for $447,000, and a 1955 Gibson Goldtop Les Paul, also used on 'Another Brick' sold for $447,000. Christie’s declared all to be world auction records.

2021 Ddewch Ymlaen Cymru - Come On Wales.
We're in the last 16. Despite a 1-0 loss to Italy , Wales progress in the European Championships.

 

[Muteswan]

21st June
1675 The laying of the foundation stone of the new St Paul's Cathedral in London. The cathedral was designed by Sir Christopher Wren and the site faced that of the church destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666.
1706 John Dollond, British optician and owner of 1st patent for achromatic lens, born in London, England (d. 1761).
1854 The first Victoria Cross, Britain's highest medal for bravery, was awarded to Charles Lucas, who was awarded it during the Crimean War for conspicuous bravery. The medal was made from metal from a cannon captured at Sebastopol. The Victoria Cross was extended to colonial troops in 1867 and to date a total of 1,356 Victoria Crosses have been awarded.
1879 Frank W. Woolworth opens his 1st successful "F. W. Woolworth Great Five Cent Store" on North Queen Street, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
1905 Jean-Paul Sartre, French existentialist philosopher and writer (Le Mur, Nobel 1964; declined), born in Paris (d. 1980).
1919 The German Navy, feeling betrayed by the terms of the Versailles Treaty, scuttles most of its ships interned at Great Britain's Scapa Flow Naval base in the Orkney Islands.
1937 John Edrich, English cricketer (England left-handed batsman, 310* v NZ 1965), born in Blofield, Norfolk, England.
1944 Ray Davies, British singer-songwriter and guitarist (The Kinks - "Waterloo Sunset"; "Lola"; ""Celluloid Heroes"; "Come Dancing"), born in Muswell Hill, North London, England.
1948 Columbia Records launched a new vinyl disc that played at thirty-three and one third RPM in New York City, sparking a music-industry standard so strong that the digital age has yet to kill it.
1948 1st stored computer program runs on Manchester Mark I at a laboratory in Manchester University, England.
1948 HMT Empire Windrush with the first 800 emigrants from the West Indies to the UK arrives at Port of Tilbury near London.
1964 Born this day in Swansea,Dean Saunders, former Wales soccer international, capped 75 times, scoring 22 goals - making him one of the nation's highest scoring and most capped players of all time. Following his retirement from playing, he has managed Wrexham, Doncaster Rovers and Wolverhampton Wanderers.
1966 Jimmy Page made his live debut with The Yardbirds at The Marquee Club London.
1970 US Open Men's Golf Hazeltine National GC: Englishman Tony Jacklin shoots sub-par in all 4 rounds on his way to a 7-stroke win ahead of Dave Hill.
1970 FIFA World Cup Final, Estadio Azteca, Mexico City: Brazil and Pelé become first team and player to win World Cup 3 times, beating Italy, 4-1 in front of 107,412.
1975 British rock guitarist Ritchie Blackmore quits Deep Purple, forms Rainbow.
1975 Cricket World Cup, Lord's, London: Player of the Match Clive Lloyd scores 102 as West Indies beats Australia by 17 runs; first major limited overs One Day International (ODI) tournament.
1978 Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's musical "Evita", starring Elaine Page, premieres at the Prince Edward Theatre, London.
1981 Donald Fagen and Walter Becker disband their rock group Steely Dan.
1982 Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, son of Prince Charles & Lady Diana, born in London, England.
1986 Genesis scored their fourth UK No.1 album with their 13th studio album 'Invisible Touch'.
1992 Last day of test cricket for English star players Ian Botham and Allan Lamb.
2001 John Lee Hooker, American blues singer and guitarist died in his sleep aged 83.
2006 Pluto's newly discovered moons are officially named Nix and Hydra.
2011 People magazine reported that 75-year-old Glen Campbell had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.
2015 94 people die & 45 are hospitalized after drinking moonshine in Mumbai, India.
2019 UK police called to house of leader contender Boris Johnson over alleged altercation with his girlfriend.
2020 New archaeological discovery announced near Stonehenge of a large circle of shafts surrounding a village 2500 BC, largest prehistoric structure in Britain.
2020 Saudi Arabia bans international visitors from making the Islamic Hajj pilgrimage in 2020 due to COVID-19.

 

[Muteswan]

22nd June
1342 Fictional character of "The Hobbit" Bilbo Baggins returns to his home at Bag End, Shire Reckoning.
1535 Cardinal John Fisher is beheaded on Tower Hill, London, for refusing to acknowledge Henry VIII as head of the Church of England.
1611 Henry Hudson, English navigator, was cast adrift with some of his crew after a mutiny in the bay that now bears his name. It was the last time they were seen alive.
1633 Galileo Galilei forced to recant his Copernican views that the Earth orbits the Sun by the Pope (Vatican only admits it was wrong on Oct 31, 1992!).
1675 Royal Greenwich Observatory established in England by Charles II.
1814 The Marylebone Cricket Club and Hertfordshire played the first match at England's Lord's Cricket Ground.
1865 1st class cricket debut of Dr W. G. Grace.
1910 1st airship with passengers sets afloat-Zeppelin Deutscheland.
1934 John Dillinger is informally named America's first Public Enemy Number One.
1936 Born on this day in Treorchy, Clive Thomas, former football referee who operated in the English Football League and for FIFA during his career.Thomas officiated in both the 1974 and 1978 World Cups, and in the 1976 European Championship.
1939 Princess and future Queen Elizabeth meets future husband Prince Philip of Greece (Midshipman Mountbatten, RN).
1943 617 Squadron (Dambusters) attends investiture at Buckingham Palace, Commanding Officer Guy Gibson awarded the Victoria Cross.
1949 Meryl Streep, American actress (French Lieutenant's Woman, Sophie's Choice), born in Summit, New Jersey.
1955 Walt Disney's animated film "Lady & the Tramp" released.
1957 Danny Baker, English writer and radio DJ, born in Deptford, London, England.
1963 "Little" Stevie Wonder aged 13 releases his first single "Fingertips" (first live non-studio recording to go to No. 1 on Billboard)
1965 Freddie Trueman ends his Test cricket career, v NZ at Lord's.
1969 Judy Garland [Frances Gumm], American actress (The Wizard of Oz; Meet Me In St. Louis; Easter Parade), and singer ("Over The Rainbow"); dies at 47; coroner determines cause as unintentional, incautious overdose of prescription barbiturates.
1970 Irish socialist, republican and Member of Parliament, Bernadette Devlin, loses her appeal against a 6-month prison sentence imposed for taking part in riots in Derry.
1981 John McEnroe's famous 'You cannot be serious' rant in 1st round win over Tom Gullikson at Wimbledon.
1981 Mark David Chapman pleads guilty to killing John Lennon. He was later sentenced to 20 years to life.
1984 Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic Airways commences operations with flight from Gatwick to Newark.
1986 The 'Hand of God' football match. England were beaten 2-1 by Argentina in the quarter-finals of the World Cup in Mexico. Both Argentine goals were scored by Diego Maradona - the first with the deliberate use of his hand which went unseen by the referee. It was the first match between the two countries since the Falklands War in 1982.
1987 Fred Astaire [Austerlitz], American stage and screen tap dancer, singer ("Night And Day"; "Cheek To Cheek"; "Let's Call The Whole Thing Off"), and actor (Royal Wedding; Easter Parade; Swingtime), dies of pneumonia at 88.
1990 Florida passes a law which prohibits wearing a thong bathing suit.
1996 Saurav Ganguly scores 131 at Lord's on Test cricket debut.
2001 The Parole Board decided that Venables and Thompson, the two schoolboy murderers of 2 year old James Bulger should be released, and their identities protected, after serving just 8 years for a crime that shocked the nation.
2010 In his budget, Chancellor George Osborne increased VAT from 17.5% to 20% (to take effect from January 4th 2011) and cut welfare spending as he moved 'decisively' to tackle Britain's record debts.

 

[Muteswan]

23rd June
930 World's oldest parliament, the Icelandic Parliament, the Alþingi (anglicised as Althing or Althingi), established.
1757 British troops, commanded by Robert Clive, won the Battle of Plassey in Bengal - laying the foundations of the British Empire in India.
1868 Christopher Latham Sholes patents the Sholes and Glidden typewriter, the first commercially successful of its kind. Initially with a keyboard in alphabetical order but was altered to the now common “qwerty” keyboard after the original keys kept getting tangled as the most commonly used letters were quite close together. No problem for me as I type with one finger anyway.
1894 The International Olympic Committee is founded at the Sorbonne, Paris, at the initiative of Baron Pierre de Coubertin.
1894 Birth of Edward, Duke of Windsor who was King Edward VIII from 20th January to 10th December 1936 before abdicating to marry twice-divorced Mrs. Wallis Warfield Simpson.
1912 Alan Turing, British mathematician and computer scientist pioneer (Turing Machine), born in London (d. 1954).
1926 Commencement of the West Indies' 1st Test cricket match, at Lord's.
1939 The Government of Eire declared membership of the IRA (Irish Republican Army) to be illegal.
1940 The BBC’s Music While You Work programme was first broadcast on radio to brighten up the lives of munitions workers doing boring factory jobs.
1940 Stuart Sutcliffe, Scottish rocker who was the original bassist for the Beatles, born in Edinburgh, Scotland (d. 1962).
1942 World War II: Germany's latest fighter, a Focke-Wulf FW190 is captured intact when it mistakenly lands at RAF Pembrey in Wales.
1950 Swiss parliament refuses voting rights for women.
1960 1st contraceptive pill is made available for purchase in the U.S.
1960 Eddie Cochran was at No.1 in the UK with the single 'Three Steps To Heaven'.
1961 The Antarctic Treaty, ensuring that Antarctica is used for peaceful purposes; for international cooperation in scientific research; and does not become the scene or object of international discord, comes into force.
1972 US President Nixon & his Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman agree to use CIA to cover up Watergate.
1972 Zinédine Zidane, French soccer midfielder/Real Madrid manager (Champions League 2016-17-18, World Cup 1998), born in Marseille, France.
1974 1st extraterrestrial message sent from Earth into space.
1975 During his 'Welcome To My Nightmare' tour in Vancouver, Canada, Alice Cooper fell from the stage and broke six ribs.
1979 Supertramp's "Breakfast in America" becomes No. 1 album in the US.
1984 [Amie Ann] Duffy, Welsh Singer (Mercy), born in Gwynedd, Wales.
1985 A terrorist bomb aboard Air India flight 182 brought down a Boeing 747 off the coast of Ireland killing all 329 people aboard.
1986 Brighton bomber Patrick Magee, found guilty of planting the bomb at the Grand Hotel, Brighton during the Conservative Party Conference in 1983, was jailed for a minimum of 35 years. He was released from prison in 1999 under the terms of the 'Good Friday Agreement', having served only 14 years.
1991 Mazda becomes 1st Japanese car to capture Le Mans 24 hour race.
1993 Lorena Gallo Bobbitt amputates husband's John Wayne Bobbitt's penis.
1995 Jonas Salk, American biologist who created the Polio vaccine, dies of heart failure at 80.
1996 Nintendo 64 goes on sale in Japan.
1996 Archbishop Tutu retires as Archbishop of Cape Town and head of the Anglican Church in South Africa.
2014 Claude Monet's Water Lilies is sold at auction for US$54 million.
2016 Los Angeles court decision clears Led Zeppelin of stealing riff from "Stairway to Heaven" from band Spirit.
2016 Brexit referendum: United Kingdom votes to leave the European Union.
2018 12 boys and their coach are stranded in Tham Luang Nang Non cave, Thailand by monsoon flooding, prompting an international rescue effort when they are discovered 9 days later.
2020 125 pilots grounded by Pakistan International Airlines after revelations many had cheated in exams or held fake licenses.