On This Day In History
Quote from Charlie Charles IV on June 18, 2025, 5:40 amDid You Know?
Richard Martin of London takes out first life insurance policy, on William Gibbons; premium was £383
Today in History in 1583
Would You Believe?
Governor of Louisiana Earl K. Long is committed to a state mental hospital; he responds by having the hospital’s director fired and replaced with a crony who proceeds to proclaim him perfectly sane
Today in History in 1959
Was Earl K Long related to Trump by any chance ?🤔
June 19th
1306 The Earl of Pembroke’s army defeats Robert the Bruce‘s Scottish army at the Battle of Methven
1829 Robert Peel introduces the Metropolitan Police Act 1829 into Parliament to establish a unified police force for London, world’s 1st modern police force
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
1944 World War II: First day of the 2 day Battle of the Philippine Sea, US naval forces defeat Japanese fleet
1991 Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar surrenders to police
Did You Know?
First officially recognised baseball game (played by Cartwright Rules) – NY Nines 23 defeat Knickerbockers 1 at Hoboken, New Jersey
Today in History in 1846
June 20th
451 Battle of the Catalaunian Plains: Roman and Visigoths forces defeat Attila the Hun in north east France, alting Hun invasion of Roman Gaul (exact date disputed)
1214 The University of Oxford receives its charter
1789 French Revolution: The Third Estate of the French Estates-General swears the Tennis Court Oath at the Palace of Versailles, swearing not to disband until a new constitution is formed
1840 Samuel Morse patents his telegraph
1895 1st female PhD from an American University, earned by Caroline Willard Baldwin (in Science) at Cornell University
2020 Highest-ever temperature recorded in the Arctic circle, 38C (100F) in Verkhoyansk, Siberia
Did You Know?
Black Hole of Calcutta: 146 British soldiers, Anglo-Indian soldiers and Indian civilians are imprisoned in a small dungeon in Calcutta, India where most die from suffocation and heat exhaustion
Today in History in 1756
Would You Believe?
The SS Savannah reaches Cork in Ireland after a 29 day and 11 hour voyage from Savannah, Georgia to become the 1st steamship to cross the Atlantic or any other ocean
Today in History in 1819
June 21st
1788 US Constitution comes into effect when New Hampshire is the 9th state to ratify it
1854 First Victoria Cross won during bombardment of Bomarsund in the Aland Islands (Crimean War)
1948 Lord Mountbatten resigns as Governor General of India (formerly the last Viceroy)
1990 7.7 Manjil-Rudbar Earthquake with hundreds of aftershocks hits Iran; killing about 50,000
1993 English mathematician Andrew Wiles proves last theorem of Fermat
Did You Know?
American inventor and businessman Cyrus McCormick patents the reaping machine
Today in History in 1834
Would You Believe?
Frank W. Woolworth opens his 1st successful “F. W. Woolworth Great Five Cent Store” on North Queen Street, Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Today in History in 1879
June 22nd
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
1772 Somerset v Stewart court case finds slavery unsupported by English common law, encouraging the abolitionist movement
1848 Beginning of the June Days uprising in Paris by French workers
1865 The CSS Shenandoah fires the last shot of the American Civil War in the Bering Strait to indicate surrender
Did You Know?
John Dillinger is informally named America’s first Public Enemy Number One
Today in History in 1934
Would You Believe?
First ring doughnut supposedly created by Hanson Gregory
Today in History in 1847
June 23rd
930 World’s oldest parliament, the Icelandic Parliament, the Alþingi (anglicised as Althing or Althingi), established
1868 Christopher Latham Sholes patents the Sholes and Glidden typewriter, the first commercially successful of its kind
1972 Hurricane Agnes becomes America’s costliest natural disaster, affecting 15 states, with 119 deaths and $3 billion in damage
1974 1st extraterrestrial message sent from Earth into space
1979 Supertramp’s “Breakfast in America” becomes No. 1 album in the US featuring “Take the Long Way Home”
2016 Brexit referendum: United Kingdom votes to leave the European Union
Did You Know?
First editions of “The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.” by Washington Irving released, featuring story “Rip Van Winkle”
Today in History in 1819
Would You Believe?
Longest game in Professional Baseball: Pawtucket Red Sox finally beat Rochester Red Wings 3-2 in 33 innings (game began 18th April)
Today in History in 1981
June 24th
1497 John Cabot claims Eastern Canada for England (believes he has found Asia in Nova Scotia)
1509 Henry VIII is crowned King of England in Westminster Abbey, London
1793 1st republican constitution in France adopted
1812 Napoleon Bonaparte’s Grand Armée numbering half a million begin their invasion of Russia by crossing the Nieman River
1853 US President Franklin Pierce signs the Gadsden Purchase, buying 29,670 square-miles (76,800 square km) from Mexico for $10 million (now southern Arizona and New Mexico)
1901 1st exhibition by Pablo Picasso aged 19, opens in Paris
1930 1st detection of an airplane using reflected radio waves, a precursor to radar, by US Naval Research Laboratory engineers in Anacostia, Washington, D.C.
Did You Know?
In the longest match in tennis history, American John Isner defeats Nicolas Mahut of France at Wimbledon after 11 hours, 5 minutes of play over 3 days
Today in History in 2010
Would You Believe?
Sudden outbreak of St. John’s Dance causes people in the streets of Aachen, Germany, to experience hallucinations and begin to jump and twitch uncontrollably until they collapse from exhaustion
Today in History in 1374
June 25th
1678 Venetian Elena Cornaro Piscopia is awarded a doctorate of philosophy from the University of Padua, 1st woman to receive a university doctoral degree or PhD
1876 Battle of the Little Bighorn: US 7th Cavalry under Brevet Major General George Armstrong Custer wiped out by Sioux and Cheyenne warriors led by Chiefs Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull in what has become famously known as “Custer’s Last Stand“
1929 US President Herbert Hoover authorizes building of Boulder Dam (Hoover Dam)
1950 north korea invades South Korea, beginning the Korean War
2021 WHO head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus confirms the COVID-19 Delta variant is the most transmissible to date, now present in 85 countries and spreading rapidly