May 8th
 

1541 ~ Hernando de Soto reached the Mississippi River, naming it Río de Espíritu Santo.

1794 ~ French chemist Antoine Lavoisier was tried, convicted, and guillotined all on one day in Paris.

1828 ~ Birthday of Jean Henri Dunant, founder of the Red Cross, awarded the 1901 Nobel Peace Prize.

1873 ~ Death of John Stuart Mill, Empiricist Philosopher.

1895 ~ Birthday of Fulton J. Sheen, bishop and television personality.

1902 ~ Mount Pelée erupted in Martinique, destroying the town of St. Pierre and killing over 30,000 people.

1984 ~ The Soviet Union announced that it would boycott the 1984 Summer Olympics.

1985 ~ Death of Theodore Sturgeon, Science Fiction writer.

1988 ~ Death of Robert A. Heinlein, Science Fiction writer.

1999 ~ Nancy Mace became the first female cadet to graduate from The Citadel military college.

May 9th
 

1837 ~ Birthday of Adam Opel, German engineer and industrialist.

1860 ~ Birthday of J.M. Barrie, Author, creator of Peter Pan.

1874 ~ Birthday of Howard Carter, British archaeologist.

1901 ~ Australia opened its first parliament in Melbourne. (PDF)

1903 ~ Death of Paul Gauguin, French Post-Impressionist painter.

1972 ~ Israeli commandos liberated a hijacked Sabena airliner at Lod airport in Tel Aviv.

1974 ~ The U.S. Congress’s House Judiciary Committee opened hearings on whether to recommend the impeachment of President Richard Nixon.

1986 ~ Death of Tenzing Norgay, Mountaineer.

1994 ~ Nelson Mandela was inaugurated as South Africa's first black president.

2002 ~ A bomb exploded during a holiday parade in Kaspiysk, Russia, killing 43 and injuring 130.

May 10th
 

1818 ~ Death of Paul Revere, engraver, American Patriot.

1838 ~ Birthday of John Wilkes Booth, Actor, assassin of Abraham Lincoln.

1857 ~ The Indian Mutiny began when the Sepoys revolted against the British Army.

1869 ~ The first transcontinental railroad in the U.S. was completed at Promontory, Utah.

1872 ~ Victoria Woodhull became the first woman nominated for U.S. President.

1899 ~ Birthday of Fred Astaire, Singer, Dancer & Actor.

1924 ~ J. Edgar Hoover became director of the FBI.

1933 ~ The Nazis staged massive public book burnings.

1954 ~ Bill Haley and the Comets released Rock Around the Clock, the first rock and roll record to reach number one on the charts.

2002 ~ FBI agent Robert Hanssen was given a life sentence without the possibility of parole for selling American secrets to Russia.

May 11th
 

1904 ~ Birthday of Salvador Dalí, Spanish painter.

1918 ~ Birthday of Richard Feynman, American Physicist.

1930 ~ Birthday of Edsger Dijkstra, Dutch computer scientist.

1949 ~ Israel was admitted to the UN.

1981 ~ Reggae musician Bob Marley died of cancer.

1987 ~ The first heart-lung transplant took place in Baltimore, Maryland.

1988 ~ Death of Kim Philby, Spy.

1997 ~ IBM's Deep Blue chess-playing supercomputer defeated Garry Kasparov in the last game of the rematch, becoming the first computer to beat a world-champion chess player.

1998 ~ India announced that it has tested a group of nuclear weapons.

2001 ~ Death of Douglas Adams, Science Fiction author.

May 12th
 

1820 ~ Birthday of Florence Nightingale, Nurse.

1845 ~ Birthday of Gabriel Fauré, Composer.

1884 ~ Death of Bedřich Smetana, Composer.

1889 ~ Death of John Cadbury, Chocolate Entrepreneur.

1918 ~ Birthday of Julius Rosenberg, Spy.

1943 ~ Axis forces in North Africa surrendered.

1962 ~ Douglas MacArthur delivered his famous "Duty, Honor, Country" valedictory speech at West Point.

1971 ~ Mick Jagger married Bianca Perez Morena de Macias in St Tropez.

1972 ~ The Rolling Stones released their ''Exile on Main St.'' album.

2000 ~ The Tate Modern art gallery opened in London.

May 13th
 

1787 ~ Captain Arthur Phillip left Portsmouth, England with eleven ships of convicts to establish a penal colony in Australia.

1842 ~ Birthday of Sir Arthur Sullivan of Gilbert & Sullivan, Composer.

1861 ~ Queen Victoria issued a "proclamation of neutrality" which recognized the breakaway Confederate states as having belligerent rights.

1888 ~ Brazil abolished slavery.

1912 ~ The Royal Flying Corps (now the Royal Air Force) was established in the U.K.

1937 ~ Birthday of Roger Zelazny, Science Fiction author.

1940 ~ Winston Churchill made his "blood, tears, toil and sweat" speech to the House of Commons.

1981 ~ Mehmet Ali Ağca attempted to assassinate Pope John Paul II at St. Peter's Square in Rome.

1985 ~ The confrontation between the MOVE organization and Philadelphia's city government left 11 MOVE members and one police officer dead and 61 homes destroyed by fire.

2003 ~ The US government unveiled a new version of the $20 bill - the first to be colorized in an effort to thwart counterfeiters.

May 14th
 

1265 ~ Birthday of Dante Alighieri, Italian Poet.

1796 ~ Edward Jenner administered the first smallpox vaccination.

1925 ~ Death of H. Rider Haggard, Author.

1944 ~ Birthday of George Lucas, film Director & Producer.

1948 ~ The independent state of Israel was proclaimed.

1955 ~ The USSR and seven other communist bloc countries signed a mutual defense treaty called the Warsaw Pact.

1973 ~ Skylab 1, the first American space station, was launched.

1978 ~ Death of Robert Menzies, twelfth Prime Minister of Australia.

1998 ~ Death of Frank Sinatra, Singer & Actor.

2004 ~ Piers Morgan was fired as editor of the Daily Mirror for publishing photographs of alleged abuse of Iraqi prisoners by British soldiers that were shown to be fake.

May 15th
 

1567 ~ Birthday of Claudio Monteverdi, Italian Composer.

1911 ~ The U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the Standard Oil Company, requiring its break up under the Sherman Anti-Trust act.

1869 ~ Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton formed the National Woman Suffrage Association in New York city.

1886 ~ Death of Emily Dickinson, Poet.

1914 ~ Birthday of Tenzing Norgay, Nepalese sherpa & Mountaineer.

1919 ~ The Winnipeg General Strike began.

1930 ~ Ellen Church became the first airline stewardess, on a flight from Oakland, California to Chicago, Illinois.

1957 ~ Britain tested its first hydrogen bomb in Operation Grapple.

1972 ~ George C. Wallace was shot and left paralyzed while campaigning for the U.S. Democratic presidential nomination.

1988 ~ The Soviet Union began withdrawing its troops from Afghanistan.

May 16th
 

1866 ~ Charles Hires invented root beer.

1868 ~ The U.S. Senate failed to convict President Andrew Johnson of the articles of impeachment against him.

1905 ~ Birthday of Henry Fonda, Actor.

1919 ~ Birthday of Liberace, American pianist.

1943 ~ The Jewish Warsaw ghetto uprising ended.

1955 ~ Birthday of Olga Korbut, gymnast.

1966 ~ Birthday of Janet Jackson, Super Bowl Half Time Flasher.

1969 ~ The Soviet space probe Venera 5 landed on Venus.

2002 ~ Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones opened in theaters.

2005 ~ Newsweek magazine retracted its Koran abuse story that started protests in Afghanistan.

May 17th
 

1749 ~ Birthday of Edward Jenner, inventor of vaccination.

1829 ~ Death of John Jay, the first U.S. Chief Justice.

1838 ~ Death of Charles Maurice de Talleyrand, French diplomat.

1936 ~ Birthday of Dennis Hopper, Actor & Director.

1935 ~ Death of Paul Dukas, French composer.

1943 ~ The RAF carried out the Dam Busters raid.

1954 ~ The U.S. Supreme Court issued their decision in Brown v. Board of Education.

1974 ~ Thirty-three people were killed by terrorist bombings in Ireland.

1996 ~ President Bill Clinton signed a measure requiring neighborhood notification when sex offenders move in - Megan's Law.

2004 ~ Same-sex marriage became legal in Massachusetts.

May 18th
 

1872 ~ Birthday of Bertrand Russell, Logician & Philosopher, awarded The Nobel Prize in Literature 1950.

1910 ~ The Earth passed through the tail of Halley’s Comet.

1911 ~ Death of Gustav Mahler, Austrian Composer.

1919 ~ Birthday of Dame Margot Fonteyn, Ballet dancer.

1937 ~ Birthday of Brooks Robinson, Baseball Hall of Famer.

1944 ~ Monte Cassino fell to the Allies.

1974 ~ India became the sixth nuclear nation by successfully detonated its first nuclear weapon.

1975 ~ Death of Leroy Anderson, American Composer.

1980 ~ Mount St. Helens in Washington state exploded, leaving 57 people dead or missing.

1998 ~ The U.S. government filed an antitrust case against Microsoft Corp.

May 19th
 

1536 ~ Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII of England was beheaded for adultery.

1795 ~ Birthday of Johns Hopkins, Philanthropist.

1864 ~ Death of Nathaniel Hawthorne, American Author.

1890 ~ Birthday of Ho Chi Minh, Vietnamese leader.

1897 ~ Oscar Wilde was released from Reading Gaol.

1921 ~ The U.S. Congress passed the Emergency Quota Act, which established national quotas for immigrants.

1925 ~ Birthday of Pol Pot, Khmer Rouge leader.

1935 ~ Death of T. E. Lawrence, English soldier ("Lawrence of Arabia").

1965 ~ Tui Malila, the longest living animal known, died in Tonga at the age of either 188 or 192.

2001 ~ One child policy: Zhonghua Sun was killed by People's Republic of China government officials because she refused to be sterilized.

May 20th
 

1772 ~ Birthday of Sir William Congreve, English inventor (By the rockets' red glare).

1806 ~ Birthday of John Stuart Mill, English philosopher.

1873 ~ Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis received a U.S. patent for blue jeans with copper rivets.

1883 ~ The eruption of Krakatoa began, leading ultimately to the volcano's destruction three months later.

1896 ~ Death of Clara Schumann, German Pianist and Composer.

1901 ~ Birthday of Max Euwe, Dutch world chess champion.

1927 ~ Charles Lindbergh took off from Long Island, New York, on the first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean, arriving in Paris the next day.

1961 ~ U.S. marshals were sent to restore order in race-torn Montgomery, Alabama.

1980 ~ In a referendum in Quebec, the population rejected by a 60% vote the proposal from its government to move towards independence from Canada.

2000 ~ Death of Jean Pierre Rampal, French flutist.

May 21st
 

1471 ~ Birthday of Albrecht Dürer, German painter and graphic artist.

1881 ~ Clara Barton founded the American Red Cross.

1895 ~ Death of Franz von Suppé, Austrian composer.

1921 ~ Birthday of Andrei Sakharov, physicist and human rights activist, awarded the 1975 Nobel Peace Prize.

1924 ~ Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb murdered 14-year-old Bobby Franks in a "thrill killing".

1933 ~ Birthday of Maurice André, trumpeter.

1956 ~ The U.S. detonated the first airborne hydrogen bomb over Bikini Atoll in the Pacific.

1991 ~ Former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by a female suicide bomber.

2000 ~ Death of Sir John Gielgud, British actor.

2004 ~ Stanislav Petrov was awarded the World Citizen Award for averting a potential World War III in 1983.

May 22nd
 

1813 ~ Birthday of Richard Wagner, Composer.

1840 ~ Transporting British convicts to the New South Wales colony was abolished.

1856 ~ In one of the more ornate expressions of American democracy, Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina beat Senator Charles Sumner with a cane in the hall of the U.S. Senate because of a speech Sumner had made which attacked Southerners who sympathized with the pro-slavery violence in Kansas.

1859 ~ Birthday of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Physician & Writer.

1885 ~ Death of Victor Hugo, French author.

1907 ~ Birthday of Sir Laurence Olivier, Actor & Director.

1907 ~ Birthday of Hergé, comic book creator.

1947 ~ The Truman Doctrine was enacted.

1969 ~ The lunar module of Apollo 10 separated from the command module and flew to within nine miles of the moon's surface in a dress rehearsal for the first lunar landing..

1972 ~ Ceylon became the republic of Sri Lanka, adopted a new constitution, and joined the British Commonwealth.

May 23rd
 

1430 ~ Joan of Arc was captured by the Burgundians, who sold her to the English.

1701 ~ Captain William Kidd was hanged in London after being convicted of piracy and murder.

1848 ~ Birthday of Otto Lilienthal, aviation pioneer.

1873 ~ Canada's North West Mounted Police force was established.

1906 ~ Death of Henrik Ibsen, Norwegian writer.

1908 ~ Birthday of John Bardeen, the only person to have been awarded the Nobel prize in Physics twice; 1956 & 1972.

1934 ~ Death of Bonnie and Clyde, Outlaws.

1951 ~ Birthday of Anatoly Karpov, Russian chess grandmaster and former World Champion.

1967 ~ Egypt closed the Straits of Tiran and blockaded the port of Eilat at the northern end of the Gulf of Aqaba to Israeli shipping, laying the foundations for the Six Day War.

1969 ~ The UK release of Tommy, by rock band The Who; the first rock opera.

May 24th
 

1819 ~ Birthday of Queen Victoria.

1844 ~ The first telegram was sent by Samuel Morse, from Baltimore, Maryland to Washington, D.C., saying "What hath God wrought?".

1883 ~ The Brooklyn Bridge was opened.

1935 ~ The first MLB game played at night took place at Cincinnati's Crosley Field as the Reds beat the Philadelphia Phillies.

1941 ~ The German battleship Bismarck sank the battlecruiser HMS Hood in the North Atlantic, killing all but three crewmen.

1941 ~ Birthday of Bob Dylan, Singer and Songwriter.

1969 ~ Death of Willy Ley, rocket scientist.

1995 ~ Death of Harold Wilson, British statesman and P.M.

2001 ~ 23 people were killed and hundreds injured at a wedding party in Jerusalem when the floor collapsed.

2001 ~ Democrats gained control of the U.S. Senate for the first time since 1994 when Sen. Jeffords of Vermont declared himself an independent.

May 25th
 

1803 ~ Birthday of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Poet & Philosopher.

1889 ~ Birthday of Igor Sikorsky, developer of the helicopter.

1895 ~ Playwright Oscar Wilde was convicted of a morals charge in London and sentenced to prison.

1926 ~ Birthday of Miles Davis, Jazz Musician

1929 ~ Birthday of Beverly Sills, Soprano.

1934 ~ Death of Gustav Holst, English composer.

1953 ~ The U.S. conducted its only nuclear artillery test.

1961 ~ President Kennedy set the US goal to put the first man on the moon by the end of that decade.

1963 ~ The Organisation of African Unity was set up in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

1973 ~ Mike Oldfield released Tubular Bells.

May 26th
 

1703 ~ Death of Samuel Pepys, English civil servant, famous for his diary.

1799 ~ Birthday of Aleksandr Pushkin, Russian author.

1896 ~ The first edition of the Dow Jones Industrial Average published

1897 ~ Bram Stoker's novel Dracula went on sale in London.

1907 ~ Birthday of Rachel Carson, Environmental writer.

1908 ~ The first commercial oil strike in the Middle East was made at Masjid-al-Salaman in southwest Iran (Persia).

1928 ~ Birthday of Jack Kevorkian, Physician.

1940 ~ The evacuation of Allied troops from Dunkirk, France, began during World War II.

1951 ~ Birthday of Sally Ride, Astronaut.

2002 ~ The Mars Odyssey found signs of huge water ice deposits on Mars.

May 27th
 

1837 ~ Birthday of Wild Bill Hickok, Gunfighter.

1877 ~ Birthday of Isadora Duncan, Dancer.

1923 ~ Birthday of Henry Kissinger, American diplomat, recipient of The Nobel Peace Prize 1973.

1933 ~ The Walt Disney Co. released the cartoon The Three Little Pigs, with its hit song Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?

1934 ~ Birthday of Harlan Ellison, Science Fiction author.

1937 ~ The Golden Gate Bridge opened to pedestrian traffic.

1964 ~ Death of Jawaharlal Nehru, independent India’s first PM.

1968 ~ Future U.S. president George W. Bush enlisted in the Texas Air National Guard.

1995 ~ Actor Christopher Reeve (Superman) was paralyzed when he was thrown from his horse during a jumping event.

1999 ~ A U.N. tribunal indicted Slobodan Milosevic for crimes against humanity, holding the Yugoslav president personally responsible for the horrors in Kosovo.

May 28th
 

1892 ~ In San Francisco, California, John Muir organized the Sierra Club.

1908 ~ Birthday of Ian Fleming, author of James Bond books.

1925 ~ Birthday of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, German baritone.

1934 ~ Birthday of The Dionne quintuplets, the world's first surviving quintuplets.

1936 ~ Alan Turing submitted On Computable Numbers for publication.

1964 ~ The Palestine Liberation Organization was formed.

1971 ~ Death of Audie Murphy, American actor & war hero.

1984 ~ President Reagan led a state funeral at Arlington National Cemetery for an unidentified American soldier killed in the Vietnam War.

1987 ~ Mathias Rust, a 19-year-old West German pilot, landed a private plane in Moscow's Red Square after evading Soviet air defenses.

1998 ~ Pakistan matched India with five nuclear test blasts.

May 29th
 

1453 ~ Ottoman armies captured Constantinople, ending the Byzantine Empire.

1860 ~ Birthday of Isaac Albéniz, Spanish Composer.

1874 ~ Birthday of G. K. Chesterton, English author.

1903 ~ Birthday of Bob Hope, British-born Comedian & Actor.

1906 ~ Birthday of T.H. White, English author.

1913 ~ Igor Stravinsky's ballet score “The Rite of Spring” premiered in Paris.

1919 ~ Observation of shifted star positions during a solar eclipse confirmed Albert Einstein's Theory of Relativity.

1953 ~ Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first men to reach the summit of Mount Everest.

1972 ~ Three Japanese Red Army gunmen opened fire on crowds at Lod (now Ben Gurion) International Airport, Israel, killing 26 people and injuring dozens more.

2005 ~ French voters rejected the European Union's proposed constitution.

May 30th
 

1431 ~ Death of Joan of Arc, French commander and saint (burned at the stake by a pro-English tribunal).

1640 ~ Death of Peter Paul Rubens, German painter.

1778 ~ Death of Voltaire, French philosopher & Author.

1926 ~ Birthday of Christine Jorgensen, transsexual activist.

1942 ~ 1,047 British bombers launched a 90-minute attack on Cologne, Germany.

1964 ~ Death of Leó Szilárd, Hungarian-American nuclear physicist.

1982 ~ Spain became NATO's 16th member.

1982 ~ Baseball player Cal Ripken, Jr played the first of 2,632 consecutive games. His streak ended on September 20, 1998.

1989 ~ The 33-foot high Goddess of Democracy statue was unveiled in Tiananmen Square by student demonstrators.

1997 ~ Child molester Jesse K. Timmendequas was convicted in Trenton, N.J., of raping and strangling a 7-year-old neighbor, Megan Kanka - a case that inspired Megan's Law, which requires that communities be notified when sex offenders move in.

May 31st
 

1669 ~ Citing poor eyesight, Samuel Pepys made the last entry in his diary.

1809 ~ Death of Joseph Haydn, Composer.

1819 ~ Birthday of Walt Whitman, American Poet.

1889 ~ A dam broke near Johnstown, Pa, drowning more than 2,000.

1916 ~ British and German fleets fought the Battle of Jutland off Denmark.

1923 ~ Birthday of Prince Rainier III of Monaco.

1927 ~ The Ford Model T assembly line shut down after a production run of 15,007,003.

1938 ~ Birthday of Peter Yarrow, American folk singer ("Peter, Paul and Mary").

1957 ~ Playwright Arthur Miller was convicted of contempt of Congress.

1996 ~ Death of Timothy Leary, LSD advocate.

June 1st
 

1494 ~ Friar John Cor :angel: recorded the first known batch of scotch whisky.

1801 ~ Birthday of Brigham Young, Mormon Church leader.

1804 ~ Birthday of Mikhail Glinka, Russian composer.

1890 ~ The U.S. Census Bureau began using Herman Hollerith's tabulating machine to count census returns.

1918 ~ the Battle for Belleau Wood began, during which came forth the famous phrase Come on, you sons of bitches, do you want to live forever? Heroes indeed!

1926 ~ Birthday of Marilyn Monroe, Actress.

1938 ~ Action Comics issued the first Superman comic.

1965 ~ Birthday of Nigel Short, English chess player.

1968 ~ Death of Helen Keller, symbol of courage.

1967 ~ The Beatles album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was released.

June 2nd
 

1740 ~ Birthday of Marquis de Sade, French Nobleman & Author.

1835 ~ Start of P.T. Barnum’s circus’ first tour of the U.S.

1840 ~ Birthday of Thomas Hardy, Poet & Novelist.

1857 ~ Birthday of Edward Elgar, English Composer.

1896 ~ Guglielmo Marconi received a patent for the radio.

1897 ~ Mark Twain, responding to rumors that he was dead, was quoted as saying, "The report of my death was an exaggeration."

1953 ~ Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.

1966 ~ First U.S. Lunar soft landing, by Surveyor 1.

1987 ~ Death of Andres Segovia, Spanish guitarist.

1990 ~ Death of Rex Harrison, English actor.

June 3rd
 

1875 ~ Death of Georges Bizet, French composer.

1888 ~ The poem Casey at the Bat, by Ernest Thayer, was published in the SF Examiner.

1899 ~ Death of Johann Strauss II, Austrian composer.

1924 ~ Death of Franz Kafka, Austrian novelist.

1925 ~ Birthday of Tony Curtis, Actor.

1926 ~ Birthday of Allen Ginsberg, American poet.

1937 ~ The Duke of Windsor married American divorcee Wallis Warfield Simpson, for whom he had abdicated the British throne.

1965 ~ Edward White became the first American astronaut to walk in space.

1969 ~ The science fiction television series Star Trek aired its final new episode after being canceled by NBC.

1982 ~ The Israeli ambassador to Britain was shot on a London street.

June 4th
 

1798 ~ Death of Giacomo Casanova, Italian Lover.

1919 ~ Birthday of Robert Merrill, American Baritone.

1928 ~ Birthday of Dr. Ruth Westheimer, German-American Sex Therapist.

1940 ~ The Allies completed the evacuation of British troops from Dunkirk, France.

1944 ~ Birthday of Michelle Phillips, American Singer (The Mamas & the Papas).

1975 ~ Birthday of Angelina Jolie, American Actress.

1984 ~ The album ''Born in the U.S.A.'' by Bruce Springsteen was released.

1986 ~ Jonathan Pollard pleaded guilty to espionage for selling top secret U.S. military intelligence to Israel.

1989 ~ The Tiananmen Square Massacre.

1998 ~ Terry Nichols was sentenced to life in prison for his role in the Oklahoma City bombing.

June 5th
 

1723 ~ Birthday of Adam Smith, Scottish Economist.

1883 ~ Birthday of John Keynes, English Economist.

1910 ~ Death of O. Henry, American author.

1944 ~ WWII: Rome was liberated.

1947 ~ At a speech at Harvard University, U.S. Secretary of State George Marshall called for economic aid to Europe.

1963 ~ UK Secretary of State for War, John Profumo, resigned over a sex scandal.

1967 ~ Israel began the Six Day War with a pre-emptive attack on Egypt.

1968 ~ Sen. Robert Kennedy was shot in Los Angeles, CA.

1975 ~ Death of Paul Keres, Estonian chess player.

2004 ~ Death of Ronald Reagan.

June 6th
 

1683 ~ Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum opened to the public as the world's first university museum.

1844 ~ The Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) was founded in London.

1868 ~ Birthday of Robert Falcon Scott, English Explorer.

1901 ~ Birthday of Sukarno, first President of Indonesia.

1903 ~ Birthday of Aram Khachaturian, Armenian composer.

1944 ~ D-Day began with the landing of 155,000 Allied troops on the beaches of Normandy in France.

1961 ~ Death of Carl Jung, Swiss psychologist.

1984 ~ Indian troops stormed the Golden Temple in Amritsar.

1985 ~ Authorities in Brazil exhumed a body later identified as that of Dr. Josef Mengele, the Nazi doctor who conducted medical experiments on inmates at Auschwitz.

2002 ~ The Wye Oak, Maryland's honorary state tree, was destroyed in a thunderstorm.

June 8th
 

632 ~ Death of Muhammad, founder of Islam.

1810 ~ Birthday of Robert Schumann, Composer.

1866 ~ The Canadian Parliament met for the first time in Ottawa.

1876 ~ Death of George Sand, Author.

1887 ~ Herman Hollerith received a patent for his punch card calculator.

1910 ~ Birthday of John W. Campbell Jr., Science Fiction Writer, Publisher, & Editor.

1916 ~ Birthday of Professor Francis Harry Compton Crick, OM FRS, most noted for being one of the discoverers of the structure of the DNA molecule. Awarded Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1962.

1949 ~ Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell was published.

1984 ~ Homosexuality is decriminalized in New South Wales, Australia.

1998 ~ Charlton Heston assumed the presidency of the National Rifle Association.

June 9th
 

1810 ~ Birthday of Otto Nicolai, Composer.

1870 ~ Death of Charles Dickens, English author.

1891 ~ Birthday of Cole Porter, Composer.

1916 ~ Birthday of Robert McNamara, U.S. Secretary of Defense, former president of the World Bank.

1934 ~ Donald Duck debuted in The Wise Little Hen.

1954 ~ Beginning of the end of the McCarthy Era.

1959 ~ The USS George Washington launched as the first submarine to carry ballistic missiles.

1970 ~ Assassination attempt on King Hussein of Jordan.

1973 ~ Secretariat won the Triple Crown.

2004 ~ The FCC agreed to a $1.75 million settlement with Clear Channel to resolve indecency complaints against Howard Stern and other radio personalities.

June 10th
 

1829 ~ First Boat Race between Oxford and Cambridge.

1836 ~ Death of André-Marie Ampère, French physicist.

1846 ~ The California Republic declared independence from Mexico.

1915 ~ Birthday of Saul Bellow, Canadian-born American author, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature.

1921 ~ Birthday of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

1922 ~ Birthday of Judy Garland, Singer & Actress.

1940 ~ Italy declared war on France and Britain; Canada declared war on Italy.

1967 ~ End of the Six-Day War.

1999 ~ Yugoslav troops departed Kosovo, prompting NATO to suspend its air war.

2004 ~ Death of Ray Charles, Singer & Musician.

June 11th
 

1770 ~ Captain James Cook ran aground on the Great Barrier Reef.

1776 ~ Birthday of John Constable, English painter.

1864 ~ Birthday of Richard Strauss, Composer & Conductor.

1892 ~ The Limelight Department, one of the world's first film studios, opened in Melbourne.

1918 ~ Birthday of Nelson Mandela, former President of SA, awarded the Nobel Peace Prize 1993.

1937 ~ Death of R. J. Mitchell, British aircraft designer, developer of the Spitfire.

1942 ~ The U.S. and the USSR signed a lend lease agreement to aid the Soviet war effort in WWII.

1987 ~ Margaret Thatcher became the first British PM in 160 years to win a third consecutive term in office.

2001 ~ Death of Timothy McVeigh, terrorist (executed).

2004 ~ Cassini-Huygens made its closest flyby of Phoebe.

June 12th
 

1897 ~ Birthday of Anthony Eden, British P.M.

1942 ~ Anne Frank received a diary for her thirteenth birthday.

1962 ~ Three prisoners escaped from Alcatraz prison.

1963 ~ Death of Medgar Evers, American civil rights activist.

1967 ~ In Loving v. Virginia, the U.S. Supreme Court declared all state laws which prohibit interracial marriage to be unconstitutional.

1979 ~ Bryan Allen flew the man powered Gossamer Albatross across the English Channel.

1987 ~ Ronald Reagan publicly challenged Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall.

1994 ~ Nicole Simpson and Ronald Goldman were murdered outside her home in Los Angeles. O. J. Simpson was acquitted of the killings, but held liable in a civil suit.

1997 ~ Major league baseball began interleague play.

2003 ~ Death of Gregory Peck, Actor.

June 13th
 

1777 ~ Marquis de Lafayette arrived in America to help train its army.

1865 ~ Birthday of William Butler Yeats, Poet, awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature 1923.

1892 ~ Birthday of Basil Rathbone, Actor.

1944 ~ Germany launched the first V1 “Buzz Bomb” attack on England.

1966 ~ The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the police must inform suspects of their rights before questioning them (Miranda v. Arizona).

1967 ~ Solicitor General Thurgood Marshall was nominated as the first black Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

1970 ~ "The Long and Winding Road" became the Beatles' last #1 song.

1981 ~ A teen-ager fired six blank shots at Queen Elizabeth during a parade in London.

1982 ~ Fahd became King of Saudi Arabia upon the death of his brother, Khalid.

1995 ~ French president Jacques Chirac announced the resumption of nuclear tests in French Polynesia.

June 14th
 

1671 ~ Birthday of Tomaso Albinoni, Italian Composer.

1736 ~ Birthday of Charles Augustin de Coulomb, French mathematician. The unit of electrical charge, the coulomb, and Coulomb's law are named after him.

1841 ~ The first Canadian parliament opened in Kingston.

1903 ~ Birthday of Alonzo Church, Mathematician & Logician.

1909 ~ Birthday of Burl Ives, American Folk Singer, Author & Actor.

1919 ~ John Alcock and Arthur Brown depart St. John's, Newfoundland on the first nonstop transatlantic flight.

1940 ~ WWII: German troops enter Paris.

1952 ~ The keel was laid for the nuclear submarine USS Nautilus.

1982 ~ Argentine forces in the capital Port Stanley unconditionally surrender to British forces, bringing the Falklands War to an end.

1995 ~ Death of Roger Zelazny, science fiction author.

June 15th
 

1215 ~ King John put his seal to the Magna Carta at Runnymede, England.

1752 ~ Benjamin Franklin showed that lightning is electricity.

1844 ~ Charles Goodyear received a patent for a process to strengthen rubber.

1843 ~ Birthday of Edvard Grieg, Norwegian Composer.

1904 ~ A fire aboard the steamboat General Slocum killed a 1,000 people.

1978 ~ King Hussein of Jordan married 26-year-old Lisa Halaby, who became Queen Noor.

1983 ~ Julia Fischer, German Violinist.

1995 ~ Death of John Vincent Atanasoff, computer pioneer.

1996 ~ In Manchester, U.K., a terrorist bomb injured over 200 people.

1996 ~ Death of Ella Fitzgerald, Jazz singer.

June 16th
 

1829 ~ Birthday of Geronimo, Apache Warrior & Leader.

1890 ~ Birthday of Stan Laurel, Comedian.

1912 ~ Birthday of Enoch Powell, British politician.

1933 ~ Start of President Roosevelt’s New Deal.

1938 ~ Birthday of Joyce Carol Oates, novelist.

1948 ~ The Miss Macao passenger seaplane became the first skyjacking of a commercial plane.

1961 ~ Rudolf Nureyev defected at Le Bourget airport in Paris.

1963 ~ Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space.

1976 ~ Riots broke out in the black South African township of Soweto.

1977 ~ Death of Wernher von Braun, rocket scientist.

June 17th
 

1631 ~ Mumtaz Mahal died during childbirth. Her husband, Shah Jahan I, built her a tomb, the Taj Mahal.

1775 ~ The Battle of Bunker Hill took place near Boston during the Revolutionary War.

1818 ~ Birthday of Charles Gounod, French Composer.

1882 ~ Birthday of Igor Stravinsky, Russian Composer.

1885 ~ The Statue of Liberty arrived in New York.

1898 ~ Birthday of M.C. Escher, Dutch Artist.

1928 ~ Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic.

1929 ~ Birthday of Tigran Petrosian, Georgian chess player.

1945 ~ Birthday of Eddy Merckx, Belgian Cycling Champion.

1974 ~ The Irish Republican Army bombed the UK’s House of Parliament.