On June 27 in …

1844 -– Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saints movement (Mormons), and his brother Hyrum Smith, are killed by a mob at the Carthage, Illinois, jail.

1880 — Helen Adams Keller is born in Tuscumbia, AL. A childhood illnesses rendered her deaf, mute, and blind, Nevertheless, she went  on to greatness with the assistance of educator Anne Sullivan who taught her to read Braille and to sign. She graduated from college, became an inspirational speaker, and was  one of the founders of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

1929 — Scientists at Bell Laboratories in New York reveal a system for transmitting television pictures created by Herbert E. Ives and colleagues. The first images to appear were a bouquet of roses and an American flag. A mechanical system was utilized to transmit the 50-line color television images between AT&T in New York and Washington.

1973 — Former White House counsel John W. Dean tells the Senate Watergate Committee about an “enemies list” that is being kept by the Nixon White House.

2013 — The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) launches the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS), a space probe built to observe the sun.

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On June 26 in …

1483 — The 12th of 13 children of Richard Plantagenet, the 3rd Duke of York, and Cecily Neville, is crowned Richard III, King of England.

1804 — The Lewis and Clark Expedition — also known as the Corps of Discovery Expedition — reaches the mouth of the Kansas River after completing a westward trek of nearly 400 river miles. The group was the first American expedition to cross what now is the western portion of the United States, departing in May 1804 from near St. Louis and making their way westward through the Continental Divide to the Pacific Coast.

1844 — John Tyler of Virginia weds Julia Gardiner, thus becoming the first U.S. President to marry while in office.

1945 — The United Nations Charter is signed by 50 nations in San Francisco. One of the major non-governmental organizations (NGO) assisting in the creation of the organization is Rotary International.

1997 — J.K. Rowling’s book “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone,” is published in the United Kingdom, the first in the Harry Potter series. (It later was released in the United States under the title “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.”)

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On June 25 in …

1788 — Virginia ratifies the U.S. Constitution and becomes the 10th state.

1876 — The Battle of the Little Bighorn (popularly called Custer’s Last Stand) is fought on June 25-26 near the Little Bighorn River in eastern Montana Territory. Combined forces of the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes killed Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer and virtually all of his forces.

1947 — “The Diary of a Young Girl,” better known as “The Diary of Anne Frank,” is published in London.

1950 — The Korean War begins with the invasion of South Korea by Communist North Korea.

1991 –- Croatia and Slovenia declare their independence from Yugoslavia.

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On June 23 in …

1314 — In the First War of Scottish Independence, the Battle of Bannockburn is fought near Stirling Castle, with Scottish forces defeating the English.

1683 — Founder William Penn signs a friendship treaty with the Lenni Lenape (a/k/a/  Delaware tribe of Indians) in the Pennsylvania colony.

1912 — Alan Turing is born in London. The English mathematician and computer scientist became a leading member of the Bletchley Park team of cryptographers that cracked the Germans’ Enigma coding machine, a turning point in World War II.

1926 — The College Entrance Examination Board conducts the first Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT).

2013 -– Nik Wallenda becomes the first man to successfully walk across the Grand Canyon on a tight rope.

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On June 22 in …

1611 — English explorer Henry Hudson — namesake of the Hudson River — along with his son and several other people exploring North America aboard the ship Discovery  for a Dutch company are set adrift in present-day Hudson Bay, Canada, by mutineers.

1633 — The Holy Office in Rome forces Galileo Galileo to recant his view that the sun, not the Earth, is the center of the universe.

1772 — Slavery is outlawed in England.

1942 –- The U.S. Congress formally adopts the “Pledge of Allegiance.”

1969 — The Cuyahoga River catches fire in Cleveland, OH, drawing national attention to water pollution and spurring eventual passage of the federal Clean Water Act and creation of the Environmental Protection Agency.

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On June 21 in …

1736 — Enoch Poor is born in Andover, MA. He becomes a brigadier general in the Revolutionary War and is instrumental in the Colonials’ victory at the Battle of Freeman’s Farm, the first of the Saratoga area battles.

1788 — New Hampshire ratifies the Constitution of the United States, becoming the  ninth state.

1942 –- In the early days of World War II, a Japanese submarine surfaces near the Columbia River in Oregon, and fires 17 shells at nearby Fort Stevens.

1900 — During the Boxer Rebellion, an edict issued by the Empress Dowager Cixi declares war on the United States, Britain, Germany, France, and Japan.

2009 — Greenland and its 56,000 residents assumed full self-rule while remaining nominally a part of the Kingdom of Denmark.

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On June 20th in …

1248 –- The University of Oxford receives its Royal charter.

1782 -– Congress adopts the Great Seal of the United States.

1877 — Alexander Graham Bell installs the world’s first commercial telephone service, in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

1945 –- The U.S. Secretary of State approves the transfer of Wernher von Braun and his team of Nazi rocket scientists to America.

1975 –- The film “Jaws” is released in the United States, becoming the highest-grossing film of that time.

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