Today in HisStory – June 26

Pied Piper lured 130 children of Hamelin away. This actually happened. (1284)

Toothbrush was invented in China. (1498)

The Diet of Ilanz proclaimed the right of all persons in the Grisons, a region of Switzerland to choose between the Catholic and the Reformed religion. Those who chose the Reformed were subject to banishment but not to death. (1526)

Francisco Pizarro, governor of Peru and conqueror of the Incas, was assassinated by Spanish rebels. (1541)

John Flavel, an English Puritan preacher ejected from his pulpit, died. He suffered much of his life from laws against Nonconformists but had many parishioners who would travel more than five miles one way to hear him preach in woods. He wrote many books, influencing future revival leaders, including George Whitefield and Robert Murray M’Cheyne. (1691)

American Revolutionary War: Delaware patriot Caesar Rodney, who rode on horseback all night to Philadelphia to cast the deciding vote on independence. died. (1784)

Mother Javouhey, a French nun, sailed with 100 people to the outcast colony of French New Giana in South Africa. It is also included Devil’s Island (1828)

First pure food law was enacted in US. (1848)

The first 62 recipients were awarded the Victoria Cross for valour in the Crimean war by Queen Victoria. (1857)

Missionary J. Hudson Taylor founded the China Inland Mission. (1865)

Christian holiday of Christmas was declared a federal holiday in the United States. (1870)

Iaac Barton Kimbrough, a Tennessee preacher who led thousands to Christ, was robbed of money he collected for a Christian college. After urging the robbers to repent, he convinced them to donate to the cause instead. (1886)

Pearl S. Buck, American Presbyterian missionary to China. was born. She was the author of the 1931 best-seller, The Good Earth. (1892)

Karl Benz of Germany received a US patent for a gasoline-driven automobile. (1894)

First movie theater in US opened in New Orleans. It charged 10 cents for admission. (1896)

Dr Walter Reed began research that led to effective treatment for Yellow Fever. (1900)

The Indian Relief Act passed after a protracted period of Passive Resistance led by Gandhi. (1914)

US President FDR signed the Federal Credit Union Act establishing Credit Unions. (1934)

WW2: Germany and Poland signed a non-aggression treaty. Germany broke it in 1939 starting the war. (1934)

United Nations Charter was signed. (1945)

Alma Bridwell White, first female bishop in the United States for the Pillar of Fire denomination—formerly known as the Methodist Pentecostal Union Church, died. A supporter of the Ku Klux Klan, she was anti-Semitic and strongly opposed to Pentecostal manifestations such as tongues-speaking. (1946)

Berlin airlift began. (1948)

The Universal Product Code was scanned for the first time to sell a package of Wrigley’s chewing gum at the Marsh Supermarket in Troy, Ohio. (1974)

U.S. Supreme Court’s ruled unanimously in “O’Connor v. Donaldson” that non-dangerous people can’t be confined to psychiatric facilities without adequate treatment if able to live viably in outside society. (1975)

Elvis Presley sang in Indianapolis. It was his last performance. (1977)

Noble Alexander, a Seventh Day Adventist pastor, stepped off a plane in Washington D.C. after spending twenty-two years in Castro’s prisons because of his faith. (1984)

U.S. Supreme Court struck down Internet indecency law. (1997)

U.S. Supreme Court upheld doctor-assisted suicide ban. (1997)

US Supreme Court ruled 5-4 same-sex marriage is a legal right across all US states. (2015)

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Today in HisStory – June 25

Irish missionary Moluag died. He had introduced Christianity to the Island of Lismore and parts of northeastern Scotland. (592 AD)

Five Canterbury monks reported something exploding on Moon. (1178)

The Augsburg Confession, the primary confession of faith for the Lutheran Church, was presented by Germany’s Protestant princes to Holy Roman emperor Charles V at the Diet of Augsburg. (1530)

The German Book of Concord was published. It contained all the official confessions of the Lutheran Church. (1580)

The fork was introduced to Americans by Governor Winthrop in Plymouth. (1630)

Lunar eclipse was the first astronomical event recorded in the American Colonies. (1638)

First blood transfusion was performed by French Doctor Jean-Baptiste Denys. (1667)

First recorded monthly Quaker meeting was held in US at Sandwich, Massachusetts. (1672)

Elena Cornaro Piscopia, a Venetian, was awarded a doctorate of philosophy. She was the first woman to receive a university doctoral decree. (1678)

John and Charles Wesley and four other clergymen held the first Methodist Conference in London. (1744)

US Civil War: US General George Meade replaced General Hooker as commander of the Army of the Potomac.  (1863)

English pioneer missionary J. Hudson Taylor prayed for twenty-four willing and skillful workers and founded the China Inland Mission. It later known as OMF—the Overseas Missionary Fellowship International. (1865)

First barbed wire was patented by Lucien B Smith of Ohio. (1867)

US Civil War: Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina were readmitted to the US. (1868)

In the Battle of the Little Bighorn, US 7th Cavalry under Brevet Major General George Armstrong Custer were wiped out by Sioux and Cheyenne warriors led by Chiefs Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull. It became known as “Custer’s Last Stand”. (1876)

Mann Act was passed stating no man can take a women across state lines for immoral purposes. (1910)

US Civil War: Veterans began arriving at the Great Reunion of 1913. (1913)

Myrtle Wilson and a group of women who wanted to be missionaries in Africa prayed for funds. Within a month, they receive enough money to sail for their destination. (1917)

US President Hoover authorized building of Boulder Dam, now known as Hoover Dam. (1929)

US President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802 forbidding discrimination in the National Defense Industry. (1941)

WW2: Major General Dwight Eisenhower was appointed commander of US forces in Europe. (1945)

Anne Frank’s diary was published in Netherlands. (1947)

Korean War: The war began when North Korea invaded South Korea. (1950)

US Supreme Court ruled school prayer is unconstitutional. (1962)

US Supreme Court upheld male-only draft registration and declared it constitutional. (1981)

US Supreme Court ruled family members cannot end lives of comatose relatives unless those relatives previously made their wishes known. (1990)

Independence Day, directed by Roland Emmerich and starring Will Smith, Bill Pullman and Jeff Goldblum, premiered (1996)

The US Supreme Court ruled police cannot examine the digital contents of a cell phone without a court order. (2014)

Today in HisStory – June 24

Nero began the first imperial persecution of Christians. He was responsible for Apostle Peter, Apostle Paul, and thousands of other being martyred. (64 AD)

Vikings destroyed Nantes in Western France. (843 AD)

A sudden outbreak of St. John’s Dance caused people in the streets of Aachen, Germany, to experience hallucinations and begin to jump and twitch uncontrollably until they collapsed from exhaustion. (1374)

John Cabot claimed Eastern Canada for England believing he found Asia in Nova Scotia. (1497)

Henry VIII was crowned King of England in Westminster Abbey. (1509)

English King Henry VIII commanded his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, to leave the court. (1540)

Five clergyman in Enkhuizen, Holland were hanged. (1572)

New Jersey Colony was founded. (1664)

First Free Masons’ grand lodge was founded in London. (1717)

The Kingswood School was opened by John and Charles Wesley in Bristol. The school later moved to Bath. (1748)

In the Gadsden Purchase, 29,670-square-mile were purchased from Mexico for $10 million. This is now southern Arizona and New Mexico. (1853)

US Civil War: Tennessee  11th state to secede from the Union, was the last state to do so. (1861)

Samuel David Ferguson, the first African-American Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church, was consecrated. (1885)

Decision was made to hold modern Olympics every four years. (1894)

An imperial decree ordered the killing of foreigners throughout China and started the brutal Boxer Rebellion. The uprising was not primarily anti-Christian, but missionaries and Chinese converts became the chief sufferers. (1900)

First exhibition by Pablo Picasso opened in Paris. (1901)

US President Grover Cleveland, the only president to serve two non-consecutive terms, died. (1908)

Mary Pickford became the first female film star to get a million dollar contract. (1916)

Orville J. Nave died. He was a U.S. Armed Services chaplain and the compiler of the popular Nave’s Topical Bible. (1917)

WW2: Adolf Hitler began a month long prison sentence for paramilitary operations. He railed against the Jewish sell-outs of Germany to the Bolsheviks. (1922)

WW 2: Entire Jewish male population of Grossly, Lithuania was exterminated by the Nazis. (1941)

United Church of Christ in Japan was founded. (1941)

Soviet Union began the Berlin Blockade. (1948)

U.S. Supreme Court ruled that obscenity is not protected by the First Amendment in Roth v. United States. (1957)

IRS revealed US President Jimmy Carter paid no taxes in 1976. (1977)

US Supreme Court ruled a US president can’t be sued for actions in office. (1982)

Today in HisStory – June 23

World’s oldest parliament, the Icelandic Parliament, the Alþingi, was established. (930 AD)

English Quaker William Penn signed his famous treaty with the Lenape Indians of Pennsylvania that was never sworn to or broken. (1683)

US Revolutionary War: Final draft of Declaration of Independence was submitted to Continental Congress. (1776)

First US balloon flight took place. (1784)

Dan Beach Bradley died. He was a doctor, newspaperman, and first missionary to Siam. (1873)

Frederick Douglas became the first African-American nominated for president. (1888)

Mercedes registered as the brand name for the car company. (1902)

Landslides created 3-mile long Slide Lake in Gros Venture, Wyoming. (1925)

Walter J. Ciszek was arrested in Russia where he has been preaching the gospel in spite of Communist laws against doing so. His book, He Leadeth Me, recounted his experiences and sufferings. (1941)

First twelve women graduated from Harvard Medical School. (1949)

Dutch Reformed Church accepted women ministers. (1958)

US Federal judge ruled race separation must end in Little Rock, Arkansas. (1958)

Convicted Manhattan Project spy Klaus Fuchs was released after only nine years in prison. (1959)

Japan signed security treaty with the US. (1960)

The Antarctic Treaty ensured Antarctica is used for peaceful purposes, for international cooperation in scientific research, and does not become the scene or object of international discord. (1961)

US President Richard Nixon and his Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman agreed to use CIA to cover up Watergate. (1972)

First extraterrestrial message was sent from Earth into space. (1974)

United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union in their Brexit referendum. (2016)

Today in HisStory – June 22

A Roman soldier, Alban, became the first martyr in England after harboring a priest and taking his place. Alban was tortured and given a chance to renounce Christ but wouldn’t. The soldier who was to behead Alban was so awed that he refused to do the job, becoming a Christian himself on the spot. Another soldier was ordered to behead them both. (208 AD)

John Fisher is beheaded by command of King Henry VIII of England because he has openly rebuked Henry’s divorce from Catherine of Aragon and refused to accept Henry as head of the Church of England. (1535)

Queen Elizabeth’s first Anglican Prayer Book was published. (1559)

Henry Hudson was set adrift in Hudson Bay by mutineers on his ship Discovery. He was never seen again. (1611)

Galileo appeared before the Inquisition and was forced to recant his views that the Earth orbits the sun. (1663)

Royal Greenwich Observatory was established in England by King Charles II. (1675)

Scottish Covenanters published the Declaration of Sanquhar, disavowing allegiance to King Charles II and the government of Scotland because of governmental interference in religious affairs. This action soon brought Covenanter rebel Richard Cameron and his followers into trouble. (1680)

Matthew Henry, famous as a Bible commentator, died. (1714)

Donut was created. (1747)

Great Awakening preacher Jonathan Edwards was dismissed from his Congregational pulpit in Northampton, Massachusetts for refusing to allow non-Christians to become members or accept communion. He would serve as their pastor for two years after being fired. One hundred and fifty years later, Northampton Church erected a monument to Edwards. (1750)

Somerset v Stewart UK court case ruled slavery was unsupported by English common law. This encouraged abolitionist movement. (1772)

War of 1812: British boarded the USS Chesapeake, a provocation leading to war. (1807)

War of 1812: Upon learning of plans by the Americans to execute a surprise attack, Laura Secord, a Canadian, walked 32 km to warn the British troops. This resulted in a British surprise victory at the Battle of Beaver Dam. (1812)

The Palestine Exploration Fund was first organized with the purpose to provide information about the archaeology, history, and people of the Holy Land (1865)

In  China, practically the whole foreign community in Peking, including many Chinese Christians, retreated to British compounds during the Boxer Rebellion. (1900)

John Dillinger was named America’s first Public Enemy Number One. (1934)

The Cuyahoga River in Cleveland, Ohio caught fire. (1969)

US President Nixon signed the 26th amendment lowering the voting age to 18. (1970)

US Supreme Court ruled juries of less than 12 are constitutional. (1970)

Today in HisStory – June 21

Jews were expelled from Nurenberg Bavaria by Emperor Maximillian. (1498)

Francis Fletcher, chaplain to Sir Francis Drake, read from the Anglican Book of Common Prayer somewhere in California. This was the first known Protestant church service in the New World. (1579)

The first Protestant church in America was established in Jamestown. (1607)

Increase Mather was born. He was an early American theologian who published nearly 100 books and helped end executions for witchcraft in colonial America. (1639)

King Charles II revoked the Massachusetts Bay Colony charter. (1684)

In Montreal, a black slave, Marie-Joseph Angélique, having been convicted of the arson that destroyed much of the city, was tortured and hanged by the French authorities in a public ceremony. (1734)

US Constitution was ratified. (1788)

French Revolution: French King Louis XVI and his family were captured at Varennes-en-Argonne while trying to flee France. (1791)

The African Methodist Episcopal AME Zion Church was formally constituted in New York City. (1821)

American inventor, Christian, and businessman Cyrus Hall McCormick patented the reaping machine. He made a fortune from it and gave most of the money to charities. (1834)

Isaac McCoy, a missionary to American Indians, died. He wrote many times about his concern of the Indians being corrupted by white men. (1846)

F.W. Woolworth opened the first store. It  failed almost immediately. (1879)

First Ferris wheel premiered in Chicago. (1893)

U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decision in Guinn v. United States striking down an Oklahoma law denying the right to vote to some male citizens. Women still didn’t have the right to vote. (1915)

WW2: US defeated Japanese on Okinawa. (1945)

Three civil rights workers, Michael H Schwerner, Andrew Goodman & James E Chane, were killed by Klu Klux Klan after their release from a Mississippi jail. (1964)

Jaws movie opened. (1975)

Space Ship One became the first privately funded spaceplane to achieve spaceflight. (2004)

Today in HisStory – June 20

Archbishop John Chrysostom, whose reforms fought against abuses in the church, left Constantinople under arrest, never to return. (404 AD)

The University of Oxford received its charter. (1214)

Clement VII and Holy Roman Emperor Charles V signed the Peace of Barcelona which ended attacks on Rome by the Lutheran armies. (1529)

The Synod of Diamper reunited a native church in India established by the Apostle Thomas with Rome. (1599)

In the Black Hole of Calcutta, 146 British soldiers were imprisoned in small dungeon in Calcutta, India where most died. (1756)

Congress approved the Great Seal of the United States of America and the bald eagle as its symbols. (1782)

Oliver Ellsworth moved at the Federal Convention to call the government the United States. (1787)

French Revolution: King Louis XVI was caught while trying to escape. (1791)

320 ton Savannah, first steamship to cross any ocean, crossed the Atlantic. (1819)

Queen Victoria at 18 ascended the British throne following death of her uncle, King William IV. (1837)

Samuel Morse patented the telegraph. (1840)

US Civil War: West Virginia seceded from Virginia and was admitted as the 35th US State. (1863)

US President Andrew Johnson announced the purchase of Alaska. (1867)

Flu Klux Klan trials began in Mississippi. (1871)

Samuel Robbins Brown, one of the first missionaries to Japan, died. (1880)

A band of Moravian missionaries landed on the shores of Alaska and founded the Bethel Mission. (1885)

Lizzie Borden was acquitted of the ax murders of her father and stepmother in Fall River, Massachusetts. (1893)

Caroline Willard Baldwin was the first female to earn a PhD from an American University. She received it in Science at Cornell University. (1895)

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, NAACP, incorporated in New York. (1911)

WW1: In the Treaty of Versailles, Germany ended the incorporation of Austria. (1919)

Minnie Kennedy, mother of Aimee Semple McPherson, tried to end speculation about the evangelist’s sudden disapperance by holding a memorial service for her at Angelus Temple. Three days later McPherson reappeared with a tale of having been kidnapped. (1926)

John Dillinger was named America’s first Public Enemy Number One. (1934)

WW2: Adolf Eichmann ordered deportation of Dutch Jews. (1942)

WW2: Nazis began mass extermination of Jews at Auschwitz. (1944)

WW2: Congress chartered the Central Intelligence Agency, then known as the Central Intelligence Group. (1944)

WW2: The United States Secretary of State approved the transfer of Wernher von Braun and his team of Nazi rocket scientists to America. (1945)

Central Intelligence Agency Act was passed. (1949)

Jaws, based on the book by Peter Benchley, was released. It was directed by Steven Spielberg and starred Roy Schneider. (1975)

Traian Dorz, a Romanian poet who served as leader of the Orthodox revival movement known as The Lord’s Army, died. During his life, he had suffered imprisonment, harrassment, and restriction by the Communist government and hostile church authorities. (1989)

Militant Muslims gunned down two Christian businessmen at Dairut, Assiut and sprayed responding police officers with machine gun fire, killing two. (1992)

English mathematician Andrew Wiles proved the last theorem of Fermat. (1993)

Heat wave peaked in southern Pakistan. It killed around 2,000 people from dehydration and heat stroke. (2015)

Today in HisStory – June 19

The Nicaea Creed was written stating Christ as eternal and of the same essence as the Father. (325 AD)

Richard Fitz and several other separatists are arrested in Plumber’s Hall, London, holding a meeting under guise of a wedding. This was generally considered the birth of Congregationalism. It is the model of church government where local congregations make decisions without consulting with an outside bishop. (1567)

English colonists sailed from Roanoke Island, North Carolina giving up hope of starting a colony there. (1586)

David Brainerd started his influential journal when he began to preach to the Indians at Crossweeksung in New Jersey. (1745)

Robert Peel founded the London Metropolitan Police also known as Bobbies. (1829)

First officially recognized baseball game took place at Hoboken, New Jersey. New York Nines 23 defeated Knickerbockers 1. (1846)

US Civil War: Slavery was outlawed in all US territories. (1862)

US Civil War: Union General Granger informed slaves in Texas they were free, two years after the Emancipation Proclamation freed them legally. (1865)

US Civil War: Siege of Richmond, Virginia began. (1865)

First celebration of Father’s Day took place. (1910)

First airship, Germany, was in service. (1910)

Hailstones killed 200 in Hunan Province, China. (1932)

Hermann Goering ordered seizure of Dutch horses, car, buses, and ships. (1940)

Cheerios Cereal invented an O-shaped cereal. (1941)

WW2: First day of the two day Battle of the Philippine Sea happened. US naval forces defeated Japanese fleet. (1944)

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were convicted of conspiring to pass U.S. atomic secrets to the Soviets, were executed. They were the only Cold War spies to be executed in the US. (1953)

Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin ended their partnership after 16 films. (1956)

US Supreme Court struck down a provision in Maryland’s constitution requiring state office holders to believe in God. (1961)

Valentina Tereshkova, first woman in space, returned to Earth. (1963)

Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed 73-27. (1964)

Garfield, created by Jim Davis, first appeared as a comic strip. (1978)

US Supreme Court struck down a Louisiana law requiring public schools to teach creationism if they taught evolutionism. (1987)

Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar surrendered to police. (1991)

Stephen King was hit by a car in Lovell, Maine where he suffered numerous injuries. (1999)

Tiger Woods won golf’s US Open by 15 shots, a record for all majors, with a US Open to-par record score of -12 (2000)

Today in HisStory – June 18

Anne Askew was burned at the stake for teaching that the Lord’s Supper is not literally the body and blood of Christ, but rather a sacred symbol of it. (1546)

William Penn founded Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (1682)

US Revolutionary War: British abandoned Philadelphia. (1778)

First Baptist church was established in Kentucky by 18 people including Daniel Boone’s brother and three African Americans. (1781)

War of 1812: US declared war against Britain. (1812)

At the Battle of Waterloo, Napoleon and France were defeated by British forces under Wellington and Prussian troops. (1815)

Slave revolt leaders Denmark Vesey and Peter Poyas were arrested in South Carolina. (1822)

Part of US-Canadian boundary was determined. (1822)

Susan B. Anthony was fined $100 for voting for President (1873)

Macadamia nuts were first planted in Hawaii. (1892)

Bernard Mizeki, an African evangelist, was speared to death in Southern Rhodesia. Threatened, he had refused to flee, saying he worked for Christ. His wife and a helper leave to get blankets for him and reported that, from a distance, they saw a blinding light on the hillside where he has been lying, and heard a rushing sound, as though of many wings. When they return to the spot, his body has disappeared.(1896)

The Chicago national Republican Convention split between President Taft and Theodore Roosevelt after Taft was nominated. Roosevelt formed the Progressive Party also known as the Bull Moose Party. (1912)

American aviator Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean. She landed at Burry Port, Wales. (1928)

US Highway planning surveys were authorized nationwide. (1934)

WW2: Winston Churchill’s “this was their finest hour” speech urged perseverance during Battle of Britain. It was delivered to British House of Commons. (1940)

WW2: General Charles de Gaulle told the French to defy Nazi occupiers on the BBC. (1940)

WW2: German occupiers slaughtered cattle, pigs, and chickens in France. (1940)

WW2: Bernard W Robinson, became the first black ensign in the US Navy. (1942)

WW2: German submarine U-767 was sunk by English Navy destroyers in the English Channel. (1944)

WW2: William Joyce, Lord Haw-Haw, was charged with treason for making propaganda broadcasts for the Nazis. (1945)

American Library Association adopted Library Bill of Rights. (1948)

Divine services, Bible studies, and celebration of Communion in East Germany were forbidden by the Communist government. (1955)

US Supreme Court banned racial discrimination in the sale and rental of housing. (1968)

Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev visited the US and President Nixon. (1973)

Space Shuttle test model Enterprise carried a crew aloft for first time. It was fixed to a modified Boeing 747. (1977)

A vaccine to prevent hoof & mouth disease was announced. (1981)

The AIDS epidemic was formally recognized by medical professionals in San Francisco, California. (1981)

Sally Ride became the first US woman in space. (1983)

Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber, was indicted on ten criminal counts. (1996)

Today in HisStory – June 17

Roman Emperor Julian ordered all professors and schoolmasters must obtain a license before teaching—thus excluding Christians from educating youth. (362 AD)

Sir Francis Drake landed on the coast of California at Drakes Bay and named it “New Albion”. (1579)

Anti-English uprising took place in Ireland. (1579)

Mumtaz Mahal died during childbirth. Her husband, Mughal emperor Shah Jahan I, spent more than 20 years building her tomb, the Taj Mahal. (1631)

Massachusetts ordered a Catholic priest to leave the colony. (1700)

John Wesley, founder of Methodism, was born. (1703)

Moravians settled in Herrnhut. (1722)

Moravians began a 100 year, round the clock, prayer meeting at Herrnhut, Germany in what many consider the catalyst of the First Great Awakening. (1727)

US Revolutionary War: Battle of Bunker Hill took place. (1775)

In Norwalk, after singing and praying, Jesse Lee preaches his first sermon in Connecticut out of doors because no one will let him borrow a house or barn. He would go on to start Methodist Churches throughout New England. (1789)

US Bureau of Indian Affairs was established. (1824)

Charles Goodyear obtained his first rubber patent. (1837)

King Kamehameha III of Hawaii issued Edict of toleration which gave Roman Catholics freedom to worship in the Hawaiian Islands. The Hawaii Catholic Church and the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace was later established. (1839)

Republican Party opened its first national convention in Philadelphia. (1856)

Tornado killed 130 in Iowa. (1882)

Statue of Liberty arrived in New York Harbor. (1885)

The first US polio epidemic broke out in Rutland, Vermont. (1894)

The United States Navy Hospital Corps was established. (1898)

The College Board introduced its first standardized test. This was the forerunner to the SAT. (1901)

The League to Enforce Peace was organized at Independence Hall in Philadelphia with US President William Howard Taft as president of the organization. The program was the forerunner of the League of Nations. (1915)

Evangelist Paul Rader made the first of many radio broadcasts to generate publicity for his evangelistic meetings. (1922)

WW2: Japan declared war on China. (1938)

Last public guillotining in France took place in Versailles outside the Saint-Pierre prison. Eugen Weidmann, a convicted murderer, was guillotined. (1939)

WW2: France asked Germany for terms of surrender. (1940)

WW2: General De Gaulle departed Bordeaux for London. (1940)

WW2: USSR occupied Estonia. (1940)

First kidney transplant took place in Chicago. (1950)

Thomas Road Baptist Church was founded by Jerry Falwell. (1956)

US Supreme Court ruled against Bible reading and prayer in public schools. (1963)

Edwin Land patented the Polaroid camera. (1970)

Watergate burglars were arrested. (1972)

Muslims in al-Zawya Alhamra, a Coptic district of Cairo, attempted to seize a Coptic businessman’s land to build a mosque. Armed with machine guns, knives, crowbars, and other weapons they attacked Christians and their property over a two day period, destroying one hundred and fifty homes and shops and murdering more than a hundred Christians, several by burning them alive. (1981)

The Dusky Seaside Sparrow became extinct. (1987)

South Africa abolished the last of its apartheid laws. (1991)

The body of Zachary Taylor, 12th President of the US, was exhumed to test how he died. Rumors had persisted since his death in 1850 that he had died of arsenic poisoning. No evidence of this was found. (1991)

LA cops chased OJ Simpson’s Ford Bronco on live TV for 1½ hours until he eventually gave up. (1994)

Jiang Zongxiu, a 34 year old mother and wife in China, was arrested and beaten for distributing Christian literature in a marketplace. She died the next day. (2004)

Nine Christians were shot and killed inside Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, by a 21 year old gunman because of their race. (2015)