History Thread...

[romad1]

So today was our final rec game for the season.  Its Virginia so its a goddamn oven and the field (in Mclean, VA of all places) does not have dugouts.  And the fence is so high you can't put a canopy over the benches.  So, as my girls are warming up I tell them to remember D-Day and remember that not because of the history but that it was in Normandy where its a nice misty cool summer and to think of the cool sea breezes.  

[gehringer_2]

3 hours ago, romad1 said:

So today was our final rec game for the season.  Its Virginia so its a goddamn oven and the field (in Mclean, VA of all places) does not have dugouts.  And the fence is so high you can't put a canopy over the benches.  So, as my girls are warming up I tell them to remember D-Day and remember that not because of the history but that it was in Normandy where its a nice misty cool summer and to think of the cool sea breezes.  

they must think you are straight out of central casting.....

[CMRivdogs]

 

[CMRivdogs]

June 7

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/june-7?cmpid=email-hist-tdih-2026-0607-06072026&om_rid=&~campaign=hist-tdih-2026-0607

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On June 7, 1913, Hudson Stuck, an Alaskan missionary, leads the first successful ascent of Denali (formerly known as Mt. McKinley), the highest point on the North American continent at 20,320 feet.

Stuck, an accomplished amateur mountaineer, was born in London in 1863. After moving to the United States, in 1905 he became archdeacon of the Episcopal Church in Yukon, Alaska. Stuck traveled Alaska’s difficult terrain to preach to villagers and establish schools.

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On June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia introduces a resolution for independence to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia; John Adams seconds the motion.

Lee’s resolution declared: “That these United Colonies are, and of right out to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved; that measures should be immediately taken for procuring the assistance of foreign powers, and a Confederation be formed to bind the colonies more closely together.”

 

[CMRivdogs]

June 8

From Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Flint–Beecher_tornado

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At about 8:30 pm, on Monday evening, June 8, 1953, a tornado touched down near the intersection of W. Coldwater and North Linden roads, just north of Flint. Before the storm left Genesee County, 116 people died in the Beecher district. A one half mile wide track of destruction was left.

Most people living in the area were at home with the children in bed. By the time people heard the storm’s roar their houses were being torn apart.

The slow moving tornado wrecked 340 houses, severely damaged many others and injured 844 persons. The major damage was concentrated between Clio Road & N. Dort Hwy. This area contained mostly small homes with some businesses and a high school.

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On June 8, 1948, a hand-built aluminum prototype labeled “No. 1″ becomes the first vehicle to bear the name of one of the world’s leading luxury car manufacturers: Porsche.

The Austrian automotive engineer Ferdinand Porsche debuted his first design at the World’s Fair in Paris in 1900. The electric vehicle set several Austrian land-speed records, reaching more than 35 mph and earning international acclaim for the young engineer. He became general director of the Austro-Daimler Company (an outpost of the German automaker) in 1916 and later moved to Daimler headquarters in Stuttgart. Daimler merged with the Benz firm in the 1920s, and Porsche was chiefly responsible for designing some of the great Mercedes racing cars of that decade.

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1949 

Hollywood figures, including film stars Fredric March, John Garfield, Paul Muni, and Edward G. Robinson, are named in a FBI report as Communist Party members. Such reports helped to fuel the anticommunist hysteriain the United States during the late-1940s and 1950s.

The FBI report relied largely on accusations made by “confidential informants,” supplemented with some highly dubious analysis. It began by arguing that the Communist Party in the United States claimed to have “been successful in using well-known Hollywood personalities to further Communist Party aims.” The report particularly pointed to the actions of the Academy Award-winning actor Frederic March. Suspicions about March were raised by his activities in a group that was critical of America’s growing nuclear arsenal (the group included other well-known figures such as Helen Keller and Danny Kaye). March had also campaigned for efforts to provide relief to war-devastated Russia. The report went on to name several others who shared March’s political leanings: actor Edward G. Robinson; activist, actor and musician Paul Robeson; the writer Dorothy Parker; and a host of Hollywood actors, writers and directors.

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On June 8, 1966, the rival National Football League (NFL) and American Football League (AFL) announce that they will merge. The first “Super Bowl” between the two leagues took place at the end of the 1966 season, though it took until the 1970 season for the leagues to unite their operations and integrate their regular-season schedules.

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During the Six-Day War, Israeli aircraft and torpedo boats attack the USS Liberty in international waters off Egypt’s Gaza Strip. The intelligence ship, well-marked as an American vessel and only lightly armed, was attacked first by Israeli aircraft that fired napalm and rockets at the ship. The Liberty attempted to radio for assistance, but the Israeli aircraft blocked the transmissions. Eventually, the ship was able to make contact with the U.S. carrier Saratoga, and 12 fighter jets and four tanker planes were dispatched to defend the Liberty. When word of their deployment reached Washington, however, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara ordered them recalled to the carrier, and they never reached the Liberty. The reason for the recall remains unclear.

Israel later apologized for the attack and offered $6.9 million in compensation, claiming that it had mistaken the Liberty for an Egyptian ship. However, Liberty survivors, and some former U.S. officials, believe that the attack was deliberate, staged to conceal Israel’s pending seizure of Syria’s Golan Heights, which occurred the next day. The ship’s listening devices would likely have overheard Israeli military communications planning this controversial operation. Captain McGonagle was later awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroic command of the Liberty during and after the attack.

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[romad1]

35 minutes ago, CMRivdogs said:

June 8

From Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Flint–Beecher_tornado

 

Fredrik March's performance in "The Best Years of Our Lives" is really under appreciated. 

 

[CMRivdogs]

The Pennsylvanians in Congress are also urged to concur with other delegates in seeking foreign assistance, in a swift pivot from the Assembly's previous stance. It meets on the second floor of Independence Hall, while one floor below them Congress is debating this very issue. 2/2

[CMRivdogs]

June 9

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/june-9?cmpid=email-hist-tdih-2026-0609-06092026&om_rid=&~campaign=hist-tdih-2026-0609

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1973 

With a spectacular victory at the Belmont Stakes, Secretariat becomes the first horse since Citation in 1948 to win America’s coveted Triple Crown: the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes. In one of the finest performances in racing history, Secretariat, ridden by Ron Turcotte, completed the 1.5-mile race in 2 minutes and 24 seconds, a dirt-track record for that distance.

Secretariat was born at Meadow Stables in Doswell, Virginia, on March 30, 1970. He was sired by Bold Ruler, the 1957 Preakness winner, and foaled by Somethingroyal, which came from a Thoroughbred line known for its stamina. An attractive chestnut colt, he grew to over 16 hands high and was at two years the size of a three-year-old.

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1856 

In an extraordinary demonstration of resolve and fortitude, nearly 500 members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (often informally known as Mormons) leave Iowa City and head west for Salt Lake City carrying all their goods and supplies in two-wheeled handcarts. Of all the thousands of pioneer journeys to the West in the 19th century, few were more arduous than those undertaken by the so-called Handcart Companiesfrom 1856 to 1860.

The secular and religious leader of the religious sect, Brigham Young, had established Salt Lake City as the center of a new Utah sanctuary for the Latter-day Saints in 1847. In subsequent years, Young worked diligently to encourage and aid members who made the difficult overland trek to the Great Salt Lake. In 1856, however, a series of poor harvests left the church with only a meager fund to help immigrants buy wagons and oxen. Young suggested a cheaper mode of travel: “Let them come on foot with handcarts or wheelbarrows; let them gird up their loins and walk through and nothing shall hinder or stay them.”

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1954 

In a dramatic confrontation, Joseph Welch, special counsel for the U.S. Army, lashes out at Senator Joseph McCarthyduring hearings on whether communism has infiltrated the U.S. armed forces. Welch’s verbal assault—including the enduring question "Have you no sense of decency?"—marked the end of McCarthy’s power during the anticommunist hysteria of the Red Scare in America.

Senator McCarthy (R-Wisconsin) experienced a meteoric rise to fame and power in the U.S. Senate when he charged in February 1950 that “hundreds” of “known communists” were in the Department of State. In the years that followed, McCarthy became the acknowledged leader of the so-called Red Scare, a time when millions of Americans became convinced that communists had infiltrated every aspect of American life. Behind closed-door hearings, McCarthy bullied, lied, and smeared his way to power, destroying many careers and lives in the process. Prior to 1953, the Republican Party tolerated his antics because his attacks were directed against the Democratic administration of Harry S. Truman.

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On June 9, 1915, United States Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan resigns due to his concerns over President Woodrow Wilson’s handling of the crisis generated by a German submarine’s sinking of the British passenger liner Lusitania the previous month, in which 1,201 people—including 128 Americans—died.

Germany’s announcement in early 1915 that its navy was adopting a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare concerned many within the government and civilian population of the United States—which maintained a policy of strict neutrality during the first two years of World War I. The sinking of the Lusitania on May 7, 1915, caused an immediate uproar, as many believed Germany had sunk the British cruiser deliberately as a provocation to Wilson and the U.S.

 

[CMRivdogs]

June 10

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/june-10?cmpid=email-hist-tdih-2026-0610-06102026&om_rid=&~campaign=hist-tdih-2026-0610

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I1692 In Salem Village in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Bridget Bishop, the first colonist to be tried in the Salem witch trials, is hanged after being found guilty of the practice of witchcraft.

Trouble in the small Puritan community began in February 1692, when nine-year-old Elizabeth Parris and 11-year-old Abigail Williams, the daughter and niece, respectively, of the Reverend Samuel Parris, began experiencing fits and other mysterious maladies. A doctor concluded that the children were suffering from the effects of witchcraft, and the young girls corroborated the doctor’s diagnosis. Under compulsion from the doctor and their parents, the girls named those allegedly responsible for their suffering.

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In the summer of 1752—possibly on the 10th of June—Benjamin Franklin flies a kite during a thunderstorm to collect ambient electrical charge in a Leyden jar, enabling him to demonstrate the connection between lightning and electricity. (Scholars debate the June 10 date, but agree it likely happened sometime in June of that year.) It is one of his most famous—and mythologized—experiments.

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On June 10, 1775, John Adams proposes to Congress, meeting in Philadelphia, that the men laying siege to Boston should be considered a Continental Army led by a general.

The men who had armed themselves and rushed to surround British forces in Boston following the Battle of Lexington and Concord were overwhelmingly from New England. However, John Adams, representing Massachusetts, realized that the military effort would only succeed if the British thought the colonies were united. To this end, Adams suggested the appointment of a Virginian, George Washington, to command the Continental forces, despite the fact that New Englanders were used to fighting in local militias under officers elected from among their own ranks.

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1967 The Six-Day War between Israel and its Arab neighbors ends with a United Nations-brokered cease-fire. The outnumbered Israel Defense Forces achieved a swift victory in the brief war, rolling over the Arab coalition and more than doubling the amount of territory under Israel’s control. The greatest fruit of victory lay in seizing the Old City of Jerusalem from Jordan; thousands of Jews wept while bent in prayer at the Second Temple’s Western Wall.

 

Edited June 10 by CMRivdogs

[romad1]

Today is a bad day for massacres.   The movie Anthropoid is quite good if a bit friendly to the history on the first one.   The second one in Oradour-sur-Glane is like something out of a Mel Gibson movie (The Patriot) but this actually happened. 

1942: The Lidice Massacre

In a brutal act of retaliation for the assassination of top SS official Reinhard Heydrich, the Nazis destroyed the Czechoslovakian village of Lidice. All 173 men and boys over 16 were executed, while the women and children were deported to concentration camps. The tragedy is documented by the The History Place. [1, 2]

 

1944: The Oradour-sur-Glane Massacre

Four days after D-Day in France, soldiers from the Nazi SS Das Reich Division committed one of the worst single-day atrocities in Western Europe. They massacred 642 civilians—including 207 children and 245 women—in the French village of Oradour-sur-Glane. The village was never rebuilt and stands as a permanent memorial. You can read about the grim details on The History Place. [1, 2, 3]

[CMRivdogs]

June 11

https://www.detroithistorical.org/learn/online-research/encyclopedia-of-detroit/great-fire-1805

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On the morning of June 11, 1805, the city of Detroit caught fire, and nearly everything was destroyed. The blaze is believed to have begun in or near the stables of John Harvey, the local baker. While no official cause was determined, it was rumored that hot ashes from a pipe started the fire. One of the first buildings that caught fire was a nearby barn, from which flames spread quickly to other wooden structures. The population of Detroit at the time was about 600 people.

The city lacked a paid, professional fire department and would not acquire the first steam engine fire truck until mid-century. Thus, Detroiters attempted to save their city by engaging in what was called a ‘bucket brigade.’ A line of people formed between the Detroit River and the burning buildings, with citizens passing bucket after bucket of river water to throw on the fire. Even direct proximity to the river could not save Detroit. With the exception of the old British fort located on the north side of the Savoyard stream and a few brick chimneys of wooden buildings, the city was leveled to the ground by that afternoon. Fortunately, no one died in the Great Fire of 1805.

After the destruction, Territorial Judge Augustus Woodward created a street plan modeled after Washington, D.C. The layout of the nation’s capital was designed by French-American architect Pierre Charles L’Enfant, and featured diagonal streets that radiated like the spokes of a wheel.

Today, the legacy of the Great Fire of 1805 is evident in the flag of Detroit. Two women appear in the center – one who weeps over the town’s destruction and the other who looks ahead to the stronger, brighter city that will replace it. The Latin motto on the flag, reportedly stated by Father Gabriel Richard, reads: “Speramus meliora; resurget cineribus,” which means “We hope for better things; it will arise from the ashes.”

 

[CMRivdogs]

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/june-11?cmpid=email-hist-tdih-2026-0611-06112026&om_rid=&~campaign=hist-tdih-2026-0611

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Two African American students, Vivian Malone and James A. Hood, register for classes at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa on June 11, 1963, after federalized Alabama National Guard troops force Alabama Governor George Wallace to halt his blockade and submit to a judge’s order ending segregation at the university.

George Wallace, one of the most controversial politicians in U.S. history, was elected governor of Alabama in 1962 under an ultra-segregationist platform. In his 1963 inaugural address, he promised his white followers: “Segregation now! Segregation tomorrow! Segregation forever!” When African American students attempted to desegregate the University of Alabama in June 1963, Alabama’s new governor, flanked by state troopers, literally blocked the door of the enrollment office. The U.S. Supreme Court, however, had declared segregation unconstitutional in 1954’s Brown v. Board of Education, and the executive branch undertook aggressive tactics to enforce the ruling.

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On June 11, 1776, the Continental Congress selects Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, John Adams of Massachusetts, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, Roger Sherman of Connecticut and Robert R. Livingston of New York to draft a declaration of independence. They have come to be known as the Committee of Five.

Knowing Jefferson’s prowess with a pen, Adams urged him to author the first draft of the document, which was then carefully revised by Adams and Franklin before being given to Congress for review on June 28.

 

[CMRivdogs]

”…that we and you may be as one people, and have but one heart, and be kind to one another like brethren.” The king of Great Britain, it’s explained, “is angry with us, because we will not let him take away from us our land…and because we will not do everything that he bids us.” 

Unspecified presents are given to the Indians. Before departing, according to the journal of Congress, they “gave the president [John Hancock] the name of Karanduawn, or the Great Tree, by which name he informed him the president will be known among the Six nations.”

[CMRivdogs]

The colony also instructs its delegation at the Continental Congress that they are not authorized "to give the sense of this Colony on the question of declaring it to be, and continue, an independent State." (From the National Park Service’s “Bicentennial Daybook,” 1976) 

[CMRivdogs]

June 12

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/june-12?cmpid=email-hist-tdih-2026-0612-06122026&om_rid=&~campaign=hist-tdih-2026-0612

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On June 12, 1987, in one of his most famous Cold War speeches, President Ronald Reagan challenged Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down” the Berlin Wall, a symbol of the repressive Communist era in a divided Germany.

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Six days after the D-Day landing, the five Allied landing groups, made up of some 330,000 troops, link up in Normandyto form a single solid front across northwestern France.

On June 6, 1944, after a year of meticulous planning conducted in secrecy by a joint Anglo-American staff, the largest combined sea, air, and land military operation in history began on the French coast at Normandy. The Allied invasion force included 3 million men, 13,000 aircraft, 1,200 warships, 2,700 merchant ships, and 2,500 landing craft.

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On June 12, 1974, Little League Baseball, Inc. announces its decision to "defer to the changing social climate" and allow girls to play ball. The change comes after the organization lost a series of lawsuits in the state of New Jersey, and faced growing legal challenges in other states.

 

[CMRivdogs]

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Consisting of 16 sections, the declaration asserts that individual rights are “the basis and foundation of government.” Article 1 states: “That all men are by nature equally free and independent and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society. ”…they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.” 

Article 2 says “all power is vested in, and consequently derived from, the people,” and that if government becomes inadequate, a majority of the people have the “right to reform, alter or abolish it, in such manner as shall be judged most conducive to the public weal." 

The equality of all citizens, without privileges or “emoluments,” is the subject of Article 3; the next two articles spell out the necessity of a separation of powers, neither the legislative nor executive usurping the other, with fixed terms and elections for public officers. 

Articles 7-16 restrict the state from infringing on rights in civil and criminal spheres. Laws can’t be suspended “without consent of the representatives of the people;” defendants have a right to a speedy trial before an impartial jury, and can’t be forced to testify against themselves. 

There can be no "cruel and unusual punishments” or warrantless searches, and no person is to be “deprived of his liberty except by the law of the land.” Section 12, that “the freedom of the press is one of the great bulwarks of liberty,” is America’s first codification of that liberty. 

Section 13 states that “a well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the proper, natural, and safe defense of a free state,” although it makes no mention of an individual right to bear arms. 

Lastly is Section 16, which a young James Madison helped draft: “…All men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience; and that it is the mutual duty of all to practise Christian forbearance, love, and charity toward each other.” 

The influence of the Virginia Declaration of Rights is seen most immediately in Jefferson’s draft of the Declaration of Independence with many echoes of Mason’s wording. It is foundational for both the U.S. Bill of Rights and France's Declaration of the Rights of Man. 

 

[CMRivdogs]

Among those named to this committee is John Dickinson of Pennsylvania, who has been Congress' strongest voice against independence. The seeming contradiction is explained by Dickinson's insistence that a firm union of colonies is necessary before they can consider breaking free from Britain. 

Dickinson will end up being the primary writer of the first draft of the Articles of Confederation--a draft that ends up being unsatisfactory to the states because it enlarges the power of the central government so much. The document will undergo months of rewriting before approval. 

Other members of the drafting committee include Samuel Adams (Mass.), Edward Rutledge (S.C.), Robert R. Livingston (N.Y.), Thomas McKean (Del.), Stephen Hopkins (R.I.) and Roger Sherman (Conn.). New Jersey is left unrepresented for the time being since none of its members are in Philadelphia. 

 

[CMRivdogs]

June 13

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/june-13?cmpid=email-hist-tdih-2026-0613-06132026&om_rid=&~campaign=hist-tdih-2026-0613

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On June 13, 1966, the U.S. Supreme Court hands down its decision in Miranda v. Arizona, establishing the principle that all criminal suspects must be advised of their rights before interrogation. Now considered standard police procedure, “You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can, and will, be used against you in court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford one, one will be appointed to you,” has been heard so many times in television and film dramas that it has become almost cliche.

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On June 13, 1777, a 19-year-old French aristocrat, Marie-Joseph Paul Roch Yves Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, arrives in South Carolina with the intent to serve as General George Washington’s second-in-command.

Following his safe arrival in South Carolina, Lafayette traveled to Philadelphia. Although Lafayette’s youth made Congress reluctant to promote him over more experienced colonial officers, the young Frenchman’s willingness to volunteer his services without pay won their respect and Lafayette a commission as major-general on July 31, 1777.

Lafayette served at Brandywine in 1777, as well as Barren Hill, Monmouth and Rhode Island in 1778. Following the formal treaty of alliance with Lafayette’s native France in February 1778 and Britain’s subsequent declaration of war, Lafayette asked to return to Paris and consult the king as to his future service. Washington was willing to spare Lafayette, who departed in January 1779. By March, Franklin reported from Paris that Lafayette had become an excellent advocate for the American cause at the French court.

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1805 Having hurried ahead of the main body of the expedition, Meriwether Lewis and four men arrive at the Great Falls of the Missouri River, confirming that the explorers are headed in the right direction.

Meriwether Lewis and William Clark had set out on their expedition to the Pacific the previous year. They spent the winter of 1804 with the Mandan Indians in present-day North Dakota. The Hidatsa Indians, who lived nearby, had traveled far to the West, and they proved an important source of information for Lewis and Clark. The Hidatsa told Lewis and Clark they would come to a large impassable waterfall in the Missouri when they neared the Rocky Mountains, but they assured the captains that portage around the falls was less than half a mile

On this day in 1805, four days after forging ahead of the main body of the expedition, Lewis was overjoyed to hear “the agreeable sound of a fall of water.” Soon after he “saw the spray arise above the plain like a column of smoke…. [It] began to make a roaring too tremendous to be mistaken for any cause short of the great falls of the Missouri.” By noon, Lewis had reached the falls, where he stared in awe at “a sublimely grand specticle [sic]… the grandest sight I had ever held.”

 

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President Thomas Jefferson receives a subpoena to testify in the treason trial of his former vice president, Aaron Burr, on June 13, 1807. In the subpoena, Burr asked Jefferson to produce documents that might exonerate him.

Jefferson expressed in his personal papers that he felt no love or loyalty to Burr despite their former political relationship. Burr had run a close and contentious election against the Republican Jefferson in the 1800 campaign. After the election resulted in a tie, the vote went to the House of Representatives. Only after Alexander Hamilton reluctantly lobbied for Jefferson did the House select Jefferson for the presidency instead of Burr. This was only one of the many grievances Burr held against Hamilton that led to the fatal duel.

Jefferson refused to appear in Burr’s defense and released only a few of the documents Burr had requested, invoking his presidential right to protect the public interest. If Jefferson’s intent was to help get Burr convicted, his refusal to supply documentation backfired. In the end, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall found Burr not guilty by lack of evidence.

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On June 13, 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson nominates U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Thurgood Marshall to fill the seat of retiring Supreme Court Associate Justice Tom C. Clark. On August 30, after a heated debate, the Senate confirmed Marshall’s nomination by a vote of 69 to 11. Two days later, he was sworn in by Chief Justice Earl Warren, making him the first African American in history to sit on America’s highest court.

 

[CMRivdogs]

June 14

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/june-14

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June 14, 1777: During the American Revolution, the Continental Congress adopts a resolutionstating that “the flag of the United States be thirteen alternate stripes red and white” and that “the Union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new Constellation.” The national flag, which became known as the “Stars and Stripes,” was based on the “Grand Union” flag, a banner carried by the Continental Army in 1776 that also consisted of 13 red and white stripes. According to legend, Philadelphia seamstress Betsy Ross designed the new canton for the Stars and Stripes, which consisted of a circle of 13 stars and a blue background, at the request of General George Washington. Historians have been unable to conclusively prove or disprove this legend.

On June 14, 1877, the first Flag Day observance was held on the 100th anniversary of the adoption of the Stars and Stripes. As instructed by Congress, the U.S. flag was flown from all public buildings across the country. In the years after the first Flag Day, several states continued to observe the anniversary, and in 1949 Congress officially designated June 14 as Flag Day, a national day of observance.

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On June 14, 1775, the Continental Congress authorizes the enlistment of expert riflemen to serve the United Colonies for one year. This launches the U.S. Army as America's first national institution, more than a year before the Declaration of Independence is published on July 4, 1776.

“Resolved, that six companies of expert riflemen, be immediately raised in Pennsylvania, two in Maryland, and two in Virginia…that each company, as soon as completed, shall march and join the Army near Boston, to be there employed as light infantry, under the command of the chief Officer in that army,” said the Continental Congress resolution.

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Henry Ossian Flipper, born into slavery in Thomasville, Georgia, in 1856, becomes the first African American cadet to graduate from the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York on June 14, 1877.

The United States Military Academy—the first military school in America—was founded by Congress in 1802 for the purpose of educating and training young men in the theory and practice of military science. Established at West Point, New York, the U.S. Military Academy is often simply known as West Point.

In 1870, the first African American cadet, James Webster Smith, was admitted to West Point but never reached the graduation ceremonies. It was not until 1877 that Henry Ossian Flipper became the first Black cadet to graduate.

 

[Tigeraholic1]

 

[CMRivdogs]

June 15

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/june-15?cmpid=email-hist-tdih-2026-0615-06152026&om_rid=&~campaign=hist-tdih-2026-0615

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Following a revolt by the English nobility against his rule, King John puts his royal seal on Magna Carta, or “the Great Charter,” on June 15, 1215. The document, essentially a peace treaty between John and his barons, guaranteed that the king would respect feudal rights and privileges, uphold the freedom of the church, and maintain the nation’s laws. Although more a reactionary than a progressive document in its day, Magna Carta was seen as a cornerstone in the development of democratic England by later generations.

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On June 15, 1776, the Assembly of the Lower Counties of Pennsylvania declares itself independent of British and Pennsylvanian authority, thereby creating the state of Delaware.

Delaware did not exist as a colony under British rule. As of 1704, Pennsylvania had two colonial assemblies: one for the “Upper Counties,” originally Bucks, Chester and Philadelphia, and one for the “Lower Counties on the Delaware” of New Castle, Kent and Sussex. All of the counties shared one governor.

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1846 Representatives of Great Britain and the United States sign the Oregon Treaty, which settles a long-standing dispute with Britain over who controlled the Oregon territory. The treaty established the 49th parallel from the Rocky Mountains to the Strait of Georgia as the boundary between the United States and British Canada. The United States gained formal control over the future states of Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana; and the British retained Vancouver Island and navigation rights to part of the Columbia River.

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1864 

During the Civil War, Ulysses S. Grant’s Army of the Potomac and Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia collide for the last time as the first wave of Union troops attacks Petersburg, a vital Southern rail center 23 miles south of the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia. The two massive armies would not become disentangled until April 9, 1865, when Lee surrendered and his men went home.

In June 1864, in a brilliant tactical maneuver, Grant marched his army around the Army of Northern Virginia, crossed the James River unopposed, and advanced his forces to Petersburg. Knowing that the fall of Petersburgwould mean the fall of Richmond, Lee raced to reinforce the city’s defenses. The mass of Grant’s army arrived first.

Finally, on April 2, 1865, with his defense line overextended and his troops starving, Lee’s right flank suffered a major defeat against Union cavalry under General Phillip Sheridan, and Grant ordered a general attack on all fronts. The Army of Northern Virginia retreated under heavy fire; the Confederate government fled Richmond on Lee’s recommendation; and Petersburg, and then Richmond, fell to the Union. Less than a week later, Grant’s massive army headed off the remnants of the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Station, and Lee was forced to surrender, effectively ending the Civil War.

 

[CMRivdogs]

 

[CMRivdogs]

June 16

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/june-16?cmpid=email-hist-tdih-2026-0616-06162026&om_rid=&~campaign=hist-tdih-2026-0616

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On June 16, 1884, the first roller coaster in America opens at Coney Island, in Brooklyn, New York. Known as a switchback railway, it was the brainchild of LaMarcus Thompson, traveled approximately six miles per hour and cost a nickel to ride. The new entertainment was an instant success and by the turn of the century there were hundreds of roller coasters around the country.

Coney Island, a name believed to have come from the Dutch Konijn Eilandt, or Rabbit Island, is a tract of land along the Atlantic Ocean discovered by explorer Henry Hudson in 1609. The first hotel opened at Coney Island in 1829 and by the post-Civil War years, the area was an established resort with theaters, restaurants and a race track. Between 1897 and 1904, three amusement parks sprang up at Coney Island–Dreamland, Luna Park and Steeplechase. By the 1920s, Coney Island was reachable by subway and summer crowds of a million people a day flocked there for rides, games, sideshows, the beach and the two-and-a-half-mile boardwalk, completed in 1923.

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On June 16, 1858, newly nominated senatorial candidate Abraham Lincoln addresses the Illinois Republican Convention in Springfield and warns that the nation faces a crisis that could destroy the Union. Speaking to more than 1,000 delegates in an ominous tone, Lincoln paraphrased a passage from the New Testament: “a house divided against itself cannot stand.”

The issue dividing the nation was slavery’s place in the growing western territories and the extent of federal power over individual states’ rights. Lincoln declared that only the federal government had the power to end slavery. While the southern states relied on an economy and lifestyle dependent upon the labor provided by enslaved African Americans, the North opposed slavery. The northern states also considered industrialization and manufacturing the key to America’s economic future, not farming.

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On June 16, 1862, a Union attempt to capture Charleston, South Carolina, is thwarted when the Confederates turn back an attack at Secessionville, just south of the city on James Island.

In November 1861, Union ships captured Port Royal, South Carolina, which lay about halfway between Charleston and Savannah, Georgia. This gave the Federals an important base from which to mount operations along the southern coast.

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At 9:30 in the morning on June 16, 1903, Henry Ford and other prospective stockholders in the Ford Motor Company meet in Detroit to sign the official paperwork required to create a new corporation. Twelve stockholders were listed on the forms, which were signed, notarized and sent to the office of Michigan’s secretary of state. The company was officially incorporated the following day, when the secretary of state’s office received the articles of association.

Ford had built his first gasoline-powered vehicle—which he called the Quadricycle—in a workshop behind his home in 1896, while he was working as the chief engineer for the main plant of the Edison Illuminating Company in Detroit. He made two unsuccessful attempts to start a company to manufacture automobiles before 1903. A month after the Ford Motor Company was established, the first Ford car was assembled at a plant on Mack Avenue in Detroit .

 

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