June 12

It’s National Peanut Butter Cookie Day and Red Rose Day and Magic Day

ON THIS DAY…
1429 Joan of Arc leads the French army in their capture of the city and the English commander, William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk in the second day of the Battle of Jargeau
1616 Pocahontas along with her husband John Rolfe and son Thomas arrive in London, England; her arrival has been well publicized and she is presented to King James I, the royal family, and the rest of the best of London society
1630 John Winthrop, the newly selected governor of the Massachusetts Bay Company, lands at Salem; he will lead the colony for the next two decades
1665 England installs a municipal government in New York City; this was the former Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam
1667 The first human blood transfusion was administered by Dr. Jean Baptiste; he successfully transfused the blood of a sheep to a 15-year old boy
1775 British general Thomas Gage declares martial law in Massachusetts; the British offered a pardon to all colonists who lay down their arms but there would be only two exceptions to the amnesty: Samuel Adams and John Hancock, if captured, were to be hanged
1837 British inventors William Cooke and Charles Wheatstone received a patent for their electromagnetic telegraph; their invention was put in public service in 1839, five years before the more famous Morse telegraph
1849 The forerunner of modern gas masks is patented by Lewis Phectic Haslett of Louisville, KY; his “inhaler or lung protector” design used woolen fabric (or other porous material) to filter dust and other material from the air
1859 The Comstock Lode is discovered near Virginia City, NV
1860 A “Railroad air brake” was patented by Nehemiah Hodge
1893 Evidence that bacteria are necessary to process nitrogen into a form useable by living creatures was presented by Sergius Winogradsky to the French Academy of Sciences
1897 The Swiss Army Knife was patented by Carl Elsene
1901 Cuba agreed to become an American protectorate by accepting the Platt Amendment
1906 Sound movies were patented by John Ballance
1908 The Rotherhithe-Stepney tunnel beneath the Thames in South London was opened for road vehicle traffic
1923 Harry Houdini, while suspended upside down 40 feet above the ground, escaped from a strait jacket
1926 Brazil quit the League of Nations in protest over plans to admit Germany
1935 Senator Huey Long of Louisiana made the longest speech on Senate record; the speech took 15 1/2 hours and was filled by 150,000 words
1937 In the USSR, as part of Joseph Stalin’s purges of Communist Party leadership, eight generals in the Soviet army are executed for conspiracy against the government
1939 The Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is dedicated in Cooperstown, NY
1939 Shooting begins on Paramount Pictures’ Dr. Cyclops, the first horror film photographed in three-strip Technicolor
1940 13,000 British and French troops surrender to Field Marshal Erwin Rommel at Saint-Valery-en-Caux
1942 Anne Frank receives a diary for her thirteenth birthday
1943 German Nazis liquidate Jewish Ghetto in Berezhany, western Ukraine
1961 The Parent Trap starring Hayley Mills and Hayley Mills opens in US movie theaters
1963 Cleopatra, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton and considered the most expensive movie ever made to that point, premieres in New York City
1963 NAACP field secretary Medgar Evers is shot and killed outside his home in Jackson, Mississippi; it’s not until 1994 is white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith convicted of the crime
1963 The John Wayne and Lee Marvin film Donovan’s Reef opens in US movie theaters
1964 Nelson Mandela, along with other members of the African National Congress, is sentenced to life imprisonment for sabotage, treason, and conspiracy in South Africa
1965 The Big Bang theory of the creation of the universe is supported by the announcement of the discovery of new celestial bodies know as blue galaxies
1967 The US Supreme Court ends laws banning interracial marriages
1978 David Berkowitz, the “Son of Sam” killer in New York City, is sentenced to 365 years in prison for six killings
1979 Pedaled by cyclist Bryan Allen, the Gossamer Albatross becomes the first human-powered vehicle to fly over the English Channel
1981 Major League Baseball players begin a 49 day strike over the issue of free-agent compensation
1981 Steven Spielberg’s Raiders of the Lost Ark starring Harrison Ford opens in US movie theaters
1987 President Ronald Reagan publicly challenges Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall
1987 John McTiernan’s Predator starring Arnold Schwarzenegger opens in US movie theaters
1991 Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls win their first NBA Championship
1991 Russians elect Boris Yeltsin as the president of their republic
1994 Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman were murdered outside her home in Los Angeles
1996 In Philadelphia, PA a panel of federal judges blocks a law against indecency on the internet
1997 The US Department of the Treasury unveils a new $50 bill meant to be more counterfeit-resistant
1997 Joel Schumacher’s Batman & Robin starring George Clooney, Chris O’Donnell, Alicia Silverstone and Arnold Schwarzenegger opens in US movie theaters
1999 David Arquette and Courteney Cox wed
2003 In Arkansas, Terry Wallis spoke for the first time in nearly 19 years; Wallis had been in a coma since July 13, 1984, after being injured in a car accident
2003 The first-ever Mexican freedom of information law took effect, designed to expose the government and its once guarded records and secrets to greater public scrutiny
2004 A 1.3 kg chondrite type meteorite strikes a house in Ellerslie, New Zealand causing serious damage but no injuries

BORN:
1806 John Augustus Roebling, engineer who pioneered the design and construction of suspension bridges
1827 Johanna Spyri, author of children’s stories and is best known for Heidi
1897 Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon, KG, MC, PC, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1955-1957), Lord Privy Seal (1934-1935), Foreign Secretary (1935-1938, 1940-1945, 1951-1955), Deputy Prime Minister (1951-1955)
1901 Clyde Geronimi, animator and director (Spider-Man (TV 1967-1970), Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo, One Hundred and One Dalmatians, Peter Pan, Cinderella, Peter and the Wolf)
1915 Priscilla Lane, actress (Brother Rat, The Roaring Twenties, Dust Be My Destiny, Million Dollar Baby, Saboteur, Arsenic and Old Lace)
1916 Irwin Allen, writer, director and Academy Award-winning producer (The Sea Around Us, The Towering Inferno, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Lost in Space, Land of the Giants)
1918 Samuel Z. Arkoff, producer and co-founder of American International Pictures (Bloody Mama, The Dunwich Horror, Wild in the Streets, The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini)
1920 Dave Berg, cartoonist, most noted for his work in Mad magazine
1920 Peter Jones, actor (The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, The Mixer, School for Scoundrels)
1924 George H. W. Bush, 41st President of the United States (1989-1993), 43rd Vice President of the United States (1981-1989), 11th Director of Central Intelligence (1976-1977), Chief of the U.S. Liaison Office to the People’s Republic of China (1974-1975), 10th United States Ambassador to the United Nations (1971-1973), Member of the United States House of Representatives (1967-1971)
1928 Richard Sherman, two-time Academy Award-winning songwriter and composer (“Chim Chim Cher-ee”, Mary Poppins, “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”, “It’s a Small World”, “Colonel Hathi’s March”, “You’re Sixteen”)
1929 Anne Frank, diarist and Holocaust victim whose diary has been translated into many languages, has become one of the world’s most widely read books, and has been the basis for several plays and films; she has been acknowledged for the quality of her writing, and has become one of the most renowned and discussed of Holocaust victims
1932 Jim Nabors, actor and singer (The Andy Griffith Show, Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., The Jim Nabors Hour, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas)
1957 Timothy Busfield, Emmy Award-winning actor (thirtysomething, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, The West Wing, Field of Dreams, Trapper John, M.D., Revenge of the Nerds)
1959 Scott Thompson, comedian, writer, actor (The Kids in the Hall, Providence, Mickey Blue Eyes, The Larry Sanders Show, More Tales of the City)
1974 Jason Mewes, actor (Clerks, Dogma, Chasing Amy, Mallrats, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back)

DIED:
1957 Jimmy Dorsey, jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, trumpeter and big band leader, dies at 53
1980 Milburn Stone, character actor whose best remembered for the beloved “Doc Adams” on Gunsmoke (Invaders from Mars, Flying Leathernecks, The Atomic City, The Daltons Ride Again, Charlie McCarthy, Detective), dies at 75
1983 Norma Shearer, Academy Award-winning actress (The Divorcee, The Barretts of Wimpole Street, He Who Gets Slapped), dies at 80
2003 Gregory Peck, Academy Award-winning actor (To Kill a Mockingbird, Twelve O’Clock High, Gentleman’s Agreement, The Yearling, The Omen, Cape Fear, The Boys from Brazil), dies at 87
2007 Don Herbert aka “Mr. Wizard”, host of popular television shows about science aimed at children, dies at 89