June 19
It’s Juneteenth and World Sauntering Day
ON THIS DAY…
240BC Eratosthenes, a Greek astronomer and mathematician, estimated the circumference of the earth
1269 King Louis IX of France orders all Jews found in public without an identifying yellow badge to be fined ten livres of silver
1586 English colonists sailed away from Roanoke Island, NC, after failing to establish England’s first permanent settlement in America
1767 Jean Chastel killed the Beast of Gévaudan
1816 The laying of pipes by the Gas Light Company of Baltimore was approved by the City Council in the first city ordinance of its kind in the US
1841 An underwater torpedo operated by electric current was described by its inventor, Samuel Colt of Hartford, CT in a letter to President John Tyler
1846 The first baseball game under recognizable modern rules is played in Hoboken, NJ
1862 Slavery is banned in US territories
1865 In the day celebrated as Juneteenth, Union general Gordon Granger arrives in Galveston, TX, to announce the end of slavery, over two years after the Emancipation Proclamation
1867 Maximilian I of the Mexican Empire is executed by a firing squad in Querétaro
1870 After all of the Southern States are formally readmitted to the United States of America, the Confederate States of America ceases to exist
1900 Michael Pupin was granted a US patent for long distance telephony
1911 In Pennsylvania, the first motion-picture censorship board was established
1912 The eight-hour work day is established in the United States
1914 A radiotelegraphic link is established between Germany and the United States and German Emperor Wilhelm II and US President Woodrow Wilson exchange telegrams to mark the event
1923 The “Moons Mullins” comic strip premiered
1931 Installation was completed on the first commercial doors operated by photoelectric cell; a magic eye controlled automated swinging doors between the kitchen and main dining room of Wilcox’s Pier Restaurant in West Haven, CT
1933 France granted Leon Trotsky political asylum
1934 The first movie of the sun (other than of eclipses) was made at the McMath-Hulbert Observatory at Pontiac, MI; using a Spectroheliokinematograph, Robert R. McMath took moving pictures of solar prominenences or sun spots
1934 The US National Archives and Records Administration was established
1934The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is established
1939 In Atlanta, GA, legislation was enacted that disallowed pinball machines in the city
1941 Cheerios whole grain oat cereal was invented to provide a more convenient and better tasting alternative to cooked oatmeal
1942 British Prime Minister Winston Churchill arrived in Washington, DC, to discuss the invasion of North Africa with US President Roosevelt
1942 Norma Jean Mortenson (Marilyn Monroe) and her 21-year-old neighbor Jimmy Dougherty were married; they divorced June 1946
1943 Henry Kissinger became a naturalized United States citizen
1949 NASCAR sanctions the first “strictly stock” race, which will evolve into the modern Nextel Cup; Jim Roper wins the event
1951 President Harry S. Truman signed the Universal Military Training and Service Act, which extended Selective Service until July 1, 1955 and lowered the draft age to 18
1952 The game show Ive Got a Secret debuted on CBS-TV
1953 Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, convicted of passing nuclear weapons information to the Soviet Union, are executed
1954 The animated Bugs Bunny short Devil May Hare debuts in US movie theaters, introducing The Tasmanian Devil
1956 Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis announced their professional break-up
1957 I Was a Teenage Werewolf opens in US movie theaters
1961 Kuwait declares independence from the United Kingdom
1961 The US Supreme Court struck down a provision in Maryland’s constitution that required state officeholders to profess a belief in God
1962 The Music Man and Hatari! opens in US movie theaters
1963 Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova returned to Earth after spending nearly three days as the first woman in space
1963 Jason and the Argonauts and PT 109 opens in US movie theaters
1970 Signature of the Patent Cooperation Treaty
1973 The Rocky Horror Show, the stage musical later developed into the cult-classic film, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, opens in London
1978 “Garfield” debuted on newspaper comics pages
1981 Richard Lester’s Superman II opens in US movie theaters
1984 The Chicago Bulls pick Michael Jordan of the University of North Carolina third in the NBA draft, following Hakeem Olajuwon of the University of Houston and Sam Bowie of the University of Kentucky
1987 The US Supreme Court struck down the Louisiana law that required that schools teach creationism
1992 Tim Burton’s Batman Returns opens in US movie theaters
1997 William Hague became the youngest leader of Britain’s Conservative party in nearly 200 years
1998 Gateway was fined more than $400,000 for illegally shipping personal computers to 16 countries subject to US export control
1998 Switzerland’s three largest banks offered $600 million to settle claims they’d stolen the assets of Holocaust victims during World War II; Jewish leaders called the offer insultingly low
1999 Stephen King is struck by a minivan in a hit-and-run accident
2000 The US Supreme Court ruled that a group prayer led by students at public-school football games violated the 1st Amendment’s principle that called for the separation of church and state
BORN:
1566 James I, King of Scotland as James VI, and King of England and King of Ireland as James I
1783 Friedrich Wilhelm Adam Sertürner, chemist who discovered morphine while trying to isolate the portion of opium that caused sleep
1897 Moe Howard, comedian, film actor, Head Stooge
1903 Lou Gehrig, baseball player called “The Iron Horse” for his durability, Gehrig set several Major League records; his record for most career grand slam home runs (23) still stands today
1910 Paul J. Flory, physical chemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1974 for his investigations of synthetic and natural macromolecules
1915 Julius Schwartz, comic book and pulp magazine editor, and a science fiction agent and prominent fan who is best known as a longtime editor at DC Comics, where at various times he was primary editor over the company’s flagship superheroes, Superman and Batman
1915 Pat Buttram, comedian, writer, actor (Green Acres, The Gene Autry Show, Roustabout, The AristoCats, The Rescuers)
1924 Raymond Noorda, electrical engineer, known as “the father of computer networking” because he was primarily responsible for making widespread the business use of networked personal computers
1925 Charlie Drake, comedian, actor, writer and singer (Drake’s Progress, The Worker, Bleak House)
1928 Barry Took, stand-up comedian, writer, producer (Marty, Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In, The Harry Secombe Show)
1942 Jeffrey Moss, songwriter (“Rubber Duckie,” “I Love Trash”)
1947 Salman Rushdie, novelist and essayist (Midnight’s Children, The Satanic Verses)
1948 Phylicia Rashad, actress (The Cosby Show, Cosby, The Wiz, Once Upon a Time… When We Were Colored, A Raisin in the Sun)
1948 Nick Drake, singer-songwriter and musician best known for his acoustic, autumnal songs
1954 Kathleen Turner, actress (Peggy Sue Got Married, Prizzi’s Honor, Romancing the Stone, The Virgin Suicides, Who Framed Roger Rabbit)
1963 Paula Abdul, Grammy Award-winning American pop singer, dancer, Emmy Award-winning choreographer, and television personality
1965 Sadie Frost, actress (The Krays, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, An Ideal Husband)
1967 Mia Sara, actress (Legend, Birds of Prey, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Timecop)
1975 Hugh Dancy, actor (David Copperfield, Ella Enchanted, Black Hawk Down, King Arthur, Blood and Chocolate , The Jane Austen Book Club)
DIED:
1692 Rebecca Nurse was executed for witchcraft in the Salem witch trials at the age of 71
1937 Sir J. M. Barrie, 1st Baronet, OM, novelist and dramatist who is best remembered for creating Peter Pan, the boy who refused to grow up, dies at 77
1966 Ed Wynn, actor, vaudevillian, comedian (Mary Poppins, The Absent-Minded Professor, Cinderfella, The Diary of Anne Frank), dies at 79
1977 Lady Olave Baden-Powell, GBE, Chief Guide for Britain and as well as making a major contribution to the development of the Guide / Girl Scout movements, she visited 111 countries during her life attending Jamborees and national Guide and Scout associations, dies at 88
1987 Ian Donald, physician who first successfully applied ultrasound reflection imaging for medical diagnosis, dies at 76
1991 Jean Arthur, actress (Shane, The Devil and Miss Jones, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, You Can’t Take It with You, Only Angels Have Wings), dies at 90
1993 Sir William Golding, novelist, poet and Nobel Prize for Literature laureate best known for his novel Lord of the Flies, dies at 81
2003 Belding H. Scribner, physician who invented the Scribner shunt, making long-term kidney dialysis possible, dies at 82
2005 Allan Beckett, engineer who designed the Mulberry Harbours – the floating roadways and their anchors – which enabled landing of vehicles and equipment on the Normandy beaches following D-Day in WW II, dies at 91