June 15

It’s Power of a Smile Day and Fly a Kite Day and St. Vitus’s Day and Father’s Day

ON THIS DAY…
763BC Assyrians record a solar eclipse that will be used to fix the chronology of Mesopotamian history
1215 King John of England signs the Magna Carta, a historic agreement with his barons that protects individual liberties and establishes that not even the king is above the law
1300 Dante Alighieri becomes Prior of Florence
1752 Ben Franklin’s kite-flying experiment proved lightning and electricity were related while flying a kite with a key attached
1775 George Washington is appointed commander-in-chief of the Continental Army
1776 Delaware votes to suspend government under the British Crown and separate officially from Pennsylvania
1836 Arkansas is admitted as the 25th US state
1844 Charles Goodyear received another patent for “An Improvement in India-Rubber Fabrics” or vulcanization
1846 The Oregon Treaty establishes the 49th parallel as the border between the United States and Canada, from the Rocky Mountains to the Strait of Juan de Fuca
1859 Ambiguity in the Oregon Treaty leads to the “Northwestern Boundary Dispute” between US and British/Canadian settlers
1864 Arlington National Cemetery is established
1867 The first US gallstone operation was performed by Dr. John Stough Bobbs, known as “the father of cholecystotomy” in Indianapolis, IN
1869 John Wesley Hyatt and Isaiah Hyatt were issued a US patent for the first plastic, which they called “Improved Method of Making Solid Collodion,” but we know better as celluloid
1877 Henry Ossian Flipper becomes the first African American cadet to graduate from the United States Military Academy
1880 The first US patent for a safety razor was issued to brothers Frederick and Otto Kampfe of New York, who made and sold their invention
1888 Crown Prince Wilhelm becomes Kaiser Wilhelm II and is the last emperor of the German Empire
1909 Benjamin Shibe patented the cork center baseball
1916 President Woodrow Wilson signs a bill incorporating the Boy Scouts of America
1919 Capt. John Alcock (pilot) and Lt. Arthur W. Browne (navigator) successfully completed the first, non-stop, transatlantic, airplane flight
1924 Native Americans are proclaimed United States citizens
1925 Douglas Fairbanks stars in the first action movie sequel, Don Q Son of Zorro, which opens in US movie theaters
1934 The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is founded
1938 Pitcher Johnny Vander Meer of the Cincinnati Reds throws his second straight no-hit game, a feat unequaled in baseball history
1944 In the Saskatchewan general election, 1944, the CCF, led by Tommy Douglas, is elected and forms the first socialist government of North America
1945 Vincente Minnelli and Judy Garland wed
1955 The Eisenhower administration stages the first annual “Operation Alert” (OPAL) exercise, an attempt to assess the USA’s preparations for a nuclear attack
1966 The Beatles album “Yesterday & Today” was released by Capitol Records in the US
1969 Hee Haw debuts on CBS-TV
1973 Battle for the Planet of the Apes, The Legend of Hell House, Walking Tall and Super Fly T.N.T. opened in US movie theaters
1977 Less than two years after the death of longtime ruler Francisco Franco, Spain holds its first democratic elections in 41 years
1978 King Hussein of Jordan married 26-year-old American Lisa Halaby, who became Queen Noor
1979 The amazing documentary on the rock band The Who, The Kids Are Alright, had its US premiere in New York City
1985 Rembrandt’s painting Danaë is attacked by a man later judged insane; he threw sulfuric acid on the canvas and cut it twice with his knife
1990 Dick Tracy (along with the Roger Rabbit short “Roller Coaster Rabbit”) and Gremlins 2: The Next Batch opened in US movie theaters
1992 Vice President Dan Quayle, visiting a Trenton, NJ school, corrects the spelling of a student, telling him that “potato” should be spelled “potatoe”
1992 The United States Supreme Court rules in US vs. Alvarez-Machain that it is permissible for the USA to abduct suspects in foreign countries and bring them to the USA for trial, without approval from those other countries
1994 Disney’s animated film The Lion King opened in US movie theaters
1994 Israel and Vatican City establish full diplomatic relations
1996 In Manchester, England a terrorist bomb injures over 200 people and devastates a large part of the city center
2001 Lara Croft: Tomb Raider opened in US movie theaters
2003 In northeast London, a trailer was stolen that contained thousands of copies of J.K. Rowling’s book Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix; the empty trailer was discovered two days later
2005 Batman Begins opened in US movie theaters

BORN:
1330 Edward the Black Prince, Prince of Wales, eldest son of King Edward III of England and Philippa of Hainault, and father to King Richard II of England who an exceptional military leader and popular during his life, died one year before his father and so never ruled as king becoming the first English Prince of Wales to suffer that fate
1843 Edvard Grieg, composer and pianist who composed in the romantic period; he is best known for his Piano Concerto in A minor, for his incidental music to Henrik Ibsen’s play Peer Gynt (which includes Morning Mood and In the Hall of the Mountain King), and for his collection of piano miniatures Lyric Pieces
1884 Harry Langdon, actor, vaudevillian, director, cartoonist (The Strong Man, Zenobia, Hallelujah I’m a Bum, Long Pants)
1890 Georg Wüst, oceanographer who, by collecting and analyzing many systematic observations, developed the first essentially complete understanding of the physical structure and deep circulation of the Atlantic Ocean
1910 David Rose, songwriter, composer, arranger, and orchestra leader whose most famous compositions were “The Stripper”, “Holiday for Strings”, and “Calypso Melody”; he also wrote music for the television series Little House on the Prairie and Bonanza
1916 Herbert Alexander Simon, social scientist who was a pioneer of the development of computer artificial intelligence
1937 Waylon Jennings, influential Grammy Award-winning country music singer and musician
1939 Brian Jacques, author, best known for his Redwall series of novels, as well as the Tribes of Redwall and Castaways of the Flying Dutchman series
1946 Noddy Holder, singer (Slade)
1949 Jim Varney, actor best remembered (sadly) for his character Ernest (The Beverly Hillbillies, Toy Story, 3 Ninjas: High Noon at Mega Mountain)
1954 James Belushi, actor, comedian, musician (According to Jim, Hoodwinked!, Curly Sue, Red Heat)
1955 Julie Hagerty, actress (Airplane!, A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy, What About Bob?, Freddy Got Fingered)
1956 Robin Curtis, actress (Ghost Story, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Hexed)
1963 Helen Hunt, 4-time Emmy and Academy Award-winning actress (Mad About You, As Good as It Gets, Next of Kin, Twister)
1964 Courteney Cox, actress (Misfits of Science, Family Ties, Scream, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective)
1969 Ice Cube (O’Shea Jackson), MC, songwriter, actor, screenwriter, and film director
1973 Neil Patrick Harris, actor (Clara’s Heart, Doogie Howser, M.D., Starship Troopers, Spider-Man: The New Animated Series)

DIED:
1381 Wat Tyler, the leader of the English Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 is stabbed by William Walworth, the Mayor of London, during the rioting and killed at 40
1849 James Knox Polk, 11th President of the United States (1845-1849), 11th Governor of Tennessee (1839-1841), 17th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (1835-1839), Member of the U.S. House of Representatives (1825-1839), dies at 53
1984 Meredith Willson, composer, songwriter, conductor and playwright who is s best known for writing the book, music, and lyrics for the hit musical The Music Man, which won the Tony Award for Best Musical in 1958 and the cast recording of The Music Man won the first Grammy Award given for best cast album, dies at 82
1989 Victor French, actor (Little House on the Prairie, Highway to Heaven, The Other, Get Smart), dies at 54
1996 Ella Fitzgerald, also known as “Lady Ella” and the “First Lady of Song”, is considered one of the most influential jazz vocalists of the 20th Century; over a recording career that lasted 57 years, she was the winner of 13 Grammy Awards, and was awarded the National Medal of Art by Ronald Reagan and the Presidential Medal of Freedom by George H. W. Bush, dies at 79
2003 Hume Cronyn, 3-time Emmy Award-winning actor (To Dance with the White Dog, Broadway Bound, Age-Old Friends), dies at 91