Tidbits of History

June 14 is Flag Day
Pop Goes the Weasel Day
National Strawberry Shortcake Day

June 14, 1642 – First compulsory education law in America was passed by Massachusetts.

American Revolutionary War: the Continental Army was established by the Continental Congress on June 14, 1775, marking the birth of the United States Army.

1777 – The Stars and Stripes was adopted by Congress as the Flag of the United States. (Celebrated as Flag Day)

Publication of Federalist Paper #78: The Judiciary Department written by Alexander Hamilton in 1788.

In 1789, whiskey distilled from maize was first produced by American clergyman, the Rev Elijah Craig. It is named Bourbon because Rev. Craig lived in Bourbon County, Kentucky.

Birthday of Julia Gardiner Tyler (June 14, 1816), second wife of ‎John Tyler, first lady 1844-1845. John Tyler fathered eight children with his first wife, Letitia and seven more with his second wife, Julia.

1846 – Bear Flag Revolt begins – Anglo settlers in Sonoma, California, start a rebellion against Mexico and proclaim the California Republic.

1946 – Birthday of ‎President Donald J. Trump, forty-fifth president of the U.S.A.

In 1951, the Univac-1 was unveiled in Washington, DC. and dedicated as the world’s first commercial computer. The Univac was manufactured for the U.S. Census Bureau by Remington Rand Corp. The massive computer was 8 feet high, 7-1/2 feet wide and 14-1/2 feet long. It could retain a maximum of 1000 numbers and was able to add, subtract, multiply, divide, sort, collate and take square and cube roots. Its transfer rate to and from magnetic tape was 10,000 characters per second. This was five years after the ENIAC, the first electronic computer in the U.S., was completed.

1954 – ‎U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a bill into law that placed the words “under God” into the United States Pledge of Allegiance.

Disneyland Monorail System opened to the public in Anaheim, California on June 14, 1959, the first daily operating monorail system in the Western Hemisphere.

On June 14, 1972, the insecticide DDT was banned from use in the U.S. after 31 Dec 1972, by executive order of the Environmental Protection Agency.

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June 13 is Sewing Machine Day
Kitchen Klutzes of America Day
According to: foodimentary.com Today’s Food History:

on this day in…

1789 Mrs. Alexander Hamilton served a new dessert treat for General George Washington. The highlight of the dinner party was ice cream! And all this time you thought Dolley Madison was responsible.
1817 Richard Lovell Edgeworth died. An Anglo-Irish inventor, among his many inventions and innovations were a turnip cutter, various improvements in agricultural machines, and a velocipede.
1893 African American inventor T.W. Stewart received a patent for a mop.
2010 Jimmy Dean died at age 81. A country music singer he also founded Jimmy Dean Meat Co. in 1969, well known for its Jimmy Dean Sausage brand.

National Lobster Day
Cupcake Lover’s Day

1373 – Anglo-Portuguese Alliance between England (succeeded by the United Kingdom) and Portugal. It is the oldest alliance in the world which is still in force.

June 13, 1525 – Martin Luther married Katharina von Bora, against the celibacy rule decreed by the Roman Catholic Church for priests and nuns.

Georgia provincial governor James Oglethorpe began an unsuccessful attempt to take Spanish Florida during the Siege of St. Augustine on June 13, 1740.

Lewis and Clark Expedition: scouting ahead of the expedition, Meriwether Lewis and four companions sight the Great Falls of the Missouri River on June 13, 1805.

Birthday of Charles Algernon Parsons (1854), inventor of the steam turbine.

“The British engineer Charles Algernon Parsons thought up an excellent way of publicizing his newly devised steam turbine. He waited for Queen Victoria’s Diamond Julilee in 1897, at which time there was a stately review of the British Navy. Parson’s turbine-powered ship Turbinia”, going thirty-five knots with scarcely any vibration of noise, suddenly skimmed past the navy. It was an effective demonstration, and the navies of the world at once began bidding for turbine engines.”

From Asimov, Isaac. Isaac Asimov’s Book of Facts. New York, Bell Publishing Company, 1981

On June 13, 1893, ‎President Grover Cleveland noticed a rough spot in his mouth and on July 1 he underwent a secret, successful surgery to remove a large, cancerous portion of his jaw; operation was not revealed to US public until 1917, nine years after the president’s death.

June 13, 1898 – Yukon Territory was formed, with Dawson chosen as its capital.

June 13, 1966 – The United States Supreme Court ruled in Miranda v. Arizona that the police must inform suspects of their rights before questioning them.

1967 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson nominated Solicitor-General Thurgood Marshall to become the first black justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.

1994 – A jury in Anchorage, Alaska, blames recklessness by Exxon and Captain Joseph Hazelwood for the Exxon Valdez disaster, allowing victims of the oil spill to seek $15 billion in damages.

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June 12 is Red Rose Day
National Peanut Butter Cookie Day
International Cachaça Day (a Brazilian distilled spirit made from sugarcane juice.)
National Jerky Day

American Revolution: British general Thomas Gage declared martial law in Massachusetts on June 12, 1775. The British offer a pardon to all colonists who lay down their arms. There would be only two exceptions to the amnesty: Samuel Adams and John Hancock, if captured, were to be hanged.

Birthday of ‎George H W Bush (June 12, 1924), forty-first President of the United States, father of ‎George W Bush, forty-third President of the United States.

On June 12, 1939, the Baseball Hall of Fame opened in Cooperstown, New York.

Civil rights leader Medgar Evers was murdered in front of his home in Jackson, Mississippi by Ku Klux Klan member Byron De La Beckwith on June 12, 1963. According to Wikipedia:

In the early morning of June 12, 1963, just hours after President John F. Kennedy’s nationally televised Civil Rights Address, Evers pulled into his driveway after returning from a meeting with NAACP lawyers. Emerging from his car and carrying NAACP T-shirts that read “Jim Crow Must Go”, Evers was struck in the back with a bullet fired from an Enfield 1917 rifle; the bullet ripped through his heart. He staggered 30 feet (9.1 meters) before collapsing. He was taken to the local hospital in Jackson, Mississippi where he was initially refused entry because of his race. His family explained who he was and he was admitted; he died in the hospital 50 minutes later.

The state twice prosecuted De La Beckwith for murder in 1964, but both trials ended with hung juries. He was eventually convicted of the crime in 1994, almost 30 years after the murder. He died in prison on January 21, 2001.

In 1967, The United States Supreme Court in Loving v. Virginia declared all U.S. state laws which prohibit interracial marriage (miscegenation) to be unconstitutional.

1987 – Cold War: At the Brandenburg Gate ‎U.S. President Ronald Reagan publicly challenges Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this (the Berlin) Wall.

In 1991, Russians elected Boris Yeltsin as the president of the republic.

June 12, 1994, Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman were murdered outside her home in Los Angeles, California. O.J. Simpson was later acquitted of the killings, but is held liable in wrongful death civil suit.

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June 11 is National German Chocolate Cake Day
German chocolate cake, originally German’s chocolate cake, is a layered chocolate cake…filled and topped with a coconut-pecan frosting. It owes its name to an English-American chocolate maker named Samuel German, who developed a formulation of dark baking chocolate that came to be used in the cake recipe. The recipe for the cake was developed by a Mrs. George Clay of Dallas, Texas and was published as the “Recipe of the Day” in The Dallas Morning News on June 3, 1957 and became quite popular. General Foods, which owned the Baker’s brand at the time, took notice and distributed the cake recipe to other newspapers in the country. Sales of Baker’s Chocolate are said to have increased by as much as 73% and the cake would become a national staple. The possessive form (German’s) was dropped in subsequent publications, forming the “German Chocolate Cake” identity and giving the false impression of a German origin.

According to calculations by Eratosthenes, Troy was sacked and burned on June 11, 1184 B. C.

Alexander the Great died in the palace of Nebuchadnezzar II in Babylon on June 11, 323 B.C. He was 32 years old and his cause of death has been speculated to be poisoning, malaria, pancreatitis, typhoid, or West Nile virus. It was reported that Alexander’s health may have been in general decline after years of heavy drinking and severe wounds.

On June 11, 1509, Henry VIII of England married Catherine of Aragon, his first wife.  She was the daughter of Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon who supported and financed Christopher Columbus’ explorations.

Birthday of Ben Jonson (June 11, 1572), English playwright and poet, contemporary of William Shakespeare. One quote from Johnson is “The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.” ‘Father Christmas’ first appeared in his 1616 play first performed at the court of King James I. Ben Jonson was buried standing up in Westminster Abbey. Because he could only afford to buy a tiny amount of space in the abbey, Jonson was buried in an upright position. Now is he buried in Poets’ Corner where so many other famous English writers are interred.

In 1742, Benjamin Franklin invented the Franklin stove. The wood fuel burns on an iron surface over a cold air duct which heats air which then passes through baffles in the back wall. The heated air is released through vents on each side of the stove. Rather than patent it, he chose to write about it in a book so that others could freely copy his design. As he wrote, “That as we enjoy great Advantages from the Inventions of others, we should be glad of an Opportunity to serve others by any Invention of ours, and this we should do freely and generously. From: June 11 – Today in Science.

In 1770, the British explorer, Captain James Cook, ran aground on the Great Barrier Reef.

June 11, 1776 – The Continental Congress appointed Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston to the Committee of Five to draft a declaration of independence. Speaking of these “old white men”, Jefferson was 33 years old; Adams was 41; Franklin was 70; Sherman was 55; and Livingston was 30.

In 1793, the first American patent for a stove designed of cast iron was granted to Robert Haeterick of Pennsylvania.

Birthday of Jacques-Yves Cousteau (1910), French oceanographer, marine biologist. Co-Inventer of the aqualung which made SCUBA diving possible.

1935 – Inventor Edwin Armstrong gave the first public demonstration of FM broadcasting in the United States at Alpine, New Jersey.

The Presbyterian Church of America was founded at Philadelphia on June 11, 1936.

1962 – Frank Morris, John Anglin and Clarence Anglin allegedly became the only prisoners to escape from the prison on Alcatraz Island .

‎President John F. Kennedy addressed Americans from the Oval Office in 1963, proposing the Civil Rights Act (passed in 1964) that would revolutionize American society. It proposed equal access to public facilities, to end segregation in education and to guarantee federal protection for voting rights.

1982 – the movie “ET the Extra-Terrestrial” was released.

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