This day in History
June 1
1862 General Robert E. Lee assumes command of the Confederate army outside Richmond after General Joe Johnston is injured at Seven Pines.
June 2
1942 The American aircraft carriers Enterprise, Hornet and Yorktown move into their battle positions for the Battle of Midway.
June 3
1888 The classic baseball poem "Casey at the Bat," written by Ernest L. Thayer, is published in the San Francisco Examiner.
June 4
1911 Gold is discovered in Alaska's Indian Creek.
June 5
1930 Frozen foods are sold commercially for the first time.
June 6
1862 The city of Memphis surrenders to the Union navy after an intense naval engagement on the Mississippi River.
June 7
1654 Louis XIV is crowned king of France.
June 8
1968 James Earl Ray, the alleged assassin of Martin Luther King, Jr., is captured at the London Airport.
June 9
1945 Japanese Premier Kantaro Suzuki declares that Japan will fight to the last rather than accept unconditional surrender.
June 10
1864 At the Battle of Brice's Crossroads in Mississippi, Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest defeats the numerically superior Union troops.
June 11
1927 Charles Lindbergh, a captain in the US Army Air Corps Reserve, receives the first Distinguished Flying Cross ever awarded, for his solo trans-Atlantic Flight.
June 12
1931 Gangster Al Capone and 68 of his henchmen are indicted for violating Prohibition laws.
June 13
1940 Paris is evacuated as the Germans advance on the city.
June 14
1922 President Warren G. Harding becomes the first president to speak on the radio.
June 15
1932 Gaston Means is sentenced to 15 years for fraud in the Lindbergh baby kidnapping.
June 16
1955 The U.S. House of Representatives votes to extend Selective Service until 1959.
June 17
1799 Napoleon Bonaparte incorporates Italy into his empire.
June 18
1928 Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to cross the Atlantic by airplane.
June 19
1867 Mexican Emperor Maximillian is executed.
June 20
1941 The U.S. Army Air Force is established, replacing the Army Air Corps.
June 21
1834 C. H. McCormick patents the first practical reaper.
June 22
1930 A son is born to Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh.
June 23
1944 In one of the largest air strikes of the war, the U.S. Fifteenth Air Force sends 761 bombers against the oil refineries at Ploesti, Romania.
June 24
1861 Federal gunboats attack Confederate batteries at Mathias Point, Virginia.
June 25
1950 North Korea invades South Korea, beginning the Korean War.
June 26
1918 The Germans begin firing their huge 420 mm howitzer, "Big Bertha," at Paris.
June 27
1864 General Sherman is repulsed by Confederates at the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain.
June 28
1942 German troops launch an offensive to seize Soviet oil fields in the Caucasus and the city of Stalingrad.
June 29
1950 President Harry S. Truman authorizes a sea blockade of Korea.
June 30
1936 Margaret Mitchell's novel, Gone With the Wind, is published.
