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.