08 June History


Month:                           Date:     

  • 452    -    Attila the Hun invades Italy.
  • 632    -    Mohammed, the founder of Islam and unifier of Arabia, dies.
  • 793    -    The Vikings raid the Northumbrian coast of England.
  • 1861    -    Tennessee votes to secede from the Union and join the Confederacy.
  • 1862    -    The Army of the Potomac defeats Confederate forces at Battle of Cross Keys, Virginia.
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  • 1863    -    Residents of Vicksburg flee into caves as General Ulysses S. Grant's army begins shelling the town.
  • 1866    -    Prussia annexes the region of Holstein.
  • 1904    -    U.S. Marines land in Tangiers, Morocco, to protect U.S. citizen.
  • 1908    -    King Edward VII of England visits Czar Nicholas II of Russia in an effort to improve relations between the two countries.
  • 1915    -    William Jennings Bryan quits as Secretary of State under President Wilson.
  • 1953    -    The Supreme Court forbids segregated lunch counters in Washington, D.C.
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  • 1965    -    President Johnson authorizes commanders in Vietnam to commit U.S. ground forces to combat.
  • 1966    -    Gemini astronaut Gene Cernan attempts to become the first man to orbit the Earth untethered to a space capsule, but is unable to when he exhausts himself fitting into his rocket pack.
  • 1967    -    Israel airplanes attack the USS Liberty, a surveillance ship, in the Mediterranean, killing 34 Navy crewmen.
  • 1968    -    James Earl Ray, the alleged assassin of Martin Luther King, Jr., is captured at the London Airport.
  • 1969    -    President Richard Nixon meets with President Thieu of South Vietnam to tell him 25,000 U.S. troops will pull out by August.
  • 1995    -    U.S. Air Force pilot Captain Scott O'Grady is rescued by U.S. Marines in Bosnia.
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  • 08 June Birthdays

  • 1625    -    Giovanni Domenico Cassini, astronomer.
  • 1724    -    John Smeaton, English engineer.
  • 1810    -    Robert Schumann, German composer.
  • 1813    -    David D. Porter, Union admiral during the American Civil War.
  • 1867    -    Frank Lloyd Wright, influential American architect.
  • 1916    -    Francis Crick, British scientist who co-discoverered of the structure of DNA.
  • 1918    -    Robert Preston, actor (The Music Man).
  • 1925    -    Barbara Pierce Bush, First Lady to 41st President, George Bush.
  • 1939    -    Herb Adderley, American football player.
  • 1942    -    Andrew Weil, physician and author (Spontaneous Healing).
  • 1947    -    Sara Paretsky, detective novelist.