17 June History


Month:                           Date:     

  • 362    -    Emperor Julian issues an edict banning Christians from teaching in Syria.
  • 1579    -    Sir Francis Drake claims San Francisco Bay for England.
  • 1775    -    The British take Bunker Hill outside of Boston, after a costly battle.
  • 1799    -    Napoleon Bonaparte incorporates Italy into his empire.
  • 1848    -    Austrian General Alfred Windischgratz crushes a Czech uprising in Prague.
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  • 1854    -    The Red Turban revolt breaks out in Guangdong, China.
  • 1856    -    The Republican Party opens its first national convention in Philadelphia.
  • 1861    -    President Abraham Lincoln witnesses Dr. Thaddeus Lowe demonstrate the use of a hot-air balloon.
  • 1863    -    On the way to Gettysburg, Union and Confederate forces skirmish at Point of Rocks, Maryland.
  • 1872    -    George M. Hoover begins selling whiskey in Dodge City, Kansas–a town which had previously been "dry."
  • 1876    -    General George Crook's command is attacked and bested on the Rosebud River by 1,500 Sioux and Cheyenne under the leadership of Crazy Horse.
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  • 1912    -    The German Zeppelin SZ 111 burns in its hanger in Friedrichshafen.
  • 1913    -    U.S. Marines set sail from San Diego to protect American interests in Mexico.
  • 1917    -    The Russian Duma meets in secret session in Petrograd and votes for an immediate Russian offensive against the German Army.
  • 1924    -    The Fascist militia marches into Rome.
  • 1926    -    Spain threatens to quit the League of Nations if Germany is allowed to join.
  • 1930    -    The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Bill becomes law, placing the highest tariff on imports to the United States.
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  • 1931    -    British authorities in China arrest Indochinese Communist leader Ho Chi Minh.
  • 1932    -    The U.S. Senate defeats the Bonus Bill as 10,000 veterans mass around the Capitol.
  • 1940    -    The Soviet Union occupies Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.
  • 1942    -    Yank a weekly magazine for the U.S. armed services, begins publication.
  • 1944    -    French troops land on the island of Elba in the Mediterranean.
  • 1950    -    Surgeon Richard Lawler performs the first kidney transplant operation in Chicago.
  • 1953    -    Soviet tanks fight thousands of Berlin workers rioting against the East German government.
  • 1963    -    The U.S. Supreme Court bans the required reading of the Lord's prayer and Bible in public schools.
  • 1965    -    27 B-52s hit Viet Cong outposts, but lose two planes in South Vietnam.
  • 1970    -    North Vietnamese troops cut the last operating rail line in Cambodia.
  • 1972    -    Five men are arrested for burglarizing Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C.
  • 1994    -    Millions of Americans watch former football player O.J. Simpson–facing murder charges–drive his Ford Bronco through Los Angeles, followed by police.

  • 17 June Birthdays

  • 1239    -    Edward I (Longshanks), King of England (1272-1307).
  • 1703    -    John Wesley, English evangelist and theologian, founder of the Methodist movement.
  • 1742    -    William Hooper, signer of the Declaration of Independence.
  • 1871    -    James Weldon Johnson, African-American poet and novelist (The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man).
  • 1880    -    Carl Van Vechten, writer.
  • 1882    -    Igor Stravinsky, Russian-born U.S. composer (The Rite of Spring, The Firebird).
  • 1914    -    John Hersey, novelist and journalist (Men of Bataan, Hiroshima).
  • 1942    -    Rod Padgett, poet.