Once again, it should be reiterated, that this does not pretend to be a very extensive history of what happened on this day (nor is it the most original - the links can be found down below). If you know something that I am missing, by all means, shoot me an email or leave a comment, and let me know!
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/jaws-released
June 20, 1975: Jaws released
On this day in 1975, Jaws, a film directed by Steven Spielberg that made countless viewers afraid to go into the water, opens in theaters. The story of a great white shark that terrorizes a New England resort town became an instant blockbuster and the highest-grossing film in movie history until it was bested by 1977's Star Wars. Jaws was nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Picture category and took home three Oscars, for Best Film Editing, Best Original Score and Best Sound. The film, a breakthrough for director Spielberg, then 27 years old, spawned three sequels.
The film starred Roy Scheider as principled police chief Martin Brody, Richard Dreyfuss as a marine biologist named Matt Hooper and Robert Shaw as a grizzled fisherman called Quint. It was set in the fictional beach town of Amity, and based on a best-selling novel, released in 1973, by Peter Benchley. Subsequent water-themed Benchley bestsellers also made it to the big screen, including The Deep (1977).
With a budget of $12 million, Jaws was produced by the team of Richard Zanuck and David Brown, whose later credits include The Verdict (1982), Cocoon (1985) and Driving Miss Daisy (1989). Filming, which took place on Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, was plagued by delays and technical difficulties, including malfunctioning mechanical sharks.
Jaws put now-famed director Steven Spielberg on the Hollywood map. Spielberg, largely self-taught in filmmaking, made his feature-length directorial debut with The Sugarland Express in 1974. The film was critically well-received but a box-office flop. Following the success of Jaws, Spielberg went on to become one of the most influential, iconic people in the film world, with such epics as Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), ET: the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Jurassic Park (1993), Schindler's List (1993) and Saving Private Ryan (1998). E.T., Jaws and Jurassic Park rank among the 10 highest-grossing movies of all time. In 1994, Spielberg formed DreamWorks SKG, with Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen. The company has produced such hits as American Beauty (1999), Gladiator (2001) and Shrek (2001).
Frankly, I am not sure how the release of a movie - even one as legendary as Jaws - should be deemed as the event of significance to really focus in on for this date, as the History Channel website has done for this date. Attila the Hun was defeated by the Germans and the Romans on this day. French and Spanish crusaders united. During the French Revolution, this date saw two significant events within a couple of years of one another - the iconic Oath of the Tennis Court, and the capture of King Louis XVI, who was on his way to Austria to gather support to try and suppress the Revolution. It was at this moment that people realized that the king was not on their side, and the beheading of the head of state, literally and figuratively, probably became inevitable. In Germany, this date was significant for numerous reasons, with some events occurring on this date that would contribute to the rise of the Nazis, including the French marching into the Rhineland (which contributed to the general discontent in Germany that foreshadowed the rise of the Nazis), then some events on this date during the Nazi regime, many having to do with the round up and/or extermination of Jews, but one being an Olympic record set by Jesse Owens in Berlin. Rhodesia agreed to racial segregation (white supremacy) in 1969. Juan Peron returned to Argentina, and violence ensued. Nelson Mandela visited New York in 1990 to kick off his US tour, just months after being released and with the process of change in apartheid South Africa really starting to pick up momentum.
Even in American history specifically, there were some important events that would seem to draw more attention than Jaws being released. Congress approved the Great Seal and the eagle as the symbol for the country. The US Navy seized Guam. American forces won some big victories in the Pacific war during World War II.
Plenty of big events on this date. Here's a closer look:
451 - Roman and German (Barbarian) warriors brought Attila the Hun's army to a halt and defeated him at the Catalaunian Plains in eastern France.
1212 - French & Spanish crusaders unite against the Almohaden at Toledo
1214 - The University of Oxford receives its charter.
1397 - The Union of Kalmar united Denmark, Sweden, and Norway under one monarch.
1402 - Battle of Angora (Ankara)-Tatars defeat Turkish Army
1530 - German Parliament joins to Augsburg together
1547 - Count Philip van Hessen captured
1567 - Jews are expelled from Brazil by order of regent Don Henrique
1582 - Bishop Domingo de Salazar of Manila suppresses the Philippines
1591 - Mauritius & Willem van Nassau occupy Devente
1631 - The sack of Baltimore: the Irish village of Baltimore is attacked by Algerian pirates.
1632 - Britain grants 2nd Lord Baltimore rights to Chesapeake Bay area
1633 - Charter for Maryland is given to Lord Cecil Baltimore
1656 - Polish King Jan II Casimir recaptures Warsaw
1675 - Abenaki, Massachusetts, Mohegan & Wampanoag indians form anti-English front under Metacom
1756 - Siraj ud-Daulah Nawab of Bengal takes Calcutta from the British
1756 - In India, 150 British soldiers were imprisoned in a cell that became known as the "Black Hole of Calcutta."
1779 - Battle of Stone Ferry
1782 - Congress approved the Great Seal of US and the eagle as it's symbol
1787 - Oliver Ellsworth moves at the Federal Convention to call the government the United States.
1789 - Oath of Tennis Court (for a new constitution) in France taken
1791 - King Louis XVI of France was captured during the French Revolution while attempting to flee the country in the so-called Flight to Varennes.
1793 - Eli Whitney applied for a cotton gin patent. He received the patent on March 14. The cotton gin initiated the American mass-production concept.
1819 - The 320 ton Savannah becomes first steamship to cross any ocean (Atlantic)
1825 - Coronation of French king Charles X the Bourbon 1826 - Siam/England sign trade/peace treaty
1837 - England issues its 1st stamp, 1P Queen Victoria
1837 - Queen Victoria at 18 ascends British throne following death of uncle King William IV Ruled for 63 years ending in 1901
1840 - Samuel Morse patents his telegraph
1855 - Commissioners appointed to lay out SF streets west of Larkin
1862 - Barbu Catargiu, the Prime Minister of Romania, is assassinated.
1863 - First bank chartered in US (National Bank of Davenport Iowa)
1863 - Skirmish at Greencastle Pennsylvania
1863 - West Virginia became the 35th state to join the U.S.
1863 - The National Bank of Philadelphia in Philadelphia, PA, became the first bank to receive a charter from the U.S. Congress.
1864 - Battle of Kinston NC & Battle of Abingdon VA
1864 - Battle of Petersburgs VA - in trenches
1864 - Skirmish at Lattermore's Mills/Powder Springs Georgia
1866 - Italy declares war on Austria
1867 - President Andrew Johnson announces purchase of Alaska
1871 - Ku Klux Klan trials began in federal court in Oxford Miss
1874 - First US Lifesaving Medal awarded (Lucian Clemons)
1888 - Pope Leo XIII publishes encyclical Libertas
1893 - Lizzie Borden, accused of murdering her parents, was found innocent by a jury in New Bedford, Mass.
1895 - 1st female PhD (science) earned (Caroline Willard Baldwin)
1895 - Canal of Smock official opens
1895 - Nicaragua, El Salvador & Honduras form a short-lived confederation
1898 - The U.S. Navy seized the island of Guam enroute to the Phillipines to fight the Spanish.
1901 - Charlotte Manye is first native African to graduate from a US college
1907 - First Portland Rose festival
1909 - First balloon honeymoon (Roger Burham & Eleanor Waring)
1910 - "Krazy Kat" comic strip by George Herriman debuts in NY Journal
1910 - Mexican President Porfirio Diaz proclaimed martial law and arrested hundreds.
1910 - Fanny Brice debuted in the New York production of the "Ziegfeld Follies".
1911 - NAACP incorporates (NY)
1912 - NY Giant Josh Devore steals 4 bases in an inning (2nd & 3rd twice)
1912 - NY Giants lead Bost Braves 14-2 into 9th, Giants win 21-12
1913 - 3 of 1st 4 Yankees hit-by-pitch en route to a record 6 hit batsman
1913 - Bert Daniels set AL mark, being hit-by-pitch 3 times in a doubleheader
1914 - 46th Belmont: Merritt Buxton aboard Luke McLuke wins in 2:20
1915 - German offensive in Argonnes
1919 - German government of Scheideman resigns
1919 - Treaty of Versailles: Germany ends incorporation of Austria
1919 - 150 die at the Teatro Yaguez fire, Mayagüez, Puerto Rico.
1920 - Yanks win protest of 1-0 White Sox win & game is replayed
1921 - 11.5" (29.2 cm) of rainfall, Circle, Montana (state record)
1923 - France announced it would seize the Rhineland to assist Germany in paying its war debts.
1926 - Mordecai W Johnson becomes 1st black president of Howard University
1931 - Karl Buresch becomes chancellor of Austrian
1932 - A's Roger Cramer gets 6 consecutive hits in a game (repeats in 1935)
1936 - Jesse Owens of US sets 100 meter record at 10.2
1939 - Test flight of 1st rocket plane using liquid propellants
1940 - Joe Louis TKOs Arturo Godoy in 8 for heavyweight boxing title
1941 - German U-203 fails on torpedo attack on US battleship Texas
1941 - The U.S. Army Air Force was established, replacing the Army Air Corps.
1942 - Adolf Eichmann proclaims deportation of Dutch Jews
1942 - German troops conquer Tobruk, North Africa
1943 - Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) founded
1943 - Detroit race riot kills 35
1943 - German round up Jews in Amsterdam
1943 - National Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) organizes
1943 - Race-related rioting erupted in Detroit. Federal troops were sent in two days later to end the violence that left more than 30 dead.
1943 - New Quebec (Chubb) Crater discovered in northern Quebec (3½ km dia)
1943 - Sweden's Gunther Hagg beats favorite Greg Rice by 35 yards in 5,000m at national AAU track & field championship in NY
1944 - Congress charters Central Intelligence Agency
1944 - Heavy storm hits the Channel
1944 - Nazi begin mass extermination of Jews at Auschwitz
1944 - Soviet forces conquer Wiborg
1944 - US attacks Japanese fleet in Philippines Sea
1944 - US troops occupy Biak
1946 - NYC transit begins using PA system - Car # 744 on 8th Ave IND line
1947 - Pres Harry Truman vetoes Taft-Hartley Act
1947 - Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel was murdered in Beverly Hills, CA, at the order of mob associates angered over the soaring costs of his project, the Flamingo resort in Las Vegas, NV.
1948 - "Toast of the Town" hosted by Ed Sullivan premieres on CBS-TV
1948 - 20 Jews killed when a bomb is thrown into Jewish quarter of Cairo
1948 - Cleveland draws then record 82,781 for doubleheader
1948 - Deutsche Mark introduced in West-Germany
1949 - Central Intelligence Agency Act, passes
1950 - Dutch Air Force base Tjililitan given to Indonesia
1950 - Joe Dimaggio's 2,000th hit, Yanks beat Indians 8-2
1950 - Willie Mays graduated from high school and immediately signed with the New York Giants.
1951 - Cleve Indian Bobby Avila hits 3 HRs, double & single vs Red Sox
1955 - The AFL and CIO agreed to combine names and a merge into a single group.
1955 - "Almost Crazy" opens at Longacre Theater NYC for 16 performances
1956 - Venezuelan Super Constellation crashes in NJ, 74 killed
1956 - At Detroit's Briggs Stadium, Mickey Mantle hits 2 Billy Hoeft pitches into right center field bleachers (no else hits 1 there)
1958 - NZ all out 47 v England at Lord's Laker 4-13, Lock 5-17
1960 - 12nd Emmy Awards: Playhouse 90, Robert Stack & Jane Wyatt
1960 - Federation of Mali (& Senegal) becomes independent of France
1960 - Floyd Patterson KOs Ingemar Johansson in 5 for heavyweight boxing title
1960 - Heavyweight Floyd Patterson KOs Ingemar Johnstown (NYC)
1963 - First Mayor's Trophy Game, Mets beat Yanks 6-2
1963 - Beatles form "Beatles Ltd" to handle their income
1963 - The United States and Soviet Union signed an agreement to set up a hot line communication link between the two countries.
1966 - The U.S. Open golf tournament was broadcast in color for the first time.
1966 - Sheila Scott completes 1st round-the-world solo flight by a woman
1967 - Muhammad Ali was convicted in Houston of violating Selective Service laws by refusing to be drafted into the armed services. The U.S. Supreme Court later overturned the conviction.
1967 - Phillies Larry Jackson beats NY Mets for 18th straight time
1968 - Jim Hines becomes 1st person to run 100 meters in under 10 seconds
1969 - 150,000 attend Newport '69, Jimi Hendrix gets $120,000 to appear
1969 - Georges Pompidou sworn in as president of France
1969 - White Rhodesia agrees to race separation
1970 - "Ray Stevens Show," debuts on NBC-TV
1970 - British government of Edward Heath forms (with Margaret Thatcher)
1970 - Oriole's Brooks Robinson get his 2,000 career hit, a 3 run HR
1973 - Chicago's Cy Acosta is 1st AL pitcher to bat since DH rule (strikeout)
1973 - Juan Peron returns to Argentina
1973 - SF Giants Bobby Bonds sets NL record with 22 lead off HRs
1973 - Ezeiza massacre in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Snipers fire upon left-wing Peronists. At least 13 are killed and more than 300 are injured.
1976 - Carl Fugate, Starkweather accomplice, paroled
1976 - Czechoslovakia becomes European soccer champ
1976 - Joanne Carner wins LPGA Hoosier Golf Classic
1976 - River Country opens
1977 - Menahem Begin forms Israeli government
1977 - The Trans-Alaska Pipeline began operation. Oil enters Trans-Alaska pipeline, and exits 38 days later at Valdez
1978 - 1st 6 teams of Women's Pro Basketball League (WBL) granted-Iowa, NJ, Milwaukee, Chicago, Minnesota & Dayton
1979 - ABC News correspondent Bill Stewart was shot to death in Managua, Nicaragua, by a member of President Anastasio Somoza's national guard.
1980 - "Blues Brothers" with Dan Akwoyd & John Belushi opens in 594 theaters
1980 - California Angels Freddie Patek, hits 3 HRs & double to beat Red Sox 20-2
1980 - Roberto Duran takes WBC welterweight title from Sugar Ray Leonard at Olympic Stadium in Montreal by unanimous decision
1981 - Guitarist Gerry Cott quits Boomtown Rats
1981 - Mudjahedin uprises against Iran regime
1981 - Pope John Paul II hospitalized for 55 days for infection
1982 - Israeli PM Menachem Begin arrives in Washington
1982 - Pete Rose is 5th to appear in 3,000 games (Cobb, Musial, Aaron, Yaz)
1983 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that employers must treat male and female workers equally in providing health benefits for their spouses.
1983 - NY Yankee Bobby Murcer retires
1984 - Oakland A's Dave Kingman hits his 3rd grand slam & 14th lifetime
1984 - Amber Kvanli, of Minnesota, crowned America's Junior Miss
1986 - Drs at Bethesda Naval remove 2 small benign polyps from Reagan's colon
1986 - Jim Fregosi replaces Tony LaRussa as White Sox manager
1987 - Chuti Tiu, 17, of Wisconsin, crowned America's Junior Miss
1988 - Haiti's general assembly dissolves
1988 - NYC WABC-AM becomes flagship radio station of NJ Devils
1988 - Price is Right model Janice Pennington is knocked out by a TV camera
1988 - WABC officially becomes the NJ Devils new home radio
1988 - Supreme Court upholds a law that made it illegal for private clubs to discriminate against women & minorities
1990 - 40,000-50,000 die in a (7.6) earthquake in Iran
1990 - Nelson Mandela lands in NYC to begin a tour of US
1990 - Asteroid Eureka is discovered.
1991 - The German parliament decides to move the capital from Bonn back to Berlin.
1992 - Kelly Saunders is 2nd female baseball PA announcer (Balt Orioles)
1993 - 47th NBA Championship: Chicago Bulls beat Phoenix Suns, 4 games to 2
1994 - Bomb attack on Islamic temple in Mashad Iran (70 killed)
1994 - Howard Stern begins 30-minute (Radio) TV show on E! cable network
1994 - OJ Simpson arraigned on murder of Nicole Simpson & Ronald Goldman
1995 - Space probe Ulysses begins 2nd passage behind the Sun
1996 - Space Shuttle STS 78 (Columbia 20), launches into space
1997 - Negotiators announce agreement in principle with tobacco industry. The tobacco industry agreed to a massive settlement in exchange for major relief from mounting lawsuits and legal bills.
2001 - Barry Bonds (San Francisco Giants) hit his 38th home run of the season. The home run broke the major league baseball record for homers before the midseason All-Star break.
2002 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the execution of mentally retarded murderers was unconstitutionally cruel. The vote was 6 in favor and 3 against.
2012 - Western Libyan tribal clashes kill 105 people and injure 500
2012 - A Syrian fighter pilot lands in Jordan and defects from the Syrian uprising
The following links are to web sites that were used to complete this blog entry:
http://www.historyorb.com/today/events.php
http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/jun20.htm
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory
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