On This Day in History - June 21

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/us-constitution-ratified

June 21, 1788: U.S. Constitution ratified

New Hampshire becomes the ninth and last necessary state to ratify the Constitution of the United States, thereby making the document the law of the land.

By 1786, defects in the post-Revolutionary War Articles of Confederation were apparent, such as the lack of central authority over foreign and domestic commerce. Congress endorsed a plan to draft a new constitution, and on May 25, 1787, the Constitutional Convention convened at Independence Hall in Philadelphia. On September 17, 1787, after three months of debate moderated by convention president George Washington, the new U.S. constitution, which created a strong federal government with an intricate system of checks and balances, was signed by 38 of the 41 delegates present at the conclusion of the convention. As dictated by Article VII, the document would not become binding until it was ratified by nine of the 13 states.

Beginning on December 7, five states--Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, and Connecticut--ratified it in quick succession. However, other states, especially Massachusetts, opposed the document, as it failed to reserve undelegated powers to the states and lacked constitutional protection of basic political rights, such as freedom of speech, religion, and the press. In February 1788, a compromise was reached under which Massachusetts and other states would agree to ratify the document with the assurance that amendments would be immediately proposed. The Constitution was thus narrowly ratified in Massachusetts, followed by Maryland and South Carolina. On June 21, 1788, New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify the document, and it was subsequently agreed that government under the U.S. Constitution would begin on March 4, 1789. In June, Virginia ratified the Constitution, followed by New York in July.

On September 25, 1789, the first Congress of the United States adopted 12 amendments to the U.S. Constitution--the Bill of Rights--and sent them to the states for ratification. Ten of these amendments were ratified in 1791. In November 1789, North Carolina became the 12th state to ratify the U.S. Constitution. Rhode Island, which opposed federal control of currency and was critical of compromise on the issue of slavery, resisted ratifying the Constitution until the U.S. government threatened to sever commercial relations with the state. On May 29, 1790, Rhode Island voted by two votes to ratify the document, and the last of the original 13 colonies joined the United States. Today the U.S. Constitution is the oldest written constitution in operation in the world.

Some pretty iconic events occurred on this date through history.

There was a huge fire in Moscow, Russia. Utrecht was occupied by King Louis XIV and his French forces. King Charles II revoked the Massachusetts Bay Colony charter. The US Constitution went into effect. Guam became a territory of the United States. The United Press was formed. Leon Blum's government in France fell. Rommel won a major victory in Africa. Two years later, Berlin sustained very heavy bombing. The United States won the battle at Okinawa. All huge events during the Second World War that took place on this date in history. The International Court of Justice asked South Africa to pull out of Namibia (known as South West Africa during the South African occupation of the former German colony).

Some important events on this date in Canadian history, as well. In Montreal, a black slave that was deemed guilty of burning much of Montreal was tortured and publicly executed in a gruesome manner. Halifax, Nova Scotia was founded. Vancouver met Spanish ships off the coast of what would become the city that would bear (and immortalize on many levels) his name, Vancouver, British Columbia.

Here's a more detailed look at some of the historical occurrences to have fallen on this date:


524 - Godomar, King of the Burgundians defeats the Franks at the Battle of Vézeronce.

996 - Pope Gregory V crowns Otto III Roman Catholic German emperor of Elzas

1128 - Battle of Akspoele: Earl Willem of Normandy defeats Diederik

1404 - Owain Glyndwr established a Welsh Parliament at Machynlleth and was crowned Prince of Wales.    

1498 - Jews are expelled from Nurenberg Bavaria by Emperor Maximillian

 1527 Italian statesman, diplomat, and author of “The Prince,” Niccolo Machiavelli died.

1529 - Battle at Landriano: Leyva beats France

1547 - Great fire in Moscow

1572 - Garrison under Adrian of Swieten conquers Gouda

1582 - The Incident at Honnō-ji takes place in Kyoto, Japan.

1607 - First Protestant Episcopal parish in America established, Jamestown

1633 - Galileo Galilei is forced by Inquisition to "abjure, curse, & detest" his Copernican heliocentric views

1661 - Treaty of Kardis: Russia & Sweden sign peace treaty

1667 - Dutch Admiral Michiel de Ruyter occupies Sheerness, England

1672 - Dutch pension advisor Johan de Witt seriously wounded

1672 - French troops under King Louis XIV occupy Utrecht

1684 - King Charles II revokes Massachusetts Bay Colony charter

1734 - In Montreal in New France (today primarily Quebec), a black slave known by the French name of Marie-Joseph Angélique, having been convicted of the arson that destroyed much of the city, is tortured and hanged by the French authorities in a public ceremony that involved her disgrace and the amputation of a hand.

1749 - Pieter Steyn installed as pension advisor of Neth

1749 - Halifax, Nova Scotia, is founded.

1768 - First US bachelor of medicine degree (Dr John Archer)

1788 - The U.S. Constitution went into effect when New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify it.

1788 - Vizille France population demands local parliament

1791 - Fleeing French King Louis XVI & family captured at Varennes-en-Argonne

1792 - Vancouver meets Spanish ships Sutil & Mexicana off Vancouver, BC

1805 - Great Stoneface Mt found in NH 1813 - Peninsular War: Battle of Vitoria.

1821 - African Methodist Episcopal Zion (AMEZ) Church organizes (NYC)

1824 - Greek War of Independence: Egyptian forces capture Psara in the Aegean Sea.

1826 - Maniots defeat Egyptians under Ibrahim Pasha in the Battle of Vergas.

1834 - Cyrus McCormick patented the first practical mechanical reaper for farming. His invention allowed farmers to more than double their crop size.  

1849 - Battle at Waghausel: Prussian troops beat Baden rebels

1854 - First Victoria Cross won during bombardment of Bomarsund in the Aland Islands.

1858 - Louisiana chess prodigy Paul Morphy arrives in Europe

1859 - Andrew Lanergan received the first rocket patent.  

1863 - Battle at Upperville Virginia, 389 casualities

1864 - New Zealand Land Wars: The Tauranga Campaign ends.

1868 - Wagner's opera "Meistersinger von Nuernberg," premieres in Munich

1877 - The Molly Maguires, ten Irish immigrants, are hanged at the Schuylkill County and Carbon County, Pennsylvania prisons.

1879 - F W Woolworth opens 1st store (failed almost immediately)

1887 - Britain celebrates golden jubilee of Queen Victoria

1893 - First Ferris wheel premieres (Chicago's Columbian Exposition)

1894 - Workers in Pittsburgh strike Pullman sleeping car company

1895 - British Roseberry government falls

1898 - Guam becomes a territory of US

1900 - Dodgers score 7 in top of 11th to go ahead of Phillies, 20-13, In bottom of 11th Phillies stalls so umpire forfeits game to Dodgers

1903 - Sherlock Holmes "Adventure of Mazarine Stone" takes place (BG)

1904 - Boston Herald tells of Red Sox trade "Dougherty as a Yankee," 1st known reference to NY club as Yankees (became Yankees in 1913)

1907 - 13th US Golf Open: Alec Ross shoots a 302 at Phila Cricket Club PA

1907 - E W Scripps founded United Press

1913 - "Tiny" Georgia Broadwick became the first woman to jump from an airplane.

1915 - Anti-British revolt in South-Africa ends with arrest of Gen De Law

1915 - The U.S. Supreme Court hands down its decision in Guinn v. United States 238 US 347

1915, striking down an Oklahoma law denying the right to vote to some citizens.

1916 - Boston Rube Forster no-hits NY Yankees, 2-0

1916 - Mexican troops beat US expeditionary force under Gen Pershing

1917 - Hawaiian Red Cross forms

1919 - Bauer forms German government

1919 - German Admiral von Reuter scuttles his own captured fleet

1921 - HSC '21 soccer team forms in Haaksbergen

1923 - Marcus Garvey sentenced to 5 years for using mail to defraud

1924 - NCRV, Dutch Christian Radio Society, forms

1930 - Ruth hits 3 HRs as Yanks blow 6-0 lead in 7th & lose 15-7

1932 - Heavyweight Jack Sharkey TKOs Max Schmeling (NYC)

1932 - Jack Sharkey beats Max Schmeling in 15 for heavyweight boxing title

1933 - First Great Lakes-to-Gulf of Mexico barge trip completed, New Orleans

1937 - In Paris, Leon Blum's Popular Front Cabinet resigned.  

1938 - In Washington, U.S. President Roosevelt signed the $3.75 billion Emergency Relief Appropriation Act.    

1938 - Baseball's Pinky Higgins gets 12th straight hit

1938 - Bradman scores 101* in 77 minutes, Australia v Lancashire

1939 - NY Yankees announce Lou Gehrig's retirement after doctors reveal he has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

1940 - German occupiers disband Dutch States-General/Council of State

1940 - The first successful west-to-east navigation of Northwest Passage begins at Vancouver, British Columbia.

1940 - Richard M. Nixon and Thelma Catherine ‘Pat’ Ryan were married.  

1941 - German troops entered Russia on a front from the Arctic to Black Sea.  

1941 - Second French troops occupy Damascus Syria

1941 - After winning 20 straight at Fenway, Lefty Grove loses to Browns

1942 - 129°F (54°C), Tirat Zevi, Israel (Asian record)

1942 - President Roosevelt/premier Churchill arrives in Washington, DC

1942 - Rommel takes Tobruk in North Africa

1942 - Seinheuer throws female world record spear (47.24m)

1943 - Federal troops put down racial riot in Detroit 30 dead

1944 - Very heavy bombing on Berlin

1945 - US defeat Japanese forces on Okinawa during WW II

1945 - Pan Am announced an 88-hour round-the-world flight at a cost of $700.  

1946 - 10 die in fire at Baker Hotel, Dallas Texas

1946 - Bill Veeck buys Indians for $2.2 million

1946 - Fed judge rules Seattle club doesn't have to play returning serviceman

1948 - First stored computer program run, on Manchester Mark I

1948 - 33 1/3 RPM LP record introduced and 78's planned to be phased out (Dr Peter Goldmark-Columbia Records)

1948 - Lord Mountbatten resigns as gov-gen of India

1948 - Rhodes conference on Israeli-Arab war opens

1948 - WNAC (now KNEV) TV channel 7 in Boston, MA (CBS) begins broadcasting

1950 - Joe DiMaggio gets his 2,000th hit

1951 - "17" opens at Broadhurst Theater NYC for 180 performances

1951 - Pope Pius XII publishes encyclical Evangelii praecones

1952 - Philippine School of Commerce, through a republic act, is converted to Philippine College of Commerce; later to be the Polytechnic University of the Philippines.

1954 - The American Cancer Society reported significantly higher death rates among cigarette smokers than among non-smokers.  

1954 - NBC radio presented the final broadcast of "The Railroad Hour."  

1954 - Australian John Landy ran the mile in 3:58. He was the second person to achieve the feat.  

1956 - Anti-protons detected in the atmosphere

1956 - German DR frees almost 19,000 prisoners

1956 - Oriole Connie Johnson beats WS Jack Harshman (1-0) in dual 1 hitters

1957 - Ellen Louks Fairclough is sworn in as Canada's first woman Cabinet Minister.

1958 - French franc devalues

1958 - In Arkansas, a federal judge let Little Rock delay school integration.  

1958 - Linus Pauling and Detlev Bronke, both Americans, were elected to the Soviet Academy of Science.    

1960 -  In Zurich, Armin Hary ran 100-meters in a record 10.0 seconds.    

1962 - USAF Maj Robert M White takes X-15 to 75,190 m

1963 - France announced that they were withdrawing from the North Atlantic NATO fleet.

1963 - Pope Paul VI (Giovanni Battista Montini) succeeds John XXIII

1963 - In St. Louis, Bob Hayes set a record when he ran the 100-yard dash in 0:09.1.  

1964 - Beckwith arrested for murder of Medger Evers, found guilty 30 yr later

1964 - Three civil rights workers—James E. Chaney, 21; Andrew Goodman, 21; and Michael Schwerner, 24—disappeared in Philadelphia, Miss. In 2005, 41 years after the disappearance, Edgar Killen was convicted of their murders.

1964 - Phillies Jim Bunning pitches perfect game (Mets) on Fathers day, in 2nd game of DH, Mets get 3 hits, 3 being fewest hits in NL DH

1964 - 3 civil rights workers-Michael H Schwerner Andrew Goodman & James E Chaney-disappeared after release from a Mississippi jail

1966 - Queen Juliana opens Coen tunnel in Amsterdam

1967 - Yanks take 5-3 lead in 11th & lose 6-5, in 2nd game Red Sox lead 3-2 in 9th & Yanks beat them 6-3

1968 - Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren resigns

1969 - First reported hearing of pirate radio WGHP (With God's Help Peace)

1969 - Dmitri Shostakovitch's 14th Symphony, premieres in Moscow

1969 - John Pennel pole vaults world record (5.45 m)

1969 - Zager & Evans release "In the Year 2525"

1970 - Brazil beats Italy, 4-1, to win soccer's World Cup (in Mexico City)

1970 - Detroit's Cesar Gutierrez goes 7-for-7 to tie a record set in 1892

1970 - Tony Jacklin became the second British golfer in 50 years to win the U.S. Open golf tournament.  

1971 - 50,000 attend Celebration of Life, rock concert, McCrea Louisiana

1971 - Indians Ken Harrelson retires from baseball to play pro golf

1971 - Intl Court of Justice asks South-Africa to pull out of Namibia

1973 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states may ban materials found to be obscene according to local standards.  

1974 - The U.S. Supreme Court decided that pregnant teachers could no longer be forced to take long leaves of absence.

1975 - "Jaws" by Steven Spielberg opens

1975 - Elton John, Eagles & Beach Boys play Wembley

1975 - Ritchie Blackmore quits Deep Purple, forms Rainbow

1975 - Soyuz 19 returns to Earth

1975 - West Indies beat Australia by 17 runs to win Cricket World Cup

1976 - Berlinguers PCI wins election in Italy

1977 - Former White House chief of staff HR Haldeman enters prison

1977 - Menachem Begin (Likud), becomes Israel's 6th PM

1978 - Andrew Lloyd Webber & Rice's musical "Evita," premiers in London

1979 - Sri Lanka beat Canada by 60 runs to win the 1st ICC Trophy

1981 - 12-bottle case of 1979 Napamedoc Cabernet wine auctioned for $24,000

1981 - Don Fagan & Walter Becker quit Steely Dan

1981 - Riots at Casablanca, kills 66-200

1981 - Socialists/communists win French parliamentary election

1981 - "Raiders of the Lost Ark" opened.  

1982 - Paul McCartney releases "Take it Away"

1982 - John Hinckley found not guilty of 1981 attempted assassination of President Reagan by reason of insanity

1983 - Stephanie Kay Ashmore, of Alabama, 18, crowned America's Junior Miss

1983 - Tennis ace Arthur Ashe undergoes double bypass heart surgery

1985 - American, Brazilian & West German forensic pathologists confirm skeletal remains exhumed in Brazil were Nazi Dr Josef Mengele

1986 - "Living on Video" by Trans-X peaks at #61

1986 - "Vienna Calling" by Falco peaks at #18

1986 - Bo Jackson, Heisman Trophy winner, signed with with KC Royals

1986 - Heike Drechsler of East Germany long jumps 7.45 m (women's record)

1986 - Pres Reagan gives speech defending his judicial appointments

1987 - Discovery rolls over from OPF to Vandenberg AFB

1987 - Mike Tyson sexually harasses a parking lot attendant

1988 - 42nd NBA Championship: LA Lakers beat Detroit Pistons, 4 games to 3

1988 - Many killed at demonstration against general Ne Win in Rangoon

1988 - Rascals begin 1st tour in 20 years

1989 - Carlton Fisk becomes AL catcher HR hitter, 307th at Yankee stadium

1989 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that burning the American flag as a form of political protest and freedom of expression was protected by the First Amendment.

1989 - Yankees trade Rickey Henderson to A's for Plunk, Cadaret & Polonia

1990 - 7.7 Earthquake with 100s of after shocks hits Iran; about 50,000 die

1990 - Little Richard gets a star on Hollywood's walk of fame

1990 - NYC's Zodiac killer shoots 4th victim, Larry Parham

1990 - Parliament of W & E Germany recognize Oder-Neissegrens

1990 - US House of Reps vote 254-177 to stop US flag burning, doesn't pass

1990 - At Yankee Stadium rally, Nelson Mandela dons a NY Yankee baseball cap & proclaims "I am a Yankee!"

1991 - Jirg Haider resigns as premier of Karinthia

1991 - NY Islanders Denis Potvin & Mike Bossy, elected to Hockey Hall of Fame

1992 - 92nd US Golf Open: Tom Kite shoots a 285 at Pebble Beach GL Calif

1992 - Last day of test cricket for Ian Botham & Allan Lamb

1993 - "Camelot" opens at Gershwin Theater NYC for 56 performances

1993 - English mathematician Andrew Wiles proves last theorem of Fermat

1993 - STS-57 (Endeavour) launches into orbit

1994 - Steffi Graf becomes first defending tennis champ to lose in 1st round of a major tournament (Wimbledon to Lorrie McNeal)

1997 - "Defending the Caveman," closes at Helen Hayes NYC after 671 perfs 1997 - 35th NHL draft Boston picks center Joe Thornton 1st

1997 - Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) begins as NY Liberty beats LA Sparks

1998 - 98th US Golf Open: at Olympic Club SF

2000 - Section 28 (outlawing the 'promotion' of homosexuality in the United Kingdom) is repealed in Scotland with a 99 to 17 vote.

2001 - Total solar eclipse in Madagascar-Indian Ocean (4m56s)

2001 - A federal grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia, indicts 13 Saudis and a Lebanese in the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 American servicemen.

2001 - Former Haitian Army colonel Carl Dorelien taken into custody in Port St. Lucie. Dorelien had been in exile since 1994 when he was sentenced to life in prison for his role in a 1994 massacre.  

2002 - Lennox Lewis retains boxing's WBC world Heavyweight crown with an eight round knockout over Mike Tyson

2003 - The fifth Harry Potter book, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," was published by J.K. Rowling. Amazon.com shipped out more than one million copies on this day making the day the largest distribution day of a single item in e-commerce history. The book set sales records around the world with an estimated 5 million copies were sold on the first day.  

2004 - SpaceShipOne, designed by Burt Rutan and piloted by Mike Melvill, reached 328,491 feet above Earth in a 90 minute flight. The height is about 400 feet above the distance scientists consider to be the boundary of space. SpaceShipOne became the first privately funded spaceplane to achieve spaceflight.

2006 - Pluto's newly discovered moons are officially named Nix & Hydra.

2012 - Moody's downgrades 15 major banks in the UK, US, Canada and Europe

2012 - A boat of 200 asylum seekers headed to Australia capsizes and 110 survivors are rescued

2012 - Miami Heat win the 2012 NBA finals after defeating the Oklahoma City Thunder 4 games to one





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/jun21.htm

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory