June 10th: This Day in History

 

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

Jun 10, 1692: First Salem witch hanging

In Salem Village in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Bridget Bishop, the first colonist to be tried in the Salem witch trials, is hanged after being found guilty of the practice of witchcraft.  

Trouble in the small Puritan community began in February 1692, when nine-year-old Elizabeth Parris and 11-year-old Abigail Williams, the daughter and niece, respectively, of the Reverend Samuel Parris, began experiencing fits and other mysterious maladies. A doctor concluded that the children were suffering from the effects of witchcraft, and the young girls corroborated the doctor's diagnosis. Under compulsion from the doctor and their parents, the girls named those allegedly responsible for their suffering.  

On March 1, Sarah Goode, Sarah Osborne, and Tituba, an Indian slave from Barbados, became the first Salem residents to be charged with the capital crime of witchcraft. Later that day, Tituba confessed to the crime and subsequently aided the authorities in identifying more Salem witches. With encouragement from adults in the community, the girls, who were soon joined by other "afflicted" Salem residents, accused a widening circle of local residents of witchcraft, mostly middle-aged women but also several men and even one four-year-old child. During the next few months, the afflicted area residents incriminated more than 150 women and men from Salem Village and the surrounding areas of satanic practices.  

In June 1692, the special Court of Oyer and Terminer ["to hear and to decide"] convened in Salem under Chief Justice William Stoughton to judge the accused. The first to be tried was Bridget Bishop of Salem, who was accused of witchcraft by more individuals than any other defendant. Bishop, known around town for her dubious moral character, frequented taverns, dressed flamboyantly (by Puritan standards), and was married three times. She professed her innocence but was found guilty and executed by hanging on June 10. Thirteen more women and five men from all stations of life followed her to the gallows, and one man, Giles Corey, was executed by crushing. Most of those tried were condemned on the basis of the witnesses' behavior during the actual proceedings, characterized by fits and hallucinations that were argued to have been caused by the defendants on trial.  

In October 1692, Governor William Phipps of Massachusetts ordered the Court of Oyer and Terminer dissolved and replaced with the Superior Court of Judicature, which forbade the type of sensational testimony allowed in the earlier trials. Executions ceased, and the Superior Court eventually released all those awaiting trial and pardoned those sentenced to death. The Salem witch trials, which resulted in the executions of 19 innocent women and men, had effectively ended.





































Jun 10, 1940: Italy declares war on France and Great Britain

On this day in 1940, after withholding formal allegiance to either side in the battle between Germany and the Allies, Benito Mussolini, dictator of Italy, declares war on France and Great Britain.  

What caused Il Duce's change of heart? Perhaps the German occupation of Paris did it. "First they were too cowardly to take part. Now they are in a hurry so that they can share in the spoils," reflected Hitler. (However, Mussolini claimed that he wanted in before complete French capitulation only because fascism "did not believe in hitting a man when he is down.")  

Italy's lack of raw materials had made Mussolini wary of waging all-out war previously. Britain and France were also wooing him with promises of territorial concessions in Africa in exchange for neutrality. But the thought of its Axis partner single-handedly conquering the Continent was too much for his ego to bear. While Germany had urged Italy's participation in September 1939, at this late date such intervention would probably prove more of a hindrance than a help. For example, despite Italy's declaration of war on the 10th, it wasn't until the 20th that Italian troops were mobilized in France, in the southwest-and easily held at bay by French forces.  

The reaction by the Allies to the declaration of war was swift: In London, all Italians who had lived in Britain less than 20 years and who were between the ages of 16 and 70 were immediately interned. In America, President Roosevelt broadcast on radio the promise of support for Britain and France with "the material resources of this nation."


















Jun 10, 1940: Norway surrenders to Germany

After two months of desperate resistance, the last surviving Norwegian and British defenders of Norway are overwhelmed by the Germans, and the country is forced to capitulate to the Nazis.  

Two months earlier, on April 9, Nazi Germany launched its invasion of Norway, capturing several strategic points along the Norwegian coast. During the preliminary phase of the invasion, Norwegian fascist forces under Vidkun Quisling acted as a so-called "fifth column" for the German invaders, seizing Norway's nerve centers, spreading false rumors, and occupying military bases and other locations.  

Vidkun Quisling served as the Norwegian minister of defense from 1931 to 1933, and in 1934 he left the ruling party to establish the Nasjonal Samling, or National Unity Party, in imitation of Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party. Although Norway declared neutrality at the outbreak of World War II, Nazi Germany regarded the occupation of Norway a strategic and economic necessity. In the spring of 1940, Vidkun Quisling traveled to Berlin to meet with Nazi command and plan the German conquest of his country. On April 9, the combined German forces attacked without warning, and by June 10 Hitler had conquered Norway and driven all Allied forces from the country.  

Although Quisling was the head of the only political party permitted by the Nazis, opposition to him in Norway was so great that it was not until February 1942 that he was able to formally establish his puppet government in Oslo. Under the authority of his Nazi commissioner, Josef Terboven, Quisling set up a repressive regime that was merciless toward those who defied it. However, Norway's resistance movement soon became the most effective in all Nazi-occupied Europe, and Quisling's authority rapidly waned. After the German surrender in May 1945, Quisling was arrested, convicted of high treason, and shot. From his name comes the word quisling, meaning "traitor" in several languages.


















Jun 10, 1953: Eisenhower rejects calls for U.S. "isolationism"

In a forceful speech, President Dwight D. Eisenhower strikes back at critics of his Cold War foreign policy. He insisted that the United States was committed to the worldwide battle against communism and that he would maintain a strong U.S. defense. Just a few months into his presidency, and with the Korean War still raging, Eisenhower staked out his basic approach to foreign policy with this speech.  

In the weeks prior to Eisenhower's talk, Senator Robert Taft and Gen. Hoyt Vandenberg issued challenges to the president's conduct of foreign policy. Taft argued that if efforts to reach a peace agreement in Korea failed, the United States should withdraw from the United Nations forces and make its own policy for dealing with North Korea. Vandenberg was upset over Eisenhower's proposal to cut $5 billion from the Air Force budget.  

Without naming either man, Eisenhower responded to both during a speech at the National Junior Chamber of Commerce meeting in Minneapolis. He began by characterizing the Cold War as a battle "for the soul of man himself." He rejected Taft's idea that the United States should pursue a completely independent foreign policy, or what one "might call the 'fortress' theory of defense." Instead, he insisted that all free nations had to stand together: "There is no such thing as partial unity." To Vandenberg's criticisms of the new Air Force budget, the president explained that vast numbers of aircraft were not needed in the new atomic age. Just a few planes armed with nuclear weapons could "visit on an enemy as much explosive violence as was hurled against Germany by our entire air effort throughout four years of World War II."  

With this speech, Eisenhower thus enunciated two major points of what came to be known at the time as his "New Look" foreign policy. First was his advocacy of multi-nation responses to communist aggression in preference to unilateral action by the United States. Second was the idea that came to be known as the "bigger bang for the buck" defense strategy. This postulated that a cheaper and more efficient defense could be built around the nation's nuclear arsenal rather than a massive increase in conventional land, air, and sea forces.



















Jun 10, 1963: JFK has busy day

President John F. Kennedy announces that the U.S. may cease atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons on this day in 1963. Before the day was out, he had also signed a bill prohibiting wage discrimination toward women and sent a telegram to Governor George Wallace of Alabama asking him not to prevent black students from registering at the University of Alabama.  

Eight months after a frightening showdown between himself and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev over Soviet missiles in Cuba, Kennedy took tentative steps toward improved relations with the Soviet Union. In a commencement address at American University in Washington, D.C., Kennedy announced that the U.S. did not seek a Pax Americana--an American-enforced peace modeled after the Roman Empire--and sought instead a new strategy of peace. He declared that the U.S. was willing to cease testing nuclear weapons in the atmosphere and announced that the U.S., Britain and the U.S.S.R. had agreed to initiate test-ban treaty negotiations. However, Kennedy made clear that the atmospheric testing pledge was contingent upon other nations making the same commitment and he did not mention whether the U.S. planned to stop underground or underwater testing. Within two months, the superpowers would agree to terms on a nuclear test ban and sign a limited treaty that prohibited nuclear-weapons tests in the atmosphere, space or underwater. It did not ban tests underground.  

After the American University speech, Kennedy returned to the White House, where he signed into law H.R. 6060, establishing the Equal Pay Act (EPA), which prohibited, in his words, the unconscionable practice of paying female employees less wages than male employees for the same job. At the time, one in three American workers was a woman--25 million women in all--many of whom were working mothers and/or the sole breadwinner in their family. Despite this, women earned on average 59 cents to the dollar earned by men in the same job. In his remarks at the signing, Kennedy asked Congress to consider provisions to the bill to increase funding for day-care centers and proposed greater tax cuts for working women. The Equal Pay Act is currently enforced by the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (EEOC).  

Later that day, Kennedy sent a personal telegram to George Wallace after the Alabama governor had repeatedly promised to block two black students from entering the state university. In the telegram, Kennedy asked Wallace to comply with two previously issued court orders, of May 21 and June 5, which affirmed the students' right to register. Kennedy warned Wallace that setting an example of defiant conduct would give the president no recourse but to activate the Alabama National Guard to enforce federal law. At the time, Alabama was the only state that had not integrated its education system. On June 11, Wallace defied the court orders yet again and Kennedy activated the National Guard. Wallace relented later that day and allowed the students to register.















Jun 10, 1935: Alcoholics Anonymous founded

In New York City, two recovering alcoholics, one a New York broker and the other an Ohio physician, found Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.), a 12-step rehabilitation program that eventually helps countless people cope with alcoholism.  

Based on psychological techniques that have long been used in suppressing dangerous personality traits, members of the strictly anonymous organization control their addictions through guided group discussion and confession, reliance on a "higher power," and a gradual return to sobriety. The organization functions through local groups that have no formal rules besides anonymity, no officers, and no dues. Anyone with a drinking problem qualifies for membership. Today, there are more than 80,000 local groups in the United States, with an estimated membership of almost two million people. Other addiction support groups patterned on A.A. include Narcotics Anonymous and Gamblers Anonymous.

















Jun 10, 1881: Tolstoy disguises himself as a peasant and leaves on a pilgrimage

On this day in 1881, Count Leo Tolstoy sets off on a pilgrimage to a monastery disguised as a peasant.  

Tolstoy had already produced his two greatest masterpieces War and Peace (1865-1869) and Anna Karenina (1875-1877). The Russian nobleman was engaged in a spiritual struggle and felt torn between his responsibility as a wealthy landlord to improve the lot of the people, and his desire to give up his property and wander the land as an ascetic. He had started giving away his possessions and declared that the public owned his works, but his wife, Sofya, worried about the financial stability of the couple's 13 children, gained control of the copyrights for all his work published before 1880.  

Tolstoy was born in 1828. His parents died when he was a child, and he was raised by relatives. He went to Kazan University at age 16 but was disappointed in the quality of education there and returned to his estate in 1847 without a degree. He lived a wild and dissolute life in Moscow and St. Petersburg until 1851, when he joined the army. He fought in the Crimean war, and his experiences in the defense of Sevastopol became a successful literary memoir, Sevastopol Sketches, in 1855. While in the army, he wrote several other autobiographical works.  

In 1857, Tolstoy visited Europe and became interested in education. He started a school for peasant children on his estate and studied progressive educational techniques. In 1862, he married, and the following year he published a successful novel, The Cossacks.  

Later in his life, Tolstoy embraced Christian anarchism and was excommunicated from the Russian Orthodox Church. In 1910, he fled his home secretly with his youngest daughter but caught pneumonia and died at a remote railway station a few days later.

On this day in 1190 during the Third Crusade, Frederick I Barbarossa drowned in the Sally River while leading an army to Jerusalem. On this day in 1619 during the Thirty Years' War, the Battle of Záblatí was fought. It would prove to be a turning point in the Bohemian Revolt. In 1752 on this day, Benjamin Franklin flew a kite during a thunderstorm and collected a charge in a Leyden jar when the kite was struck by lightning, enabling him to demonstrate the electrical nature of lightning. On this day in 1775, John Adams proposed to Congress, meeting in Philadelphia, that the men laying siege to Boston should be considered a Continental Army led by a general. On this day in 1794 during the French Revolution, the National Convention passed the Law of 22 Prairial, which also came to be known as the Law of the Great Terror. It had serious ramifications for the French Revolution's Reign of Terror, particularly regarding how the Revolutionary Tribunals operated. A number of key rights of the defendants were stripped away, including the right to a public trial, legal assistance, and the right to present a defense. Juries were given only two choices: acquittal or death. Predictably, the law led to a dramatic increase in executions, as about 1,400 people were executed in Paris over the next year and change. in the era that is now popularly known as the "Great Terror." On this day in 1980 during the days of apartheid white minority rule in South Africa, the African National Congress (ANC) made public a statement by Nelson Mandela, the long imprisoned leader of the anti-apartheid movement. The message, smuggled out of Robben Island prison under great risk, read, "UNITE! MOBILISE! FIGHT ON! BETWEEN THE ANVIL OF UNITED MASS ACTION AND THE HAMMER OF THE ARMED STRUGGLE WE SHALL CRUSH APARTHEID!" 

Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:

• On this day in 1190 during the Third Crusade, Frederick I Barbarossa drowned in the Sally River while leading an army to Jerusalem.

• 1358 - French boer leader Guillaume Cale captured

1538 - Catholic German monarchy signs League of Neurenberg

1539 - Council of Trent: Paul III sends out letters to his bishops, delaying the Council due to war and the difficulty bishops had traveling to Venice.

1540 - Thomas Cromwell arrested in Westminster

1605 - Valse Dimitri crowned Russian tsar for 1st time

1610 - Thomas West, Baron de La Mar, is appointed governor of Virginia

1610 - 1st Dutch settlers arrive (from NJ), to colonize Manhattan Island

• On this day in 1619 during the Thirty Years' War, the Battle of Záblatí was fought. It would prove to be a turning point in the Bohemian Revolt.

1624 - Netherlands & France sign anti-Spanish Treaty of Compiègne

1627 - Piet Heyn conquerors 38 ships at bay of Salvador

1639 - 1st American log cabin at Fort Christina (Wilmington Delaware)

1648 - Moscow's people uprise against regent Boris Morozov

1652 - In Boston, John Hull opens the 1st mint in America

1682 - Tornado in Connecticut uproots a 3' diameter oak tree

1719 - Jacobite Rising: Battle of Glen Shiel.

1720 - Mrs Clements of England markets 1st paste-style mustard

Altered picture that I took of the Benjamin Franklin Memorial in Philadelphia some years ago. 

• In 1752 on this day, Benjamin Franklin flew a kite during a thunderstorm and collected a charge in a Leyden jar when the kite was struck by lightning, enabling him to demonstrate the electrical nature of lightning. Franklin became interested in electricity in the mid-1740s, a time when much was still unknown on the topic, and spent almost a decade conducting electrical experiments. He coined a number of terms used today, including battery, conductor and electrician. He also invented the lightning rod, used to protect buildings and ships.    Franklin was born on January 17, 1706, in Boston, to a candle and soap maker named Josiah Franklin, who fathered 17 children, and his wife Abiah Folger. Franklin's formal education ended at age 10 and he went to work as an apprentice to his brother James, a printer. In 1723, following a dispute with his brother, Franklin left Boston and ended up in Philadelphia, where he found work as a printer. Following a brief stint as a printer in London, Franklin returned to Philadelphia and became a successful businessman, whose publishing ventures included the Pennsylvania Gazette and Poor Richard's Almanack, a collection of homespun proverbs advocating hard work and honesty in order to get ahead. The almanac, which Franklin first published in 1733 under the pen name Richard Saunders, included such wisdom as: "Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise." Whether or not Franklin followed this advice in his own life, he came to represent the classic American overachiever. In addition to his accomplishments in business and science, he is noted for his numerous civic contributions. Among other things, he developed a library, insurance company, city hospital and academy in Philadelphia that would later become the University of Pennsylvania.    Most significantly, Franklin was one of the founding fathers of the United States and had a career as a statesman that spanned four decades. He served as a legislator in Pennsylvania as well as a diplomat in England and France. He is the only politician to have signed all four documents fundamental to the creation of the U.S.: the Declaration of Independence (1776), the Treaty of Alliance with France (1778), the Treaty of Paris (1783), which established peace with Great Britain, and the U.S. Constitution (1787).    Franklin died at age 84 on April 17, 1790, in Philadelphia. He remains one of the leading figures in U.S. history.

1760 - NY passes 1st effective law regulating practice of medicine

1761 - Puritan version of "Othello" opens in Newport Rhode Island

1772 - Burning of Gaspée, British revenue cutter, by Rhode Islanders

Picture of a bust of John Adams

• On this day in 1775, John Adams proposed to Congress, meeting in Philadelphia, that the men laying siege to Boston should be considered a Continental Army led by a general.    The men who had armed themselves and rushed to surround British forces in Boston following the Battle of Lexington and Concord were overwhelmingly from New England. However, John Adams, representing Massachusetts, realized that the military effort would only succeed if the British thought the colonies were united. To this end, Adams suggested the appointment of a Virginian, George Washington, to command the Continental forces, despite the fact that New Englanders were used to fighting in local militias under officers elected from among their own ranks.    On June 15, Adams formally nominated George Washington as commander in chief of the Continental Army; Washington accepted the post the next day. On June 17, the newly named army fought the Battle of Bunker Hill, as John Adam's wife, Abigail, and son, John Quincy, watched from their hometown of Braintree.  Just as the British had discovered the difficulties of waging war with obstreperous Yankees for soldiers during the Seven Years' War, Washington, the Virginia planter-cum-soldier, was unimpressed upon meeting his supposed army. Just as the British had, he saw "stupidity" among the enlisted men, who were used to the easy familiarity of being commanded by neighbors. Washington promptly insisted that the officers behave with decorum and the enlisted men with deference. Although he enjoyed some success with this original army, the New Englanders went home to their farms at the end of 1775, and General Washington had to start fresh with new recruits in 1776.

1786 - A landslide dam on the Dadu River caused by earthquake ten days earlier collapses, killing 100,000 in the Sichuan province of China.

1793 - 1st public zoo opens in Paris

• 1793 - Washington replaced Philadelphia as US capital

1794 - Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Phila, forms

The guillotine (below), which was invented during, and became one of the most fearful symbols of,  the French Revolution. It got the nickname "the razor of the nation."

• On this day in 1794 during the French Revolution, the National Convention passed the Law of 22 Prairial, which also came to be known as the Law of the Great Terror. It had serious ramifications for the French Revolution's Reign of Terror, particularly regarding how the Revolutionary Tribunals operated. A number of key rights of the defendants were stripped away, including the right to a public trial, legal assistance, and the right to present a defense. Juries were given only two choices: acquittal or death. Predictably, the law led to a dramatic increase in executions, as about 1,400 people were executed in Paris over the next year and change. in the era that is now popularly known as the "Great Terror."

1801 - Tripoli declares war on US for refusing tribute

1805 - First Barbary War: Yussif Karamanli signs a treaty ending hostilities with the United States.

1809 - 1st US steamboat to a make an ocean voyage leaves NY for Phila

1818 - Pesaro opera theater opens with Rossini's "La gaza ladra"

1826 - Sultan Mahmud II rebellious elite corp, slaughter 20,000 in Turkey

1829 - The first Boat Race between the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge takes place.

Naturalist Charles DarwinNaturalist Charles Darwin 

British Botanist Charles Darwin

• 1834 - HMS Beagle/Charles Darwin sails Pacific Ocean

• 1838 - Myall Creek Massacre in Australia: 28 Aboriginal Australians are murdered.

1846 - Robert Thomson obtains an English patent on a rubber tire

1847 - Chicago Tribune begins publishing

1848 - 1st telegraph link between NYC & Chicago

1848 - Battle at Vicenza: Austrians beat Sardinia-Piemonte

1854 - Georg F B Reiman proposes that space is curved

1854 - The first class of the United States Naval Academy students graduate.

1857 - England passes an act putting Canada on the decimal currency system

1861 - Battle of Big Bethel VA (Bethel Church, Great Bethal)-Union retreats

1863 - Battle of Brice's Crossroads, Miss; Nathan Bedford Forrest w/3500 defeats 8000 Feds

1864 - Battle of Kellar's Bridge KY (Licking River)

1865 - Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde" 1st performance Munich Germany

1868 - 2nd Belmont: Bobby Swim aboard General Duke wins in 3:02

1869 - 'Agnes'arrives in New Orleans with 1st ever shipment of frozen beef

Confederate General/KKK Grand Wizard Nathan Bedford ForrestConfederate General/KKK Grand Wizard Nathan Bedford Forrest 1871 - 5th Belmont: W Miller aboard Harry Basset wins in 2:56

1871 - Sinmiyangyo: Captain McLane Tilton leads 109 Marines in naval attack on Han River forts on Kanghwa Island, Korea.

1876 - 10th Belmont: William Donohue aboard Algerine wins in 2:40.5

1880 - Charlie Jones becomes 1st to hit 2 HRs in 1 inning

1882 - Anti-colonization mass society of Alexandria Egypt kills 50 Europeans

1890 - 24th Belmont: Pike Barnes aboard Burlington wins in 2:07.75

1891 - 25th Belmont: Ed Garrison aboard Foxford wins in 2:08.75

1892 - Wilbert Robinson sets record by going 7-for-7 in a 9-inning game

1893 - 27th Belmont: Willie Simms aboard Commanche wins in 1:53.25

1898 - US Marines land in Cuba, during Spanish-American War

1899 - Improved Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks forms in Cincinnati

1902 - Patent for window envelope granted to H F Callahan

1905 - 1st forest fire lookout tower placed in operation, Greenville, Me

1908 - 1st flying club, Aeronautical Society of NY, opens

1911 - Queen Wilhelmina opens Rembrandt house in Amsterdam

1915 - British/French troops conquer German colony of Cameroon

1915 - Girl Scouts founded

1916 - 48th Belmont: E Haynes aboard Friar Rock wins in 2:22

1916 - Great Arab Revolt begins against ruling Ottoman turks

1917 - 60,000 people of Petrograd welcome Prince Kropotkin (banned 41 years)

1917 - Limburgse mine workers strike

Baseball Great Babe RuthBaseball Great Babe Ruth 1921 - Babe Ruth becomes all time HR champ with #120 (Gavvy Cravath)

1922 - 54th Belmont: C H Miller aboard Pillory wins in 2:18.8

1924 - 1st political convention broadcast on radio-Republicans at Cleveland

1925 - Inaugural service for the United Church of Canada, a union of Presbyterian, Methodist, and Congregationalist churches held in Toronto Arena.

1926 - Phillies Russ Wrightstone hits for the cycle

1930 - Winnipeg Rugby Football Club forms

Jun 10, 1928: “Where the Wild Things Are” author Maurice Sendak is born  On this day in 1928, author and illustrator Maurice Sendak, who revolutionized children’s literature with such best-selling books as “Where the Wild Things Are” and became one of the most celebrated children’s authors in contemporary history, is born in Brooklyn, New York. First published in 1963, “Where the Wild Things Are” was pioneering in its realistic depiction of childhood anxieties and rebellious behavior at a time when many stories for young readers presented a sugar-coated version of life.    Sendak, whose parents were Jewish immigrants from Poland, described his own childhood as unhappy. He was sickly and spent much of his time indoors. His father, a dressmaker, lost a number of family members during the Holocaust, and that tragedy that haunted the younger Sendak. After graduating from high school in Brooklyn, Sendak, who developed a love of drawing as a boy, took art classes at night and in 1948 found work as a window display designer at FAO Schwarz, the Manhattan toy store. While there, he was introduced to book editor Ursula Nordstrom (who during her career worked with a number of popular children’s book authors, including Margaret Wise Brown, E.B. White and Shel Silverstein). Nordstrom commissioned Sendak to illustrate his first children’s book, “The Wonderful Farm,” written by Marcel Ayme and published in 1951. Sendak illustrated books for a variety of children’s authors before writing and illustrating a picture book of his own, “Kenny’s Window,” published in 1956.    Sendak rose to international prominence with the publication of “Where the Wild Things Are,” which he wrote and illustrated. It tells the story of Max, a disobedient boy who, after being sent to his bedroom without dinner, travels to a land of fanged, hairy monsters and eventually faces them down. (Sendak based his drawings of these monsters, or “wild things,” on the obnoxious relatives who visited his family for Sunday dinners when he was a child.) Although initially criticized by some reviewers as too frightening for children and banned by some libraries, “Where the Wild Things Are” was awarded the Caldecott Medal in 1964 for most distinguished American picture book for children, and went on to sell millions of copies worldwide. A big-screen adaptation of the book, directed by Spike Jonze and co-written with Dave Eggers, was released in 2009.    In addition to “Where the Wild Things Are,” many of Sendak’s books--which include “Higglety Pigglety Pop! Or There Must Be More to Life” (1967), “In the Night Kitchen” (1970) and “Bumble-Ardy” (2011)--are dark and subversively humorous. In a January 2011 interview on “The Colbert Report,” the author, who was sometimes referred to by friends as “Morose Sendak,” said in response to a question about why he wrote for children: “I don’t write for children. I write—and somebody says, ‘That’s for children!’ I didn’t set out to make children happy or make life better for them, or easier for them.”   Sendak, who wrote or illustrated close to 100 books during his career, also designed productions for operas, plays and ballets. He died of complications from a stroke at age 83 on May 8, 2012, at a Danbury, Connecticut, hospital. Sendak was preceded in death by his partner of more than 50 years, psychiatrist Eugene Glynn.

• 1931 - Norway occupies East-Greenland

1932 - 1st demonstration of artificial lightning Pittsfield Mass

1932 - 67th British Golf Open: Gene Sarazen shoots a 283 at Prince's England

1933 - 37th US Golf Open: Johnny Goodman shoots a 287 at North Shore Ill

1933 - 65th Belmont: Mack Garner aboard Hurryoff wins in 2:32.6

 

• 1934 - Italy beats Czechoslovakia 2-1 (OT) in soccer's 2nd World Cup at Rome

1934 - USSR & Romania regain diplomatic relations

1935 - Dr Robert Smith & William Wilson of Akron form Alcoholics Anonymous

1938 - Charlie Barnett makes 98 by lunch v Australia at Trent Bridge

1939 - Barney Bear, cartoon character, by MGM, debuts

• 1940 - French government moves to Bordeaux

1940 - German "Dutch Q-ship Atlantis" sinks Norwegian tanker

1940 - German 5th Armour division occupies Rouen

• 1940 - Italy declares war on France & Britain during WW II

1940 - Norway surrenders to nazis

• 1940 - World War II: Canada declares war on Italy.

1942 - Massacre at Lidice (Czechoslovakia), Gestapo kills 173

1942 - Nazis burn village of Lidice Bohemia, as reprisal of killing Heydrich

32nd US President Franklin D. Roosevelt32nd US President Franklin D. Roosevelt 

• 1943 - FDR becomes 1st US pres to visit a foreign country during wartime

1943 - FDR signs withholding tax bill into law

1944 - Joe Nuxhall at 15 becomes youngest ML baseball player

1944 - Joe Nuxhall, 15, of Cin Reds is youngest player in major league

1944 - Nazi murders in Oradour-sur-Glane, France

• 1944 - World War II: In Distomo, Boeotia Prefecture, Greece 218 men, women and children are massacred by German troops.

1945 - US destroyer William D Porter ("Willie Dee") sunk by kamikaze

1946 - Italian Republic established

1946 - Rear Admiral Sidney W Souers, USNR, ends term as 1st director of CIA Lieutenant General Hoyt S Vandenberg, USA, becomes 2nd director of CIA

1947 - Saab produces its first automobile.

1949 - Istvan Dobi becomes Hungarian premier

1950 - Germany doesn't annex Oder-Neissegrens

1952 - Chicago White Sox Sam Mele is 6th to get 6 RBIs in an inning (4th)

1952 - Pres Harry Truman desires nationalizing steel industry

1955 - 1st separation of virus into component parts reported

1957 - Harold MacMillan becomes British PM

1957 - John Diefenbacker (C) elected PM of Canada

1959 - Rocky Colovito hits 4 consecutive HRs in 1 game

1962 - A record 54 home runs hit in baseball

1962 - Igor Ter-Ovanesyan of USSR, sets then long jump record at 27' 3½"

1962 - Sandra Haynie wins LPGA Austin Civitan Golf Tournament

US President John F. KennedyUS President John F. Kennedy 

• 1963 - US President JFK signs law for equal pay for equal work for men & women

1964 - Rolling Stones record their 12x5 album at Chess Studios in Chicago

1964 - Southern filibuster on civil rights bill ends; cloture invoked

1965 - Vietnam War: The Battle of Dong Xoai begins.

1966 - Beatles "Paperback Writer" is released in UK

1966 - Beatles record "Rain," 1st to use reverse tapes

1966 - Cleve Indian Sonny Siebert no-hits Wash Senator, 2-0

1966 - Janis Joplin's 1st live concert (Avalon Ballroom in SF)

1966 - Mamas & Papas win gold record for "Monday, Monday"

1967 - 15,000 attend Fantasy Faire & Magic Mountain Music Festival, Calif

1967 - Israel, Syria, Jordan, Iraq & Egypt end "6-Day War" with UN help

1967 - USSR drops diplomatic relations with Israel

1967 - Argentina becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty.

1968 - "Danny Thomas Hour," last airs on NBC-TV

1971 - 11 die in a train crash in Salem Ill

1971 - 44th National Spelling Bee: Jonathan Knisely wins spelling shalloon

1972 - 104th Belmont: Ron Turcotte aboard Riva Ridge wins in 2:28

Singer & Cultural Icon Elvis PresleySinger & Cultural Icon Elvis Presley 1972 - Elvis Presley records a live album at NY's Madison Square Garden

1972 - Hank Aaron's grandslammer (14) ties him for NL lead with Gil Hodges & moves him ahead of Willie Mays as #2 HR hitter (649)

1973 - 19th LPGA Championship won by Mary Mills

1973 - NASA launches Radio Astronomy Explorer 49 into lunar orbit

1974 - Mike Schmidt hits a ball off public address speaker on Astrodome roof

1974 - Rumor's government in Italy resigns

1974 - Brandon Ramirez, noted visionary and graphics designer born in TJ, Mexico. Known as the father of Rambo the next generation.

1975 - Rockefeller panel reports on 300,000 illegal CIA files on Americans

1975 - Yanks sponsor Army Day at temporary home, Shea Stadium during 21-gun salute, part of fence is blown away, & another part is set afire

1976 - 49th National Spelling Bee: Tim Kneale wins spelling narcolepsy

1976 - 67,000 fans attends Wings concert at Seattle's Kingdome

1977 - Apple Computer ships its 1st Apple II computers

1977 - James Earl Ray (Martin Luther King's killer) escapes from prison

Baseball Player Hank AaronBaseball Player Hank Aaron 1978 - Costa Rica becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty.

Statue of Nelson Mandela in the gardens in front of the Union Building in Pretoria, South Africa

• On this day in 1980 during the days of apartheid white minority rule in South Africa, the African National Congress (ANC) made public a statement by Nelson Mandela, the long imprisoned leader of the anti-apartheid movement. The message, smuggled out of Robben Island prison under great risk, read, "UNITE! MOBILISE! FIGHT ON! BETWEEN THE ANVIL OF UNITED MASS ACTION AND THE HAMMER OF THE ARMED STRUGGLE WE SHALL CRUSH APARTHEID!"    Mandela, born in 1918, was the son of the chief of the Xhosa-speaking Tembu people. Instead of succeeding his father as chief, Mandela went to university and became a lawyer. In 1944, he joined the ANC, a black political organization dedicated to winning rights for the black majority in white-ruled South Africa. In 1948, the racist National Party came to power, and apartheid--South Africa's institutionalized system of white supremacy and racial segregation--became official government policy. With the loss of black rights under apartheid, black enrollment in the ANC rapidly grew. Mandela became one of the ANC's leaders and in 1952 was made deputy national president of the ANC. He organized nonviolent strikes, boycotts, marches, and other acts of civil disobedience.    After the massacre of peaceful black demonstrators at Sharpeville in 1960, Mandela helped organize a paramilitary branch of the ANC to engage in acts of sabotage against the white minority government. He was tried for and acquitted of treason in 1961 but in 1962 was arrested again for illegally leaving the country. Convicted and sentenced to five years at Robben Island Prison, he was put on trial again in 1963 with seven other ANC members who were arrested at Rivonia in possession of a store of weapons. Charged with sabotage, treason, and violent conspiracy, Mandela admitted to many of the charges against him and eloquently defended his militant activities during the trial. On June 12, 1964, he was sentenced to life imprisonment.    Mandela spent the first 18 of his 27 years in jail at the brutal Robben Island Prison. He was confined to a small cell without a bed or plumbing and was forced to do hard labor in a quarry. Once a year, he was allowed to meet with a visitor for 30 minutes, and once every six months he could write and receive a letter. At first, he was only allowed to exchange letters with his family, and these letters were read and censored by prison officials. Later he was allowed to write to friends and associates, but any writing of a political nature was forbidden. With the help of fellow prisoners and his visitors, Mandela smuggled out statements and letters to spark the continuing anti-apartheid movement. A 500-page autobiography, manually miniaturized into 50 pages, was smuggled out by a departing prisoner in 1976. The original manuscript of the autobiography, buried in a garden, was discovered by the prison warden soon after. As punishment, Mandela and three others lost their study rights for four years.    Through it all, Mandela's resolve remained unbroken, and he led a movement of civil disobedience at the prison that coerced South African officials into drastically improving conditions on Robben Island. In 1982, he was moved to Pollsmoor Prison on the mainland, and in 1988 to a cottage, where he lived under house arrest.    In 1989, F.W. de Klerk became South African president and set about dismantling apartheid. De Klerk lifted the ban on the ANC, suspended executions, and on February 11, 1990, ordered the release of Nelson Mandela after 27 years as a political prisoner. Mandela subsequently led the ANC in its negotiations with the minority government for an end to apartheid and the establishment of a multiracial government. In 1993, Mandela and de Klerk were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. On April 26, 1994, more than 22 million South Africans turned out to cast ballots in the country's first-ever multiracial parliamentary elections. An overwhelming majority chose Mandela and the ANC to lead the country, and a "national unity" coalition was formed with de Klerk's National Party and the Zulus' Inkatha Freedom Party. On May 10, Mandela was sworn in as the first black president of South Africa.    As president, Mandela established the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate human rights violations under apartheid and introduced numerous initiatives designed to improve the living standards of South Africa's black population. In 1996, he presided over the enactment of a new South African constitution. Mandela retired from politics in June 1999 at the age of 80. He was succeeded as president by Thabo Mbeki of the ANC. Mandela, admired by people around the world, continued to advocate for human rights and peace until his death in December 2013.

1981 - IRA's Joseph Doherty escapes from Crumlin Road Jail

1981 - Sebastian Coe of England sets 800m record (1:41.73) in Florence

1981 - Seven Brothers Square in Bronx named honoring 7 Santini Bro Moving Co

1982 - "Taxi," last airs on ABC, moves to NBC in the fall

1982 - Battle of Sultan Yakoub - 3 IDF members captured

1982 - Israeli troops reach outskirts of Beirut

1982 - John N McMahon replaces Bobby R Inman becomes deputy director of CIA

1984 - Patty Sheehan wins LPGA McDonald's Kids Golf Classic

Tennis Player John McEnroeTennis Player John McEnroe 1984 - US missile shot down an incoming missile in space for 1st time

1984 - Zhu Jian Hua of China high jumps a record 7'10" (2.39m)

1985 - Claus von Bulow acquitted on charges he tried to murder his wife

1985 - Coca Cola announces they'd bring back their 99-year-old formula

1985 - French agents blow up Greenpeace boat Rainbow Warrior in Auckland harbour, New Zealand

1986 - A Bartlett Giamatti becomes president of baseball's NL

1987 - Discovery's SRBs & External Tank are mated

1990 - Rap group 2 Live crew members arrested in Fla for obscenity

1991 - "Twin Peaks," on ABC-TV

1991 - 25th Music City News Country Awards: Ricky Van Shelton

1991 - Mother of All Parades-NYC welcomes desert storm troops

1991 - South Florida & Denver picked for 1993 NL franchises

1992 - "Price" opens at Criterion Theater NYC for 47 performances

1992 - Intelsat K launched

1993 - "She Loves Me" opens at Criterion Theater NYC for 61 performances

1994 - Biggest European clock ever (9100 kg/(237) 2.5 m) at Aarle-Rixtel

1994 - China PR performs nuclear test at Lop Nor PRC

1996 - Intel releases 200 mhz pentium chip

1996 - Stanley Cup: Colo Avalanche sweep Florida Panthers in 4 games

1996 - Colo Avalanche sweeps Fla Panthers by winning 1-0 in 6 periods

1997 - Feng Yun-2B Long March 3 Launch (China), Successful

1997 - Kevin Brown of Florida Marlins no hits SF Giants 9-0

1997 - Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot orders the killing of his defense chief Son Sen and 11 of Sen's family members before Pol Pot flees his northern stronghold.

1999 - Kosovo War: NATO suspends its air strikes after Slobodan Milošević agrees to withdraw Serbian forces from Kosovo.

2000 - 132nd Belmont: Pat Day aboard Commendable wins in 2:31.20

2001 - Pope John Paul II canonizes Lebanon's first female saint Saint Rafqa

2002 - The first direct electronic communication experiment between the nervous systems of two humans is carried out by Kevin Warwick in the United Kingdom.

2003 - The Spirit Rover is launched, beginning NASA's Mars Exploration Rover mission.

2006 - 138th Belmont: Fernando Jara aboard Jazil wins in 2:27.81

264th Pope John Paul II264th Pope John Paul II 2007 - 61st Tony Awards: Spring Awakening & The Coast of Utopia win

2007 - 53rd LPGA Championship won by Suzann Pettersen

2008 - The Gora Prai airstrike by the United States reportedly kills 11 Pakistani paramilitary troops.

2012 - 66th Tony Awards: Once & Clybourne Park win

2012 - A Helicopter crash near Nairobi, Kenya, kills five people, including George Saitoti, a Kenyan cabinet minister

2013 - 70 people are killed as a series of bombs explode across Iraq

1776 - The Continental Congress appointed a committee to write a Declaration of Independence.   1793 - The Jardin des Plantes zoo opened in Paris. It was the first public zoo.   1801 - The North African State of Tripoli declared war on the U.S. The dispute was over merchant vessels being able to travel safely through the Mediterranean.   1806 - New York's "Commercial Advertiser" became the first U.S. newspaper to cover the sport of harness racing.   1854 - The U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD, held its first graduation.   1898 - U.S. Marines landed in Cuba during the Spanish-American War.   1902 - The "outlook" or "see-through" envelope was patented by Americus F. Callahan.   1909 - The SOS distress signal was used for the first time. The Cunard liner SS Slavonia used the signal when it wrecked off the Azores.   1916 - Mecca, under control of the Turks, fell to the Arabs during the Great Arab Revolt.   1920 - The Republican convention in Chicago endorsed woman suffrage.   1924 - The Republican National Convention was broadcast by NBC radio. It was the first political convention to be on radio.   1925 - The state of Tennessee adopted a new biology text book that denied the theory of evolution.   1935 - Alcoholic Anonymous was founded by William G. Wilson and Dr. Robert Smith.   1940 - Italy declared war on France and Britain. In addition, Canada declared war on Italy.   1943 - Laszlo Biro patented his ballpoint pen. Biro was a Hungarian journalist.   1943 - The Allies began bombing Germany around the clock.   1944 - The youngest pitcher in major league baseball pitched his first game. Joe Nuxhall was 15 years old (and 10 months and 11 days).   1946 - Italy established a republic replacing its monarchy.   1948 - Chuck Yeager exceeded the speed of sound in the Bell XS-1.   1954 - General Motors announced the gas turbine bus had been produced successfully.   1967 - Israel and Syria agreed to a cease-fire that ended the Six-Day War.   1970 - A fifteen-man group of special forces troops began training for Operation Kingpin. The operation was a POW rescue mission in North Vietnam.   1971 - The U.S. ended a 21-year trade embargo of China.   1983 - Johnny Bench announced his plans to retire. He was a catcher in the major leagues for 16 years.   1984 - The U.S. Army successfully tested an antiballistic missile.   1984 - The United States and the Vatican established full diplomatic relations for the first time in 117 years.   1985 - Frank Sinatra was portrayed as a friend of organized crime in a "Doonesbury" comic strip. Over 800 newspapers carried the panel.   1985 - The Israeli army pulled out of Lebanon after 1,099 days of occupation.   1990 - The Civic Forum movement won Czechoslovakia's first free elections since 1946. The movement was founded by President Vaclav Havel.   1990 - Bulgaria's former Communist Party won the country's first free elections in more than four decades.   1993 - It was announced by scientists that genetic material was extracted from an insect that lived when dinosaurs roamed the Earth.   1994 - U.S. President Clinton intensified sanctions against Haiti's military leaders. U.S. commercial air travel was suspended along with most financial transactions between Haiti and the U.S.   1996 - The Colorado Avalanche defeated the Florida Panthers in a 1-0 triple overtime game. The win ended a four-game sweep for the Stanley Cup.   1996 - Britain and Ireland opened Northern Ireland peace talks. The IRA's political arm Sinn Fein was excluded.   1998 - The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that poor children in Milwaukee could attend religious schools at taxpayer expense.   1999 - NATO suspended air strikes in Yugoslavia after Slobodan Milosevic agreed to withdraw his forces from Kosovo.

1801 The Tripolitan War, between the United States and the Barbary States, began. 1865 Wagner's opera, Tristan and Isolde, premiered in Munich. 1935 Alcoholics Anonymous was founded by "Bill W." 1942 The entire male population of the Czech village of Lidice was massacred in retaliation for the death of Nazi official Reinhard Heydrich. 1946 Italy replaced its monarchy with a republic. 1967 The Six-Day War between Israel and Syria, Egypt, and Jordan ended. 1978 Affirmed won the Belmont Stakes and the Triple Crown. 2003 Ontario, Canada issued the first full same-sex marriage licenses in North America.  

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/jun10.htm

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

http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory