Today in History – July 6

1348 – Pope Clement VI issued a papal bull which protected the Jews accused of having caused the Black Death.

1483 – Richard III was crowned King of England.

1535 – Sir Thomas More was executed for treason against King Henry VIII of England.

1536 – The explorer Jacques Cartier landed at St. Malo at the end of his second expedition to North America. He returned with none of the gold he expected to find.

1777 – American Revolutionary War: Siege of Fort Ticonderoga: After a bombardment by British artillery under General John Burgoyne, American forces retreated from Fort Ticonderoga, New York.

1779 – Battle of Grenada: The French defeated British naval forces during the American Revolutionary War.

1854 – In Jackson, Michigan, the first convention of the United States Republican Party was held.

1885 – Louis Pasteur successfully tested his vaccine against rabies on Joseph Meister, a boy who was bitten by a rabid dog.

1887 – David Kalākaua, monarch of the Kingdom of Hawaii, was forced to sign the Bayonet Constitution, which transferred much of the king’s authority to the Legislature of the Kingdom of Hawaii.

1892 – Three thousand eight hundred striking steelworkers engaged in a day-long battle with Pinkerton agents during the Homestead Strike, leaving ten dead and dozens wounded.

1917 – World War I: Arabian troops led by T. E. Lawrence (“Lawrence of Arabia”) and Auda ibu Tayi captured Aqaba from the Ottoman Empire during the Arab Revolt.

1919 – The British dirigible R34 landed in New York after completing the first crossing of the Atlantic Ocean by an airship.

1933 – The first Major League Baseball All-Star Game was played in Chicago’s Comiskey Park. The American League defeated the National League 4–2.

1937 – “Sing, Sing, Sing” was recorded by Benny Goodman and his band.

1942 – Anne Frank and her family went into hiding in the “Secret Annexe” above her father’s office in an Amsterdam warehouse.

1944 – Jackie Robinson refused to move to the back of a bus, which led to a court-martial.

1944 – The Hartford circus fire, one of America’s worst fire disasters, killed approximately 168 people and injured over 700 in Hartford, Connecticut.

1947 – The AK-47 went into production in the Soviet Union.

1957 – Althea Gibson won the Wimbledon championships.  She was the first black athlete to do so.

1957 – John Lennon and Paul McCartney met for the first time, as teenagers at Woolton Fete, three years before they formed the Beatles.

1962 – As a part of Operation Plowshare, the Sedan nuclear test took place.

1965 – The Jefferson Airplane was formed in San Francisco, CA.

1973 – Queen released their first single, “Keep Yourself Alive.”

1978 – Eddie Mahoney changed his name to Eddie Money.

1984 – The Jacksons began their Victory Tour in Kansas City, MO.

1996 – A McDonnell Douglas MD-88 operating as Delta Air Lines Flight 1288 experienced a turbine engine failure during takeoff from Pensacola International Airport which resulted in the death of two and injured five of the 147 people on board.

2003 – The 70-metre Yevpatoria Planetary Radar sent a METI message (Cosmic Call 2) to five stars: Hip 4872, HD 245409, 55 Cancri (HD 75732), HD 10307 and 47 Ursae Majoris (HD 95128). The messages will arrive to these stars in 2036, 2040, 2044, and 2049, respectively.

2013 – A Boeing 777 operating as Asiana Airlines Flight 214 crashed at San Francisco International Airport, killing three and injuring 181 of the 307 people on board.


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