June 6 Hale was born in Coventry, Connecticut and attended Yale College, graduating in 1773. He taught school thereafter until the war began. In July 1775 he was given a lieutenant's commission in the Connecticut militia, but soon afterward joined the regular Continental Army. After having participated in the Siege of Boston, Hale was promoted to captain and in March 1776 commanded a small unit of Knowlton's Rangers in the defense of New York City, which rescued a ship full of provisions from the guard of a British man-of-war. In September of that year, Hale volunteered for an intelligence-gathering mission..." Twelve Allied nations provided units that participated in the invasion: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Czechoslovakia, the United States, Greece, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, France and the United Kingdom. The Normandy invasion began with overnight paratrooper and glider landings, massive air and naval bombardments, and an early-morning amphibious assault on June 6, "D-day". The battle for Normandy continued for more than two months, with campaigns to establish, expand, and eventually break out of the Allied beachheads. It concluded with the liberation of Paris and the fall of the Chambois pocket. After the 1941 German invasion of the Soviet Union (Operation Barbarossa), the Soviets had done the bulk of the fighting against Germany on the European mainland. U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill had committed the United States and United Kingdom to opening up a "second front" in Europe to ease the desperate Soviet situation, initially in 1942, and again in spring 1943. Rather than repeat the head-on frontal assaults of World War I, the British, and Churchill in particular, favoured attacking the peripheries of western Europe and allowing the insurgency work of the SOE to come to widespread fruition, while making a main Allied thrust from the Mediterranean to Vienna and into Germany from the south. Such an approach was believed to also offer the advantage of creating a barrier to limit the Soviet advance into Europe. However, the U.S. believed from the onset that the optimum approach was the shortest route to Germany emanating from the strongest Allied power base. They were adamant in their view and made it clear that it was the only option they would support in the long term..."
1523 Regent Gustav Vasa is crowned King Gustav I of Sweden. During his reign, Gustav I will lay the foundations of the Swedish national state. The church is turned into a national institution, its estates are confiscated, and the Protestant Reformation will be introduced. His political strength will increase during the 'Stockholm blood bath' of 1520.
1599 Birth: (Rodriguez de Silva y) Diego Velazquez, Spanish painter.
1660 The Peace of Copenhagen is signed, ending the war between Sweden and Denmark.
1683 The first public museum, The Ashmolean, is opened in Broad Street, Oxford, England. The creation of Elias Ashmole, the first exhibits include a dodo.
1755 Birth: Nathan Hale, American patriot. "...an officer in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. Hale was most famous for his service as a spy; he volunteered for an intelligence-gathering mission and was caught and executed. Hale today is considered an American hero, and a large statue of him (below) is outside the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency in Washington, DC.
1756 Birth: John Trumbull, artist.
1801 War of the Oranges: The war between Spain and Portugal ends when the Treaty of Badajoz is signed.
1809 Sweden's constitution is adopted.
1833 In Ellicott's Mills, Maryland, President Andrew Jackson boards a Baltimore & Ohio Railroad train for a pleasure trip to Baltimore. Jackson, who had never been on a train before, is the first president to take a ride on the 'Iron Horse.' The steam locomotive was first pioneered in England at the beginning of the 19th century by Richard Trevithick and George Stephenson. The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad began operation in 1828 with horse-drawn cars, but after the successful run of the Tom Thumb, a steam train that nearly outraced a horse in a public demonstration in 1830, steam power was added. By 1831, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad had completed a line from Baltimore to Frederick, Maryland. On this day two years later, Andrew Jackson gives railroad travel its presidential christening. The acceptance of railroads will come quickly in the 1830s, and by 1840 America will have almost 3,000 miles of railway, greater than the combined European total of only 1,800 miles. The railroad network will expand quickly in the years before the Civil War, and by 1860 the American railroad system will have become a national network of some 30,000 miles. Nine years later, transcontinental railroad service will become possible for the first time.
1844 The Factory Act in Britain restricts female workers to a 12 hour day, and children between the ages of eight and 13, to a day of six and a half hours.
1868 Birth: Robert Falcon Scott, British Antarctic explorer.
1872 Feminist Susan B. Anthony is fined for voting in an election in Rochester, New York. She refuses to pay the fine and the judge allows her to go free.
1875 Birth: Thomas Mann, author. "...a German novelist, philanthropist and essayist, lauded principally for a series of highly symbolic and often ironic epic novels and mid-length stories, noted for their insight into the psychology of the artist and intellectual and an underlying eroticism informed by Mann's own struggles with his homosexuality...He emigrated from Nazi Germany to Küsnacht near Zürich, Switzerland, in 1933, then in 1942 to Pacific Palisades, California, USA. In 1944, he became a naturalized citizen of the United States. He returned to Europe in 1952. He was never to live in Germany again...Unlike his brother Heinrich, it has been claimed that Thomas never truly engaged with the politics of his day. Heinrich was an overt Communist, whereas Thomas was criticised for not condemning the Nazi regime enough... despite this, Mann's books, particularly Buddenbrooks, were amongst the many burnt by Hitler's regime, and his move to Switzerland was largely due to the rise of National Socialism in Germany. As regards his books, they are often unashamedly bourgeois, and represent that stratum of society. Politics does emerge in some form or other in many of them, but for some people, given the extremism of the period in Germany, he didn't do enough..."
1876 A legal notary in Weitra takes the testimony of three illiterate witnesses: 'The undersigned witnesses hereby confirm that Georg Hiedler, who was well know to them, acknowledged paternity of the child Alois, son of Anna Schicklgruber, and they request that his name be entered in the baptismal record.' XXX Josef Romeder, Witness. XXX Johann Breitender, Witness. XXX Englebert Paukh, Witness. See June 7.
1882 The first electric flatiron, better known as the electric iron, is patented by H. W. Seely of New York City.
1882 The three-mile coastal limit for territorial waters is established by the Hague Convention.
1908 The French government passes a law making divorce automatic when the couple have been separated for over three years.
1909 Birth: Isaiah Berling, philosopher, historian.
1918 WW1: The Battle of Belleau Wood begins in France. "...In a battle noteworthy because of both its extremely bloody nature and its close proximity to the French capital of Paris, the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) launched a counter-attack designed to stop the German advance. The Second Division was tasked with taking the woods, and the 4th Brigade with its 5th and 6th Marine Regiments was sent forward. In order to enter and take the woods, it was necessary to advance across an open field of wheat that was continuously swept with murderous German machine gun and artillery fire. After Marines were repeatedly urged to turn back by retreating French forces, Marine Captain Lloyd Williams of the 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines uttered the now-famous retort "Retreat, hell. We just got here." On the first day alone (June 6), the casualties were the highest in Marine Corps history (and remained so until the capture of Tarawa in November 1943). Overall, the woods were taken by the Marines (and the US Army 3rd Brigade) a total of six times before they could successfully expel the Germans. They fought off more than four divisions of Germans, oftentimes reduced to using only their bayonets or fists in hand-to-hand combat. In order to rally his platoon of pinned-down Marines, Gunnery Sergeant Dan Daly encouraged them with what would become another famous phrase "Come on, you sons of bitches, do you want to live forever?..."
1925 Walter Percy Chrysler founds Chrysler Corporation.
1930 Frozen peas, the product of a technique pioneered by Clarence Birdseye, go on sale for the first time in the US. Americans have for a while been able to buy frozen meat and fish, but vegetables tend to turn soggy and tasteless when thawed. Birdseye's discovery is that food frozen very quickly will stay relatively fresh.
1932 The first US federal tax on gasoline is enacted, at the rate of a penny per gallon.
1932 Birth: David Scott, NASA astronaut.
1933 The world's first drive-in movie theater opens in Camden, New Jersey, with parking accommodations for 500 cars and a projection screen forty by fifty feet.
1934 The US Securities and Exchange Commission is established to protect the interests of investors.
1934 Birth: Roy Innes, civil rights leader.
1934 Pogroms throughout Poland are sponsored by Endek (Polish National Democratic Party).
1935 Birth: Dalai Lama, exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, leader of Tibet's Buddhists, Nobel Peace Prize winner.
1936 Xavier Vallat, a member of the French Chamber of Delegates, attacks Leon Blum for his Jewish origin.
1939 Holocaust: President Roosevelt ignores a telegram sent on behalf of the Jews aboard the SS St. Louis. The ship, with all 930 Jews on board, is forced to return to Europe.
1939 Birth: Marian Wright Edelman, civil rights activist.
1940 WW2: The Germans break the French line along the Somme between Amiens and the coast.
1941 WW2: It's 'No More Mr. Nice Guy' as Adolf Hitler issues his infamous Commissar Decree. "In the battle against Bolshevism, the adherence of the enemy to the principles of humanity or international law is not to be counted on. In particular the treatment of those of us who are taken prisoner in a manner full of hatred, cruelty and inhumanity can be expected from the political commissars of every kind as the real pillars of opposition. The troops must be aware that: 1. In this battle mercy or considerations of international law with regard to these elements is false. They are a danger to our own safety and to the rapid pacification of the conquered territories. 2. The originators of barbaric, Asiatic methods of warfare are the political commissars. So immediate and unhesitatingly severe measures must be undertaken against them. They are therefore, when captured either in battle or offering resistance, as a matter of routine to be dispatched by firearms. The following provisions also apply: 2. ...Political commissars as agents of the enemy troops are recognizable from their special badge—a red star with a golden woven hammer and sickle on the sleeves.... They are to be separated from the prisoners of war immediately, i.e. already on the battlefield. This is necessary, in order to remove from them any possibility of influencing the captured soldiers. These commissars are not to be recognized as soldiers; the protection due to prisoners of war under international law does not apply to them. When they have been separated, they are to be finished off. 3. Political commissars who have not made themselves guilty of any enemy action nor are suspected of such should be left unmolested for the time being. It will only be possible after further penetration of the country to decide whether remaining functionaries may be left in place or are to be handed over to the Sonderkommandos. The aim should be for the latter to carry out the assessment. In judging the question "guilty or not guilty", the personal impression of the attitude and bearing of the commissar should as a matter of principle count for more than the facts of the case which it may not be possible to prove."
1942 WW2: Japanese forces lose the decisive Battle of Midway. "...Yamamoto's fleet retired. Attu and Kiska had been taken but at what cost! Four heavy carriers, one heavy cruiser, one hundred pilots, 3400 sailors, three experienced carrier skippers and a carrier admiral, plus the secrets of the Zero fighter. In exchange, the IJN had sunk a carrier and a destroyer, and destroyed around 150 planes. It was nothing short of a disaster into which Yamamoto had led his fleet and he was only right in claiming responsibility for this operation and its losses. Both fleets returned to their ports to think about their lessons at Midway. History's greatest naval battle was over. The United States had won. The Battle of Midway was the most decisive single naval battle in US history. The battle left two heavy Japanese carriers against four US carriers, and cost the Japanese the pilots of a full year of training. Furthermore, the Japanese Navy lost the secret of its Zero fighter, leading to the development of the F6F Hellcat, which would, just a year later, begin to destroy Japanese air supremacy. The Battle of Midway enabled the US Navy to go onto the offensive. Herein lay the importance of the battle. For this is where I think people are wrong when they say that the loss of the battle would not have been a too important event. If the US had indeed lost all three carriers at Midway there would have been merely three carriers to oppose any Japanese move - none of which was a really good ship. Saratoga was old and slow in maneuvering, Wasp small and with a small complement of planes, and Ranger slow and small as well as ill protected. None of these carriers could hope to last in a battle with the Japanese carrier fleet which would allow the Japanese to prosecute several goals: construction of airfields on Guadalcanal; invasion of Port Moresby; invasion of New Caledonia; and more. The battle of Midway reversed this. The Japanese could never again operate offensively, while the US could do so..."
1944 WW2: Operation Overlord begins as Allied forces storm the beaches of Normandy, France, in the D-Day invasion of Europe. "...The Battle of Normandy was fought in 1944 between the German forces occupying Western Europe and the invading American, British, and Canadian forces. Sixty years later, the Normandy invasion, codenamed Operation Overlord, remains the largest sea borne invasion in history, involving almost three million troops crossing the English Channel from England to Normandy in occupied France.
1944 Holocaust: All 1,800 Jews on the island of Corfu, in the Ionian Sea, are seized by the Gestapo. (Atlas)
1944 Holocaust: Dr. Mengele begins having his Jewish slave-assistant, Dr. Nyiszli, send large quantities of scientific material to Professor von Vershuer at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology in Berlin. This material includes eyes from murdered Gypsies, internal organs from murdered children, the skeletons of two murdered Jews, and sera from twins infected with typhoid by Dr. Mengele. (Science)
1946 Nuremberg War Crimes Trials: General Alfred Jodl continues his testimony. "...DR. NELTE: Yesterday, in answer to a question by Dr. Stahmer, you spoke about the dispute on the occasion of the 80 RAF officers who escaped. In order to clarify this question, which weighs heavily against Field Marshal Keitel, I should like to know the following: Did you hear that Keitel objected violently because the recaptured RAF officers were turned over to Himmler, that is, to the Gestapo? JODL: When I stood at the curtain for those 1 or 2 minutes, I heard the Fuehrer say first of all: "That is unheard of. That is the tenth time that dozens of officer prisoners have escaped. These officers are an enormous danger. You don't realize" - meaning Keitel - "that in view of the 6 million foreign people who are prisoners and workers in Germany, they are the leaders who could organize an uprising. That is the result of this careless attitude of the commandants. These escaped Air Force officers are to be turned over to Himmler immediately." And then I heard Field Marshal Keitel answer: "My Fuehrer, some of them have already been put back into the camp. They are prisoners of war again. I cannot turn them over." And the Fuehrer said, "Very well, then they can stay there." That is what I heard with my own ears at that moment, until a telephone conversation called me away again. DR. NELTE: Afterwards did you speak again with Field Marshal Keitel about this incident? JODL: We drove back to Berchtesgaden together from the Berghof. Field Marshal Keitel was beside himself, for on the way up he had told me that he would not report the escape of these fliers to the Fuehrer. He hoped that on the next day he would have them all back. He was furious with Himmler, who had immediately reported it to the Fuehrer. I told him that if the Fuehrer, in view of the total situation in Germany, saw such a great danger in the escape of foreign officers, then England should be notified so that the order might be rescinded-all officers who were prisoners had to make an attempt to escape. I must say openly that at this moment neither of us had any thought that these recaptured fliers might be shot. For they had done nothing except escape from a camp, which German officers also done dozens of times. I imagined that he wanted to remove them from the disciplinary action of the Army, which certainly, in his opinion, would be far too lenient, and wanted to have them work as punishment for some time in a concentration camp under Himmler. That is what I imagined. DR. NELTE: In any case, in your presence and in your hearing, Hitler's orders to Himmler to shoot these officers were not issued? JODL: I know that with absolute certainty for I know how I felt when I suddenly received the news that they had been shot..."
1949 1984, George Orwell's vision of a world ruled by Big Brother, is published.
1961 Death: Carl Gustav Jung, Swiss psychiatrist.
1961 In Britain, the first Minnie the Minx cartoon comic strip is published in the Dandy. Drawn by Jim Petrie who drew 2000 comic strips of Minnie the Minx before he retired after nearly 40 years of doing the drawings, is teaching at Dundee's Kirkton High School when Minnie first appears.
1962 The Beatles audition for George Martin, a producer at EMI Records. After listening to a playback of the audition tapes, Martin declares, 'They're pretty awful.' He will change his mind after meeting the group, however, and sign them.
1966 America's Gemini 9 spacecraft splashes down after a three-day mission during which astronaut Eugene Cernan walked in space for a record 2 hours 8 minutes.
1966 Death: Black activist James Meredith, who in 1962 became the first African American to attend the University of Mississippi, is shot and wounded by a sniper, as he walks along a Mississippi highway during a civil rights march to encourage black voter registration.
1968 James Earl Ray is arrested at London Airport.
1968 Death: Robert F. Kennedy, presidential contender, US Attorney General under his brother President John F. Kennedy; US Senator. "...Urged to run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1968, Kennedy appeared reluctant until Sen. Eugene McCarthy's showing in the New Hampshire Democratic primary convinced him that a challenge to Johnson could be successful. Kennedy announced his candidacy on Mar. 16, 1968. Although Johnson withdrew (Mar. 31) from the race, the administration's standard passed to Vice President Hubert Humphrey, while Senator McCarthy retained the support of many opponents of the Vietnam War, who accused Kennedy of opportunism. Kennedy conducted an energetic campaign and won a series of primary victories, culminating in California on June 4. At the end of that day he gave a victory speech in the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, and while leaving was shot. He died a day later (June 6, 1968). The gunman, Sirhan B. Sirhan, was captured at the scene and later convicted of murder. Like his brother John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. He wrote The Enemy Within (1960), Thirteen Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis (1969), and To Seek a Newer World (1969)."
1975 The British people vote overwhelmingly for continued membership of the common market. Nearly 26 million votes are cast in the referendum and results show 67% in favor and 33% against. Only 2 of the 68 counties vote 'No'.
1978 Proposition 13 passes in California. Voters join Senator Howard Jarvis in cutting property taxes by 57 percent. This is seen as the birth of a taxpayer's revolt against high taxes and excessive government spending.
1980 For the second time in a week, US nuclear forces go on red alert following a computer error warning of a Soviet attack.
1982 Israel launches a full-scale invasion against Lebanon in an attempt to drive Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) fighters out of the country. In the operation 'Peace for Galilee', Israeli troops besiege and bombed Beirut. During the invasion, 14,000 people will be killed and 30,000 injured, the vast majority civilians. While Israel claims the invasion is in self-defense, the UN and human rights organizations consider it illegal and immoral. The Israelis will withdraw in June 1985.
1984 Indian troops storm the Golden Temple at Amritsar, the Sikh's holiest shrine, killing an estimated 1,000 people.
1985 Authorities in Brazil exhume what is later identified as the remains of Dr. Josef Mengele, the notorious 'Angel of Death' of the Nazi Holocaust.
1991 The Soviet KGB release 'secret documents' from 1941 that are said to show that Rudolph Hess, Hitler's deputy, had been lured to the Duke of Hamilton's estate by the British.
1993 Latvian Way, an alliance headed by former Communist Anatolijs Gorbunovs, wins power in Latvia.
1994 National leaders and elderly WW2 veterans commemorate the 50th anniversary of 'D-Day.'
1995 Japanese Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama and his ruling coalition agree to express 'deep remorse' for Japan's acts of aggression in WW2.
1995 South Africa abolishes the death penalty.
1995 US astronaut Norman Thagard, aboard the Russian space station Mir, breaks NASA's space endurance record of 84 days, one hour and 16 minutes.
1996 Britain and Ireland name former US Senator George Mitchell as chairman of all-party peace talks on Northern Ireland.
1996 Death: William Palmer, invented the magnetic tape recorder.
1999 US President Bill Clinton and other dignitaries from around the world visit Normandy, France. Many D-Day veterans join them to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Operation Overlord and to pay respect to the thousands who died there in WW2.
1999 Space shuttle Discovery returns from a 10-day mission that included a visit to the international space station.
2001
2002 President George W. Bush proposes creation of a cabinet-level Department of Homeland Security whose main responsibility will be the prevention of terrorist attacks.
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