and the rest of june (2 race ended)
193. Roman Emperor Didius Julianus is executed. He ascended the throne after buying it from the Praetorian Guard, who had assassinated his predecessor Pertinax. This incited the Roman Civil War of 193–197. Julianus was ousted and sentenced to death by his successor, Septimius Severus.
After the murder of his predecessor, Pertinax, the throne was sold by auction by the Praetorian Guard. Didius Julianus offered every soldier 25,000 sestertii, outbidding City Prefect Titus Flavius Sulpicianus. The auction proved highly unpopular, and three generals in different parts of the empire (Pescennius Niger in Syria, Clodius Albinus in Britain, and Septimius Severus in Pannonia) rose in rebellion.
Severus had Julianus decapitated. He dismissed the Praetorian Guard and executed the soldiers who had killed Pertinax. According to Cassius Dio, Julianus' last words were "But what evil have I done? Whom have I killed?"
987. Hugh Capet is elected king of France.
1204. King Philip August of France conquers Rouen. Philip was one of the most successful medieval French monarchs at expanding the royal power and the influence of the monarchy. He broke up the great Angevin Empire and defeated a coalition of his rivals at the Battle of Bouvines in 1214. He reorganized the government, bringing financial stability to the country and thus making possible a sharp increase in prosperity. His reign was popular with ordinary people because he checked the power of the nobles and passed some of it on to the growing middle class.
1215. Beijing, then under the control of the Jurchen ruler Emperor Xuanzong of Jin, is captured by the Mongols under Genghis Khan, ending the Battle of Beijing and beginning a massacre of the city's inhabitants.
1533. Anne Boleyn is crowned queen. She would later be executed by order of the groom, King Henry VIII of England.
1660. Mary Dyer is hanged on Boston Common for defying a law banning Quakers from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Mary Barrett Dyer was an English Puritan turned Quaker who ws executed for repeatedly defying a law banning Quakers from the colony. She is considered to be the only woman in America to die for religious freedom.
1779. During the American Revolutionary War, Benedict Arnold is court martialed for malfeasance. Arnold was a general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. He is best known for betraying the United States forces and plotting to surrender the American fort at West Point to the British during the American Revolution. He is perhaps the most famous traitor in the history of the United States.
Arnold distinguished himself as a hero of revolution early in the war through acts of cunning and bravery in the Capture of Fort Ticonderoga, the Invasion of Canada (1775), the Battle of Valcour Island in Lake Champlain in 1776, the battles of Danbury and Ridgefield in Connecticut (after which he was promoted to Major General), and the Battle of Saratoga in 1777. He was wounded several times. But in spite of his successes, he was passed over for promotion by the Continental Congress. Arnold also opposed the alliance with France. He became heavily indebted, and was accused of corruption. He also married a Loyalist girl, Peggy Shippen. Frustrated and disaffected, Arnold turned to treason
Arnold was embittered and resentful toward Congress for bypassing him for promotion and not approving his wartime expenses. (Benedict Arnold paid nearly all of the expenses of his forces in Canada.) Arnold threw himself into the social life of Philadelphia, hosting grand parties and falling deeply into debt. Arnold's extravagance drew him into shady financial schemes and into further disrepute with Congress, which investigated his accounts.
On June 1, 1779, he was court-martialed for malfeasance. "Having become a cripple in the service of my country, I little expected to meet [such] ungrateful returns," he complained to General George Washington.
In July 1780, Arnold sought and obtained command of the fort at West Point. He already had begun correspondence with General Sir Henry Clinton in New York City through Major André and was closely involved with Beverley Robinson, a prominent loyalist in command of a loyalist regiment. Arnold offered to hand the fort over to the British for £20,000 and a brigadier's commission. His plans were thwarted when André was captured with a pass signed by Arnold. André was carrying documents that disclosed the plot and incriminated Arnold; he was later hanged as a spy.
Arnold learned of André's capture and fled to Vulture, a British ship waiting for him on the Hudson River, with the help of John Borns. They made him a brigadier general, but only paid him some £6,000 because his plot had failed.
1812. U.S. President James Madison asks the Congress to declare war on the United Kingdom. The War of 1812 (in Britain, the American War of 1812, to distinguish from the war with Napoleon) was fought between the United States of America, on one side, and on the other side the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and its colonies, especially Upper Canada (Ontario), Lower Canada (Quebec), Nova Scotia, and Bermuda. When the war had finished, 1,600 British and 2,260 American troops had died. The war was fought from 1812 to 1815 and involved both land and naval engagements.
Madison is the only president to exercise his perogatives as commander-in-chief on the battlefield. He took personal command of an artillery battery as British troops marched on Washington.
1813. The U.S. Navy gains its motto when the mortally wounded commander of the frigate Chesapeake, Capt. James Lawrence, issues his dying command, "Don't give up the ship," during a losing battle with a British frigate in the War of 1812.
1869. Thomas Edison receives a patent for his electric voting machine.
1900. Future U.S. President Herbert Hoover and his wife Lou are caught in the middle of the Boxer Rebellion in China. Hoover was to start a new job as a mining consultant to the Chinese emperor with the consulting group Bewick, Moreing and Co. The couple had been married less than a year when Chinese nationalists rebelled against colonial control of their nation, besieging 800 westerners in the city of Tientsin. Legend holds that, during the ensuing month-long siege, Hoover rescued some Chinese children caught in the crossfire of urban combat. An international coalition of troops rescued the Hoovers and spirited them and other westerners out of China.
1916. Louis Brandeis becomes the first Jew appointed to the United States Supreme Court.
1918. During World War I, the Battle for Belleau Wood begins in France as Allied Forces under John J. Pershing and James Harbord engage Imperial German Forces under Wilhelm, German Crown Prince.
In the end, U.S. Forces suffered a total of 9,777 casualties, 1,811 of them fatal. Many are buried in the nearby Aisne-Marne American Cemetery. There is no clear information on the total number of Germans killed, although 1,600 troops were taken prisoner.
General Pershing, Commander of the AEF said, "The Battle of Belleau Wood was for the U.S. the biggest battle since Appomattox and the most considerable engagement American troops had ever had with a foreign enemy."
1934. The Tokyo-based Jidosha-Seizo Kabushiki-Kaisha (Automobile Manufacturing Co., Ltd. in English) takes on a new name: Nissan Motor Company. Jidosha-Seizo Kabushiki-Kaisha had been established in December 1933. The company's new name was an abbreviation for Nippon Sangyo, a "zaibatsu" (or holding company) belonging to Tobata's founder, Yoshisuke Aikawa.
1935. The first driving tests are introduced in the United Kingdom.
1941. During World War II, Crete, the last Allied stronghold in Greece, is captured by German forces at high cost to both sides. In late 1940, the Greek army, reinforced by the British air force, decisively repulsed an Italian invasion of their nation. In April 1941, these triumphs turned to defeat when Nazi leader Adolf Hitler turned his undefeated German Wehrmacht against the country. The German army advanced so quickly in Greece that the British were forced to cancel plans to send reinforcements to the country. On April 23, the Greek king and his government evacuated to Crete, an island south of the Greek mainland, and on April 24 a general Allied evacuation to the island began.
Three weeks later, the German invasion of Crete began, and more than 20,000 German parachute troops landed on the island within a few days. Under heavy resistance from the Allies, the Germans succeeded in gaining control of an airfield and were thus able to fly in a steady number of reinforcements. On May 26, the Allies began to move to the southern coast of Crete, where an evacuation to British-controlled Egypt began. By June 1, the last of some 20,000 surviving Allied troops had escaped, and Crete fell to the Axis.
1943. During World War II, British Overseas Airways Corporation Flight 777 is shot down over the Bay of Biscay by German Junkers Ju 88s, killing actor Leslie Howard and leading to speculation the downing was an attempt to kill British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
1958. Charles de Gaulle is brought out of retirement to govern France by decree for six months.
1965. A coal mine explosion kills 236 workers at the Yamano mine near Fukuoka, Japan.
1969. John Lennon and Yoko Ono record Give Peace a Chance from their hotel bed; this is the first single recorded by a solo Beatle. Early in John and Yoko's "Bed-In," a reporter asked John what he was trying to do. John said, "All we are saying is give peace a chance," spontaneously, but he liked the phrase and set it to music for the song. He sang the song several times during the Bed-In, and finally, on this date in 1969, rented an 8-track tape machine from a local music store and recorded it in bed.
1974. The Heimlich maneuver for rescuing choking victims is published in the journal Emergency Medicine.
1980. CNN (Cable News Network), the world's first 24-hour television news network, makes its debut. The network signed on at 6 p.m. EST from its headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, with a lead story about the attempted assassination of civil rights leader Vernon Jordan. CNN went on to change the notion that news could only be reported at fixed times throughout the day. At the time of CNN's launch, TV news was dominated by three major networks -- ABC, CBS and NBC -- and their nightly 30-minute broadcasts. Initially available in less than two million U.S. homes, today CNN is seen in more than 89 million American households and over 160 million homes internationally.
1990. U.S. President George H. W. Bush and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev sign a treaty to end chemical weapon production.
2009. General Motors files for chapter 11 bankruptcy. It is the fourth largest United States bankruptcy in history.
2011. One tornado hits the U.S. city of Springfield, Massachusetts, with injuries reported and significant property damage. The tornado eventually went on to Monson, causing devastation. The tornado traveled thirty-nine miles from Westfield to Charlton, Massachusetts. At least four deaths have occurred, with one person reported dead in a car that overturned in West Springfield as a result of the tornados. The Governor of Massachusetts Deval Patrick declares a state of emergency following the impact of the tornadoes.
In the Syrian uprising, the torture and eventual killing of a 13-year-old child held in custody causes further outcry among the people of Daraa.
