June 4

781 BC – Oldest Chinese recording of a solar eclipse.
1789 – U.S. Constitution goes into effect.
1805 – Tripoli forced to conclude peace with U.S. after war over tribute.
1845 – Mexican-U.S. war starts.
1940 – British complete miracle of Dunkirk by evacuating 300,000 troops.
1984 – D.N.A. is successfully cloned from an extinct animal.
1998 – Terry Nichols is sentenced to life in prison for his role in the Oklahoma City bombing.

June 5

70 – Titus and his Roman legions breach the middle wall of Jerusalem.
1661 – Isaac Newton admitted as a student to Trinity College, Cambridge.
1805 – First recorded tornado in “Tornado Alley” (Southern Illinois).
1917 – 10 million U.S. men begin registering for draft in W.W. I.
1940 – Battle of France begins in W.W. II.
1963 – State of siege proclaimed in Iran; Ayatollah Khomeini arrested.
1990 – South African troops plunder Mandela’s dwelling.

June 6

1813 – U.S. invasion of Canada halted at Stoney Creek (Ontario).
1832 – The barricades fall, and the Paris student uprisings of 1832 end.
1912 – The eruption of Novarupta in Alaska begins. It is the second largest volcanic eruption of the 20th century.
1942 – Japanese forces retreat, ending Battle of Midway.
1944 – W.W. II D-Day: 150,000 Allied Expeditionary Force lands in Normandy, France.
1968 – Senator Robert Kennedy dies from his wounds after he was shot the previous night.
1982 – 30,000 Israeli troops invade Lebanon to drive out P.L.O.

June 7

1099 – First Crusaders arrive in Jerusalem.
1654 – Louis XIV crowned King of France.
1692 – Earthquake in Porte Royale, Jamaica, kills 3,000.
1912 – U.S. army tests first machine gun mounted on a plane.
1942 – Japanese troops lands on Attu, Aleutian Islands.
1968 – Sirhan Sirhan indicted for Bobby Kennedy assassination.
2012 – 16th century archaeology remains of the Curtain Theatre, where some of Shakespeare’s plays were first performed, were found under a pub in London.

June 8

65 – Jews revolt against Rome, capturing fortress of Antonia in Jerusalem.
452 – Italy invaded by Attila the Hun.
1886 – First Civil Rights Act passes
1896 – First car is stolen.
1966 – Topeka, Kansas, is devastated by a tornado that registers as an “F5” on the Fujita Scale: the first to exceed $100 million in damages. Sixteen people are killed, hundreds more injured, and thousands of homes damaged or destroyed.
1968 – James Earl Ray, alleged assassin of Martin Luther King Jr., is captured.
1995 – Downed U.S. Air Force pilot Captain Scott O’Grady is rescued by U.S. Marines in Bosnia.

June 9

68 – Roman Emperor Nero commits suicide, imploring his secretary Epaphroditos to slit his throat to evade a Senate-imposed death by flogging.
1959 – First ballistic missile sub launched (George Washington-Groton, Ct).
1978 – Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) strikes down 148-year policy of excluding black men from priesthood.
1999 – Kosovo War: the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and North Atlantic Treaty Organization sign a peace treaty.

June 10

1793 – Washington replaces Philadelphia as U.S. capital.
1801 – Tripoli declares war on U.S. for refusing tribute.
1898 – U.S. Marines land in Cuba during Spanish-American War.
1915 – Girl Scouts founded.
1940 – Italy declares war on France and Britain during W.W. II.
1963 – J.F.K. signs law for equal pay for equal work for men and women.
1997 – Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot orders the killing of his defense chief Son Sen and eleven of Sen’s family members before Pol Pot flees his northern stronghold.