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“There is a legend about a bird that sings just once in its life, more sweetly than any other creature on the face of the earth. From the moment it leaves the nest it searches for a thorn tree and does not rest until it has found one. Then, singing among the savage branches, it impales itself upon the longest, sharpest spine. Dying, it rises above its own agony to out-carol the lark and the nightingale. One superlative song, existence the price. But the whole world stills to listen, and God in His heaven smiles. For the best is only bought at the cost of the great pain. … Or so says the legend.”
~ Colleen McCullough
Wikiquote (Colleen McCullough (Colleen McCullough-Robinson, AO, is an Australian author, her best-known work being The Thorn Birds.)
June 1st, 193
Roman Empire:
193 - Emperor Didius Julianus is assassinated.
Wikipedia Image: Relief from a 3rd-century sarcophagus depicting a battle between Romans and Germanic warriors; the central figure is perhaps the emperor Hostilian / Depiction of the Menorah on the Arch of Titus in Rome.
June 1st, 987
Hugh Capet is elected King of France, the first of the Capetian dynasty that would rule France until the French Revolution in 1792.
Wikipedia Painting: An imagined image of Hugh Capet; no contemporary images of Hugh exist. New World Encyclopedia
June 1st, 1215
China:
1215 - Battle of Zhongdu; Zhongdu (now Beijing), then under the control of the Jurchen ruler Emperor Xuanzong of Jin, is captured by the Mongols under Genghis Khan ending the battle.
Wikipedia Photo: China from NASA Wordwind Satellite; © Great Wall of China, credit National Geographic; LongJi Terrace, credit National Geographic; Great Bear Rainforest, credit Paul Nicklen, National Geographic; Platoons of clay soldiers were buried with China's first emperor, Qin Shi Huang Di, (required a labor force of 700,000 to build), credit O. Louis Mazzatenta, National Geographic.
● Mongols' leader Genghis Khan ● Great Wall of China, credit National Geographic.
June 1st, 1298
Battle of Turaida: Residents of Riga and Grand Duchy of Lithuania defeat the Livonian Order.
Wikipedia Image: Lithuania (Republic of Lithuania) is a country in Northern Europe, the largest of the three Baltic states. ● Trakai Island Castle Photo: ● Hill of Crosses (more than 50,000 crosses, not a cemetery) ● Vilnius ● Battle of Grunwald and Vytautas the Great in the centre.
June 1st, 1495
Friar John Cor records the first known batch of scotch whisky.
Wikipedia Image: Franciscan Friar by Rembrandt ● scotch whisky barrels.
June 1st, 1533
Anne Boleyn is crowned queen of England.
Wikipedia Painting: Henry VIII Coat of Arms and Seal of Henry VIII of England; Catherine of Aragon as a young widow, by court painter Michael Sittow, 1502; Anne Boleyn, Henry's second queen; a later copy of an original painted 1534; Jane Seymour, Henry's third wife; Anne of Cleves, Henry's forth wife by Hans Holbein the Younger, 1539; Catherine Howard, Henry's fifth wife, by Hans Holbein the Younger, 1540; Catherine Parr, Henry's sixth and last wife.
June 1st, 1648
English Civil War:
1648 - Second English Civil War; Battle of Maidstone - The Roundheads defeat the Cavaliers.
Wikipedia Painting: English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians (Roundheads) and Royalists (Cavaliers);
John Milton publishes Areopagitica;
Battle of Naseby, victory of the Parliamentarian New Model Army;
Battle of Marston Moor, 1644;
"Cromwell at Dunbar", by Andrew Carrick Gow; Oliver Cromwell; King Charles I, painted by Van Dyck;
"And when did you last see your father?" by William Frederick Yeames.
June 1st, 1660
Mary Dyer is hanged for defying a law banning Quakers from the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
Wikipedia Painting: Mary Barrett Dyer at prayer, Howard Pyle.
June 1st, 1670
Franco-Dutch War:
1670 - In Dover, England, Charles II of Great Britain and Louis XIV of France sign the secret treaty of Dover, which will force England into the Third Anglo-Dutch War.
Wikipedia Painting: Battle of Solebay, The Burning of the Royal James at the Battle of Solebay, 7 June 1672 by Willem van de Velde the younger.
June 1st, 1779
American Revolutionary War:
1779 - Benedict Arnold, a general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, is court-martialed for malfeasance.
Wikipedia Paintings: Washington Crossing the Delaware, by Emanuel Leutz; Battle of the Chesapeake, French (left) and British (right) lines; Battle of Bunker Hill, The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker Hill by John Trumbull; The Defeat of the Floating Batteries at Gibraltar, September 13, 1782, by John Singleton Copley; Washington and the Comte de Rochambeau at Yorktown, 1781; "The surrender at Saratoga" shows General Daniel Morgan in front of a French de Vallière 4-pounder; Surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown by (John Trumbull, 1797).
Benedict Arnold American Hero and Traitor.
June 1st, 1792
Kentucky is admitted as the 15th state of the United States.
Wikipedia Photo: Kentucky; Louisville the state's largest city ● Kentucky Derby © ● Red River Gorge is one of Kentucky's most visited places ● Bald cypress/tupelo swamps.
June 1st, 1794
French Revolutionary Wars / Napoleonic Wars:
1794 - The battle of the Glorious First of June; the first naval engagement between Britain and France during the French Revolutionary Wars.
1815 - Napoleon swears fidelity to the Constitution of France.
Wikipedia Painting: Battle of Trafalgar: The British HMS Sandwich fires to the French flagship Bucentaure (completely dismasted) in the battle of Trafalgar;
Napoleon in Berlin (Meynier). After defeating Prussian forces at Jena, the French Army entered Berlin on 27 October 1806;
Battle of the Bridge of Arcole Napoleon Bonaparte leading his troops over the bridge of Arcole, by Horace Vernet;
Napoleon as King of Italy (Appiani);
Napoleon Crossing the Alps (David). In 1800 Bonaparte took the French Army across the Alps, eventually defeating the Austrians at Marengo;
Charge of the Russian Imperial Guard cavalry against French cuirassiers at the Battle of Friedland, 14 June 1807;
Battle of Borodino as depicted by Louis Lejeune. The battle was the largest and bloodiest single-day action of the Napoleonic Wars;
Napoleon's withdrawal from Russia, a painting by Adolph Northen;
Wellington at Waterloo by Robert Alexander Hillingford;
Napoleon is often represented in his green colonel uniform of the Chasseur à Cheval, with a large bicorne and a hand-in-waistcoat gesture.
Glorious First of June Lord Howe's action, or the Glorious First of June, Philippe-Jacques de Loutherbourg, 1795.
June 1st, 1796
Tennessee is admitted as the 15th state of the United States.
Wikipedia Photo: Tennessee; Memphis the state's largest city ● Nashville the state's capital ● Tennessee's landscape Great Smoky Mountains.
June 1st, 1812
War of 1812:
1812 - United States President James Madison asks the Congress to declare war on the United Kingdom.
Wikipedia Painting: Damage to the US Capitol after the Burning of Washington; HMS Shannon leading the captured American frigate USS Chesapeake into Halifax, Nova Scotia (1813); USS Constitution vs HMS Guerriere; the death of Tecumseh at Moraviantown; Oliver Hazard Perry's message to William Henry Harrison after the Battle of Lake Erie began with what would become one of the most famous sentences in American military history: "We have met the enemy and they are ours; "Andrew Jackson leads the defence of New Orleans; The mortally wounded Isaac Brock spurs troops on at the Queenston Heights.
June 1st, 1831
1831 - James Clark Ross discovers the North Magnetic Pole.
Wikipedia North Pole; (Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole), defined as the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. (Not be confused with the North Magnetic Pole -the point on the surface of Earth's Northern Hemisphere at which the planet's magnetic field points vertically downwards.) ● Northern Hemisphere Blue Marble image for January with coastlines and the North Pole referenced (red cross). ● Sunset at the North Pole landscape. ● Sunset at the North Pole.
June 1st, 1861
American Civil War:
1861 - Battle of Fairfax Court House (June 1861);, first land battle of American Civil War after Battle of Fort Sumter, first Confederate combat casualty.
1862 - Peninsula Campaign; Battle of Seven Pines (or the Battle of Fair Oaks) ends inconclusively, with both sides claiming victory.
Wikipedia Image: ● Lincoln Memorial; an American national monument built to honor the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln - located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. across from the Washington Monument.
● The northern army led by George McClellan and the southern army led by Robert E. Lee met at Antietam Creek, Maryland in September, 1862. It was a bloody battle where 13,000 Confederates and 12,000 Union troops died in just one day. McClellan had hesitated to attack before the battle thus letting the southern troops regroup. Also, he had saved reserves and refused to use them at the end of the battle thinking that Lee was holding reserves for a counterattack, even though those reserves didn't exist. The Union victory stopped Lee's northward advance and was a turning point in the war.
● Battle of Antietam / Stone Bridge at Antietam Battlefield - Sharpsburg, Maryland
● First Battle Between Ironclads: CSS Virginia/Merrimac (left) vs. USS Monitor, in 1862 at the Battle of Hampton Roads.
● Although photography was still in its infancy, war correspondents produced thousands of images, bringing the harsh realities of the frontlines to those on the home front in a new and visceral way. The Atlantic.
● Battle of Fort Sumter the bombardment and surrender of Fort Sumter, near Charleston, South Carolina, started the American Civil War.
June 1st, 1913
Pre World War I:
1913 - Greek-Serbian Treaty of Alliance; is signed, paving the way for the Second Balkan War.
World War I:
1918 - Western Front; Battle for Belleau Wood – Allied Forces under John J. Pershing and James Harbord engage Imperial German Forces under Wilhelm, German Crown Prince.
Post World War I:
1921 - Tulsa Race Riot; civil unrest in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
1929 - The First Conference of the Communist Parties of Latin America is held in Buenos Aires.
Wikipedia Photo: Trenches on the Western Front; a British Mark IV Tank crossing a trench; Royal Navy battleship HMS Irresistible sinking after striking a mine at the Battle of the Dardanelles; a Vickers machine gun crew with gas masks, and German Albatros D.III biplanes. National Archives and Records Administration.
June 1st, 1941
World War II: Holocaust;
1941 - The Farhud, a pogrom of Iraqi Jews, takes place in Baghdad.
Wikipedia Photo: World War II, The Holocaust. Sources: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum USHMM, History 1900s, Internet Masters of Education Technology IMET, Techno Friends, Veterans Today, Concern.
June 1st, 1941
World War II:
1941 - Battle of Crete; ends as Crete capitulates to Germany.
1943 - 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.
Post World War II:
1946 - Ion Antonescu, "Conducator" (leader) of Romania during World War II, is executed.
1958 - Charles de Gaulle comes out of retirement to lead France by decree for six months.
Wikipedia Photo: Bombing of Dresden in World War II; August Schreitmüller's sculpture 'Goodness' surveys Dresden after a firestorm started by Allied bombers in 1945.
USS Bunker Hill was hit by kamikazes piloted by Ensign Kiyoshi Ogawa and another airman on 11 May 1945. 389 personnel were killed or missing from a crew of 2,600; Ensign Kiyoshi Ogawa, who flew his aircraft into the USS Bunker Hill during a Kamikaze mission on 11 May 1945; Kamikaze Missions - Lt Yoshinori Yamaguchi's Yokosuka D4Y3 (Type 33 Suisei) "Judy" in a suicide dive against USS Essex. The dive brakes are extended and the non-self-sealing port wing tank is trailing fuel vapor and/or smoke 25 November 1944.
German V1 flying-bomb and V2 Rockets - Preparations for a Salvo Launch of V-2 Rockets in the Heidelager near Blizna (Poland) (1944), credit German History in Documents and Images GHDI.
Eastern Front (World War II); Germans race towards Stalingrad. August 1942; Soviet children during a German air raid in the first days of the war, June 1941, by RIA Novosti archive; Soviet sniper Roza Shanina in 1944. About 400,000 Soviet women served in front-line duty units Caucasus Mountains, winter 1942/43; Finnish ski patrol: the invisible enemy of the Soviet Army with an unlimited supply of skis; Men of the German Engineers Corps cross a river which is swollen after the first autumn rains, to strengthen bridges linking the German positions on the central front in Russia. by Keystone / Getty Images. October 1942; Russian snipers fighting on the Leningrad front during a blizzard. Photo by Hulton Archive / Getty Images, 1943; German soldiers surrendering to the Russians in Stalingrad, the soldier holding the white flag of surrender is dressed in white so that there could be no doubt of his intentions, a Russian soldier is on the right of the photograph. by Keystone / Getty Images, January 1943.
Marseille, France at night.
June 1st, 1980
Cable News Network (CNN) debut.
Wikipedia Photo: Cable News Network (CNN)
June 1st, 1993
Yugoslav Wars, NATO bombing of Yugoslavia:
1993 Dobrinja mortar attack; 13 are killed and 133 wounded when Serb mortar shells are fired at a soccer game in Dobrinja west of Sarajevo.
Wikipedia Map: Kingdom of Yugoslavia; Belgrade, Yugoslavia; A twilight moon rises above the Kamniske mountains and Slovenia’s Sava River Valley, Slovenia, credit National Geographic; Yugoslavia, November 1977, credit National Geographic.
Photo: 1995 NATO bombing campaign in Bosnia and Herzegovina / Aug. 30, 1995 by Oleg Stjepanovic (AP) ● Smoke rises from an ammunition depot in Bosnian Serb stronghold Pale near Sarajevo after NATO air strikes ● CK building in the moments after bombing ● Serbia marks the 10th anniversary of the Nato-led bombing campaign ● U.S. F-117 Nighthawk taxis to the runway before taking off from Aviano Air Base, Italy, on March 24, 1999.
June 1st, 1999
Aviation accidents and incidents:
1999 - American Airlines Flight 1420; slides and crashes while landing at Little Rock National Airport killing 11 people on a flight from Dallas to Little Rock.
2009 - Air France Flight 447; crashes into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Brazil on a flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.
Wikipedia Photo: ● Pan AM 747 ● U.S. Airways flight 1549 also known as the "Miracle on the Hudson" navigates an exit ramp near Burlington, New Jersey, June 5, 2011 ● Passengers stand on the wings of a U.S. Airways plane as a ferry pulls up to it after it landed in the Hudson River in New York, Reuters ● US Airways plane crashes into New York Hudson River, Photo: AP
June 1st, 2001
Modern conflicts in the Middle East, social unrest and terrorist attacks:
2001 - Nepalese royal massacre; Crown Prince Dipendra of Nepal shoots and kills several members of his family including his father and mother, King Birendra of Nepal and Queen Aiswarya.
2001 - Dolphinarium massacre; A Hamas suicide bomber kills 21 at a disco in Tel Aviv.
Wikipedia Photo: Middle East satellite image, NASA. ● Camels are seen early morning on a beach in the Marina area of Dubai October 16, 2008. (Steve Crisp, Reuters) ● A portrait of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad burns during clashes between rebels and Syrian troops in Selehattin, near Aleppo, on July 23, 2012. (Bulent Kilic, AFP / GettyImages) ● Egyptians gather in their thousands in Tahrir Square to mark the one year anniversary of the revolution on Jan. 25, 2012 in Cairo Egypt. Tens of thousands have gathered in the square on the first anniversary of the Arab uprising which toppled President Hosni Mubarak. (Jeff J Mitchell, Getty Images) ● Black smoke rises above the Tehran skyline as supporters of Mir Hossein Mousavi burn tires and other material in the streets as they fight running battles with police to protest the declared results of the Iranian presidential election in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, June 13, 2009. (Ben Curtis, AP) ● The Iron Dome defense system fires to interecpt incoming missiles from Gaza in the port town of Ashdod, Thursday, Nov. 15, 2012. (Tsafrir Abayov, AP)
June 1st, 2003
The People's Republic of China begins filling the reservoir behind the Three Gorges Dam.
Wikipedia Photo: Water released from the Three Gorges Dam, a gigantic hydropower project on the Yangtze river, in Yichang, central China's Hubei province, on July 24, 2012 after heavy downpours in the upper reaches of the dam caused the highest flood peak of the year. credit Getty Images / NBC News
June 1st, 2009
General Motors Chapter 11 reorganization: General Motors files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. It is the fourth largest United States bankruptcy in history.
Wikipedia Photo: General Motors corporate offices in Detriot, Michigan.
June 1st, 2011
Tornadoes:
2011 - New England tornado outbreak: A rare tornado outbreak occurs in New England, a strong EF3 tornado strikes Springfield, Massachusetts during the event, killing four people.
Wikipedia Photo: Weather Front System; Tornado near Anadarko, Oklahoma; North Dakota Tornado; F3 Category Tornado Swirls Across A South Dakota Prairie by Carsten Peter; A waterspout parallels a lightning strike over Lake Okeechobee in Florida, by Fred K. Smith, National Geographics, Extream Instability.
June 1st, 2012
The Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental jumbo jet aircraft is introduced with Lufthansa.
Wikipedia Photo: Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental, credit Boeing.
June 1st, 2015
Sinking of Dongfang zhi Xing: A ship carrying 458 people capsizes on Yangtze river in China's Hubei province, killing 400 people.
Wikipedia Photo: Sinking of Dongfang zhi Xing: A ship carrying 458 people capsizes on Yangtze river in China's Hubei province, killing 400 people.