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“I would rather die having spoken in my manner, than speak in your manner and live.”
~ Socrates
Wikiquote (Socrates (469 BC – 399 BC) a classical Greek Athenian philosopher. Credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, he is an enigmatic figure known chiefly through the accounts of later classical writers, especially the writings of his students Plato and Xenophon, and the plays of his contemporary Aristophanes.)
(“The Death of Socrates” by Jacques-Louis David, 1787 / “The School of Athens” by Raphael)
June 19th, 1269
1269 - King Louis IX of France orders all Jews found in public without an identifying yellow badge to be fined ten livres of silver.
Wikipedia Photo: Louis IX of France "Into the Storm" This statue, "Apotheosis of St. Louis," stands at the top of Art Hill in Forest Park, in front of the Art Museum. The statue, of Saint Louis, King Louis IX of France, the symbol of the City of Saint Louis, until completion of the Gateway Arch. © Equestrian Statue of King Louis IX at Sacre C'ur, Montmartre, Paris, France.
June 19th, 1306
Wars of Scottish Independence:
1306 - Battle of Methven: Earl of Pembroke's army defeats Robert the Bruce's Scottish army.
Wikipedia Image: Sir William Wallace - the huge freedom-fighter beast, by MacAulish ©
June 19th, 1586
Elizabethan era begins (1558–1603):
1586 - England's first permanent settlement in North America, Roanoke Colony; English colonists leave Roanoke Island, after failing to establish a permanent settlement in North America.
Wikipedia Painting: Elizabeth I in her coronation robes, patterned with Tudor roses and trimmed with ermine; The Lady Elizabeth in about 1546; Elizabeth playing the virginals; Elizabeth and Philip, King of Spain, relations deteriorated ending in the defeat of the Spanish Armada; A wedding feast, 1569; Ivan the Terrible shows his treasures to Elizabeth's ambassador, by Alexander Litovchenko, 1875; Elizabeth ushers in Peace and Plenty. Detail from The Family of Henry VIII: An Allegory of the Tudor Succession, 1572, attributed to Lucas de Heere.
June 19th, 1846
History of baseball in the United States:
1846 - The first officially recorded, organized baseball match is played under Alexander Cartwright's rules on Hoboken, New Jersey's Elysian Fields with the New York Base Ball Club defeating the Knickerbockers 23-1.
Wikipedia Photo: National League Baltimore Orioles, 1896 ● Cy Young won 21 or more games 15 times in his career and had 13 victories at age 39 in 1906. ● Babe Ruth in 1920 ● Shoeless Joe Jackson, Chicago White Sox 1919 ● Ty Cobb, Detroit Tigers outfield.
June 19th, 1862
The U.S. Congress prohibits slavery in United States territories, nullifying Dred Scott v. Sandford.
Wikipedia Painting: Chief Justice of the United States Roger B. Taney most remembered for delivering the majority opinion in Dred Scott v. Sandford.
June 19th, 1865
Juneteenth: Over two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, slaves in Galveston, Texas, United States, are finally informed of their freedom. The anniversary is still officially celebrated in Texas and 13 other contiguous states as Juneteenth.
Wikipedia Painting: Henry Louis Stephens, untitled watercolor (1863) of a man reading a newspaper with headline "Presidential Proclamation / Slavery".
June 19th, 1867
Maximilian I of the Mexican Empire is executed by a firing squad in Querétaro, Querétaro.
Wikipedia Image: Flag of Mexico.
June 19th, 1870
American Civil War:
The Confederate States of America cease to exist, after all of the Southern States are formally readmitted to the United States.
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
● Battle of Mobile Bay (1890) by Xanthus Russell Smith.
● 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.
June 19th, 1910
The first Father's Day is celebrated in Spokane, Washington.
Wikipedia Image: ● Salute to Father's Day, credit Denver Library.org
June 19th, 1934
The Communications Act of 1934 establishes the United States' Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
Wikipedia Image: Frequency modulation (A signal may be carried by an AM or FM radio wave).
June 19th, 1944
World War II:
1944 - First day of the Battle of the Philippine Sea
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.
June 19th, 1953
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are executed at Sing Sing, in New York.
Wikipedia Photo: Ethel Greenglass Rosenberg (September 25, 1915 – June 19, 1953) and Julius Rosenberg (May 12, 1918 – June 19, 1953) were American communists who were convicted and executed on June 19, 1953, for conspiracy to commit espionage during a time of war. (Their charges were related to the passing of information about the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union.)
June 19th, 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is approved after surviving an 83-day filibuster in the United States Senate.
Wikipedia Photo: John F. Kennedy addresses the nation about Civil Rights on June 11, 1963 ● Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Among the guests behind him is Martin Luther King, Jr.
June 19th, 1970
The Patent Cooperation Treaty is signed.
Wikipedia Image: Patent Cooperation Treaty map.
June 19th, 1978
Garfield, holder of the Guinness World Record for the world's most widely syndicated comic strip, makes its debut.
Wikipedia Image: Garfield © PAWS
June 19th, 1991
Dissolution of the Soviet Union:
1991 - The Soviet occupation of Hungary ends.
Wikipedia Image: Russia Satellite Map.
June 19th, 2009
Modern conflicts in the Middle East, social unrest and terrorist attacks:
2009 - War in North-West Pakistan; The Pakistani Armed Forces open Operation Rah-e-Nijat against the Taliban and other Islamist rebels in the South Waziristan area of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.
2007 - The Al-Khilani Mosque in Baghdad is bombed, killing 78 people and injuring 218 others.
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 19th, 2012
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange requests asylum in London's Ecuadorian Embassy for fear of extradition to the U.S. after publication of previously classified documents including footage of civilian killings by the U.S. army.
Wikipedia Image: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange requests asylum in London's Ecuadorian Embassy for fear of extradition to the U.S. after publication of previously classified documents including footage of civilian killings by the U.S. army.