This day in history...

On June 9, 1862, regiments of Gen. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson's Valley District Army defeat Union troops at the Battle of Port Republic (VA). The battle is the last engagement of Jackson's Shenandoah Valley Campaign, in which his 17,000 man army marched nearly 650 miles in 48 days and repeatedly bested Union opposition, though often outnumbered by as many as 3-1. The campaign kept 50,000 Union troops on the defensive when Washington was hoping for an attack on the Confederate capitol at Richmond. It also brought Jackson to the forefront of press attention in the north as the South's best general at the beginning of the war. Jackson's tactics during the Shenandoah Campaign are still studied by military schools around the world.


On June 9, 1928, Sir Charles Edward Kingford Smith completes the first aerial crossing of the Pacific Ocean. The Australian pilot, along with a co-pilot and two American engineers, flew a Fokker tri-motor called the Southern Cross from Oakland, CA to Brisbane, Australia in 3 stages. The flight was the first of many momentous accomplishments for Smith, a decorated veteran of WWI. Others include; the first non-stop crossing of Australia, the first flight from Australia to New Zealand, the first eastward crossing of the Pacific from Australia to the US, and a speed record flight from Australia to London. He and a co-pilot were attempting an England to Australia speed record in 1935 when they disappeared over the northern Indian Ocean. Their bodies were never found.


On June 9, 1893, the interior of Ford's Theater - site of President Abraham Lincoln's assassination - collapses, killing 23 people. Originally built as a church in 1833, the building was acquired by John T. Ford and converted into a theater in 1862. The government bought it from Ford following Lincoln's death and issued an order that it never again be used as a place of public amusement. It was being used as a records office for the War Department and had fallen into disrepair on 6/9/93 when its underground foundation gave way, causing the 3-story front of the structure to collapse. In addition to the deaths, 68 people were injured. After repairs, the building passed from government department to department until it was acquired by the National Park Service in 1933 and restored. A second restoration allowed it to be re-opened as a theater in 1968. It still operates today as a theater, offering short productions for entertainment and educational purposes, as well as tours; Lincoln's Presidential box is sealed off and can only be viewed through a window in the door. (bottom photo shows interior damage the day after the 1893 collapse)

 

On June 10, 1944, a company of German SS troops brutally massacres the population of the village of Oradour-sur-Glane in central France. Major Adolf Diekmann ordered the massacre, ostensibly a response to the murder of a SS higher-up by French partisans in the district days earlier. Postwar military tribunal accounts say Diekmann's men separated the men from the women and children, forcing the men into a barn where they were machine-gunned. A survivor stated the German machine gunners intentionally aimed low to immobilize but not kill the men; after which, the barn was set on fire. The women and children met an opposite fate. They were forced into a church, which was set on fire. Victims attempting to escape through the door or windows were machine gunned. The total body count was 642 (including about 250 women and 200 children); fewer than 30 survived. Four days later, the SS unit was ordered to Normandy as reinforcements, where most were killed, including Diekmann. After the war, Charles de Gaulle ordered Oradour-sur-Glane to be maintained as it was after the massacre as a memorial. A new village was built not far from the site.


On June 10, 1985, the Coca-Cola Company announces the return of its original formula soft drink under the brand Coca-Cola Classic. Barely two months earlier, the company had introduced New Coke, a slightly sweeter version of the original. The years since have painted New Coke as a colossal marketing failure; in fact, the product rollout only occurred after New Coke consistently beat both the original and Pepsi in blind taste tests. The lesson of New Coke should be, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Although some market share had been lost to Pepsi in the preceding decade, loyal customers demanded the original's return even after New Coke continued to win taste tests after its intro. Some portrayed it as Civil War II, with Atlanta-based Coke surrendering to New York-based Pepsi. Coca-Cola would change the name of New Coke to Coke II in 1990 and discontinue it in 2002. The Coca-Cola Classic name was retired and the drink was again Coca-Cola in 2009.

 

On June 11, 1837, roughly 800 Irish immigrants and "Yankee" firefighters brawl for hours on Boston's Broad St. At the time, Boston had no organized police department, but a large all-volunteer fire department. City policy was to pay the first fire brigade to arrive on the scene of a fire, leading to competition and some unscrupulous behavior among the numerous brigades. On the 11th, the crew of Engine Company 20 won such a competition and stopped at a pub near their station afterward (illegally; it was a Sunday and the pub should have been closed). There they got into an argument with a number of Irishmen (anti-Catholicism was rampant in Boston, leading to resentment between native Bostonians and immigrants). A brawl erupted, spreading into the street as other fire companies arrived and joined in. Thousands cheered the brawlers on, until Mayor Samuel Eliot called in local militia to clear the streets; fortunately, there were no fatalities. Boston would abolish the fire departments and establish both professional police and fire departments within a year.


On June 11, 1920, the Republican Party is holding its National Convention in Chicago. It is a prime example of a "brokered" convention; one which fails to nominate a candidate on the first ballot. In fact, through 9 ballots, no candidate had gained the 471 votes necessary to earn the party's Presidential nomination; General Leonard Wood and Illinois Governor Frank Lowden were consistently the top 2. After 2 days of failure, several party leaders gathered privately at the Blackstone Hotel and - fearing the Democrats were prepared to nominate Congressman James Cox from electoral-rich Ohio, settled on an Ohio candidate of their own; Senator Warren G. Harding, who had cracked the top 2 on the 9th ballot. In reporting the news, the Associated Press would coin a new political phrase, saying the candidate had been chosen in a "smoke-filled room."


On June 11, 1919, Sir Barton wins the Belmont Stakes and in doing so, becomes the first horse to win U.S. Thoroughbred Racing's Triple Crown. The Triple Crown series was a much less structured affair in its early days. In fact, the term didn't even come into use until it appeared in articles in The Daily Racing Form covering Gallant Fox's quest for the title in 1930. There was also no structure of qualifying preliminary events as there is now. Sir Barton's Kentucky Derby win (the first jewel in the Triple Crown) several weeks earlier was the first win of his career; today, he would not have even qualified for the race. Sir Barton would win 8 more major races over the next two years before being retired. He was named Horse of the Year in 1919 and was inducted into the U.S. Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 1957.

 

On June 13, 1944, American paratroopers hold the Normandy town of Carentan in the face of a German counterattack. Units of the 101st Airborne Division had secured the town just a day earlier, Carentan being a strategic point at which American troops that had landed at Utah and Omaha beaches just a week earlier would link up. The Germans counterattacked on the 13th with a reinforced, tank supported infantry battalion, but were outnumbered by the 101st and pushed back with about 100 casualties on each side. Members of the 101st remember the day as "The Battle of Bloody Gulch", borrowing the name from a popular Western movie of the time.


On June 13, 1805, an advance party of the Lewis and Clark expedition led by Meriwether Lewis himself sees the Great Falls of the Missouri River. The legendary pair had launched their expedition a year earlier, and while camped for the winter in modern day North Dakota, learned from members of the Hidatsa tribe of large waterfall on the Missouri in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. The expedition resumed in April but on June 3, they came upon a large fork in the river. Choosing the wrong fork would mean missing contact with friendly Shoshone Indians from whom they could obtain horses for the trek across the mountains. Although many in the party disagreed, both Lewis and Clark favored the south fork, but agreed that Lewis would take a small, fast party to scout ahead. They set out on the 9th; seeing the falls told Lewis they were indeed on the right path. (The Great Falls actually consists of five different waterfalls. Photo is of the largest, taken in 1880. All five falls are now sites of hydroelectric dams)


On June 13, 1999, BMW Motorsports wins the 67th 24 Hours of LeMans, but the race is more remembered for the near-disastrous rides of the Mercedes Benz CLR's. Mercedes entered 3 CLRs in the GT Prototype class, but the car proved to have an aerodynamic design flaw that caused them to become airborne if following another car too closely. The #4 Mercedes became the first to go flying, during qualifying on the 10th. MB rebuilt the car and added front wings to all 3 to improve downforce, and all 3 cars qualified on the 11th. But the #4 went flying again during a pre-race warmup and had to be withdrawn. The team quickly made further tweaks to the #'s 5 and 6 cars, but the 5 went airborne about 75 laps into the race. Benz withdrew both cars at that point. Though neither driver was hurt, Mercedes shut down its race program entirely after the race. They've since returned to several race series, but haven't been back to LeMans since 1999 (left; the winning BMW, right; the #5 car's flip).

 

On June 14, 1900, Germany passes its Second Naval Law and sparks an arms race. Through the latter portion of the 19th century, Great Britain exercised unparalleled superiority on the high seas, mostly because of its unofficial policy that the Royal Navy be equal to the world's next two largest navies. France and Russia were seen as the next two most capable adversaries, and the Admiralty paid little attention when Germany passed its First Naval Law in 1897, which ordered the construction of five new battleships. But the Second Law, conceived by Kaiser Wilhelm II and Grand Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz (below), committed Germany not only to doubling the size of its fleet, but to building ships that would make the German fleet a high seas power, and not just a coastal force. The Admiralty responded by 1902 with a plan to not only modernize the Grand Fleet, but amending its "Two Power Policy" to match the next two navies, plus an additional six battleships.


On June 14, 1942 - her 13th birthday - Dutch Jew Annelise Frank receives an autograph book with a lock for her birthday. Anne decided immediately that the book would become her diary, and she wrote in it that very day, addressing her thoughts to "Kitty." It was less than a month before Anne and her family would go into hiding from the Nazis. Anne wrote in the diary regularly until her family was discovered and taken by the Gestapo in August, 1944. Red Cross records indicate she died of typhus in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in either February or March the following year. Anne's father Otto was the only family member to survive the Holocaust. Following the war, he returned to Amsterdam and discovered his secretary had saved Anne's diary. Knowing his daughter's wish had been to become a writer, he had the book published in 1947 under the title "Diary of a Young Girl." It has been translated into more than 70 languages and is widely considered one of the top books of the 20th century.


On June 12, 1994, the New York Rangers beat the Vancouver Canucks 4-3 in game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals. It is the Rangers' first Cup win in 54 years, a record championship drought for the NHL. Rangers fans point out two possible explanations for the drought (neither states that the team just wasn't very good for more than half a century). The first says the Rangers won their last Cup in 1940, the same year the mortgage was paid off on Madison Square Garden, their home arena. Members of the Garden's management celebrated by burning the mortgage in the Cup, thus angering the "hockey gods" and triggering a curse. Others say the curse came from Red Dutton, coach/GM of the New York Americans, NYC's other pro team in the pre-war days. Dutton suspended team operations due to the war in 1942, though the league played on. NHL officials promised he could bring the Americans back when he was ready, which turned out to be 1946. But by then the Rangers were firmly established at the Garden and strong-armed the league to go back on its deal. Dutton supposedly cursed the Rangers, saying they would never win the Cup again as long as he lived. He died in 1987, his "curse" holding true for another 7 years. (team captain Mark Messier accepts the '94 Cup)

 

On June 15, 1776, the citizens of colonial Delaware vote to separate from Pennsylvania. The Dutch, Finns and Swedes competed to colonize the region from 1631 to 1664, when ships under the Duke of York sailed in and took over in the name of England. In 1682, the Duke sold his claim to the territory to William Penn, who wanted it to give his province at Philadelphia direct access to the Atlantic. As the fight for independence became inevitable, factions of what had become known as the "Lower Counties" of Pennsylvania were split. Some had no problem with the Crown, others felt they were underrepresented in Pennsylvania and wanted to break away. The assembly was deadlocked until Continental Congressman Caesar Rodney (below), hearing of the split, made a 70-mile overnight ride in a thunderstorm to vote for separation from Pennsylvania and, ultimately, independence.


On June 15, 1878, English photographer Eadweard Muybridge stops time. Having made a name for himself with his nature photography of the U.S. western frontier over the previous decade, Muybridge was hired by former California governor Leland Stanford to photograph his racehorse. Stanford was convinced there was a moment when a horse at full gallop became completely airborne, but could not get a photograph to prove it. Muybridge spent six years experimenting with shutter speeds and multi-camera setups before showing up at Stanford's Palo Alto farm (now site of Stanford University) on 6/15/78 with a battery of 12 cameras who's shutters would be tripped by wires as the running horse hit them. He would first publicly display the images on a magic lantern projector 3 weeks later in San Fransisco. The success would lead Muybridge over the next decade to produce images of various animals in motion, using a device of his own invention he called the "zoopraxiscope," now considered one of the first motion picture projectors.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eadweard_Muybridge#/media/File:Muybridge_race_horse_animated.gif

On June 15, 1992, Vice President Dan Quayle (R) shows he's not smarter than a 5th grader. Quayle, former Senator from Indiana, ascended to the vice presidency in 1989 as George H.W. Bush's running mate. Quayle committed numerous gaffes during his term, but today's was the best (worst). Conducting a spelling bee at Munoz Rivera Elementary School in Trenton, NJ, Quayle rejected 12-year old William Figueroa's spelling of the word potato, giving the correct spelling as "potatoe." Political opponents, commentators and pretty much anyone with access to a microphone had a field day with the gaffe; Quayle's intelligence was often called into question, and this clinched it for them. Quayle would later write in his memoirs that he merely read what was on the card provided by the school, and that he suspected it was wrong but decided not to question it. Bush-Quayle lost their bid for re-election later that year; he would fail in a bid to win the Republican presidential nomination in 2000 before retiring from politics.

 

On June 16, 1955, the deadliest aerial bombardment on Argentine soil takes place, killing more than 300 civilians. It is perpetrated by 30 rogue pilots of the Argentinian Air Force and Navy, attacking a demonstration in support of President Juan Peron in the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires. At least 800 more citizens are wounded in the bombing/strafing attack. At the same time, two companies of rebel infantry marched on the plaza in a planned coup d'etat, but were pushed back by loyal troops. Some buildings around the plaza still show bullet and shrapnel damage today (below).


On June 16, 1944, the state of South Carolina executes George Stinney, Jr for the murder of two white girls, ages 7 and 11. Stinney is the youngest American executed in the 20th century (known age), at 14 years old. It is also considered one of the great travesties of justice in the American court system. Stinney's trial was over in less than 3 hours. His court appointed attorney was in fact a county tax commissioner who did not cross-examine any of the prosecution's six witnesses (including 3 police officers who claimed Stinney confessed but could not produce a written confession) or challenge the prosecution's two conflicting versions of the crime. As was typical of the day, Stinney faced an all-white jury and courtroom audience. The jury deliberated for less than 10 minutes before convicting him. Judge Phillip Stoll sentenced him on the spot and the defense did not appeal. In 2004, a state historian's examination of the case led to Stinney's conviction being vacated.


On June 16, 1960, Alfred Hitchcock's psychological horror masterpiece Psycho premieres in American theaters. The film portrays an on-the-run embezzler's (Janet Leigh) encounter with a shy motel operator (Anthony Perkins) in Arizona. Despite mixed reviews, Psycho would be nominated for 4 Academy Awards (no wins) and is considered one of Hitchcock's best films. The renowned "shower scene" (below) is often considered the model for modern day slasher films. In 1992 Psycho was selected for preservation by the National Film Registry for its "cultural, historical or aesthetic significance."

 

On June 17, 1863, Union and Confederate cavalry clash at Aldie, Virginia. The two sides peppered each other without effect for several hours, before General J.E.B. Stuart (below), commanding the Confederate cavalry, sent word to Colonel Thomas Munford to withdraw. The battle itself is considered inconclusive; no ground changed hands and casualties were not severe on either side. But Stuart had succeeded in his mission; to delay the Union cavalry's foray into the Shenandoah Valley to search for Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. Screened by Stuart's maneuvers, Lee had moved his troops north, initiating the summer campaign that would end 3 weeks later in Gettysburg.


On June 17, 1673, French-Canadian fur trader Louis Jolliet and Jesuit priest/missionary Jacques Marquette become the first Europeans to see the northern Mississippi River (de Soto had discovered the Mississippi 120 years earlier, but much farther south). The pair had left Michigan a month earlier on a French government-commissioned expedition to explore the region. Marquette and Jolliet entered the Mississippi in present-day southwest Wisconsin and over the next month, sailed the river by canoe, trading with friendly native Americans along the way, until they reached the mouth of the Arkansas River in present-day Mississippi, nearly 800 miles. By then, the two had begun to see Spanish settlers, and turned back to avoid a hostile confrontation. They were also convinced by then that the river flowed into the Gulf of Mexico (they had hoped it would bring them to the Pacific Ocean).


On June 17, 1976, the National Basketball Association announces it will merge with the folding American Basketball Association. The ABA had come into existence in 1967 and from the beginning, its owners had hoped to follow the model of the American Football League, which formed in competition with the established NFL but with hopes of an eventual merger. Basketball merger talks began in 1970 (the year of the NFL-AFL merger) but were delayed by an antitrust suit against the NBA by its players association. By 1976 the antitrust issue was resolved, and the ABA was down to 6 teams (4 had folded during the '75 season). It was agreed that the Spirits of St. Louis would fold, and the New York Nets, Denver Nuggets and San Antonio Spurs would join the NBA. That left the two teams that had competed for the ABA's last championship, the Indiana Pacers and the Kentucky Colonels. The NBA ownership would only accept 4 new teams, and the recent addition of the Chicago (Bulls) franchise was a consideration in choosing the final team. In the end, the Pacers were admitted for several reasons (among them, Colonels' star Artis Gilmore would sign in free agency with the Bulls). The merger also gave the NBA an influx of superstar talent; 10 of the 24 players in the 1976-77 All Star Game would be former ABA stars. In 1979, the NBA would institute one of the ABA's most popular innovations, the 3-point shot. (The ABA's most famous alum, Julius Erving, as a New York Net and after his free agent signing with the Philadelphia 76ers.

 

On June 20, 1900 in Peking, the I Ho Ch’uan, or “the Righteous and Harmonious Fists,” launch the Boxer Rebellion. The I Ho Ch'uan, (dubbed "Boxers" by the British for their martial arts fighting skills) was a nationalist movement against foreign intrusion into Chinese government and society. By 1900 it had grown to about 100,000 members. On the 20th, they occupied the diplomatic quarter of the capitol city and killed several western nationals, most notably the German ambassador. It would be nearly two months before a multi-national force would drive the Boxers from the city. The Peking Accord of September 1901 would grant the nationalists several concessions but also allow for permanent military legations in the city posted by several nations, including the U.S.


On June 20, 1782 after six years of debate, Congress approves the image of the Great Seal of the United States. Charles Thomson, secretary of the Continental Congress, submitted the original proposal for the seal and oversaw its final design. It is replete with symbolism relating to the number of original colonies, the year 1776, and Masonic imagery, not surprising considering how many of the Founding Fathers were Masons. (Thomson, his original Seal proposal, and both side of the Seal as it currently appears)


On June 20, 1975, Jaws, the second feature film directed by Steven Spielberg, is released in American theatres. It tells the story of a New England beach resort town being terrorized by a Great White shark at the height of summer. Based on the novel by Peter Benchley (who referred to the creature as a "fish" or "great fish" in his story), Jaws won an Oscar for John Williams' iconic original score and two other Oscars in technical categories. Though it lost in the Oscar category of Best Picture (One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest), Jaws is considered to have started the "summer blockbuster" movement in the film industry, and launched Spielberg to the forefront of Hollywood superstardom.