With its tagline Dont go in the water and its ominous cello music, the Steven Spielbergdirected thriller shocked audiences on this date. Adapted from a Peter Benchley bestseller, Jaws showed a great white shark preying on the beachgoers of a New England town. It won three Oscars best editing, best sound and best original score (by John Williams) and was a blockbuster success.
On June 20, 1863, West Virginia became the 35th state in the Union, after splitting from Virginia.
June 20, 1948. The Ed Sullivan Show was officially titled Toast of the Town until 1955. It was the longest-running variety show (through 1971) and the most popular for decades. Sullivan, the host, signed all types of acts, both well-known and new, trying to have something to please everyone. Thousands of performers appeared, many making their television debut, such as Irving Berlin, Victor Borge, Hedy Lamarr, Walt Disney, Fred Astaire and Jane Powell. Two acts attracted the largest audience ofthe time: Elvis Presley and The Beatles.
On June 20, 1895, Caroline Willard Baldwin earned the first doctor of science degree at Cornell University.
In the Northern Hemisphere summer begins today with the summer solstice, at 6:34 PM, EDT. Note that in the Southern Hemisphere today is the beginning of winter. Anywhere between the equator and the Arctic Circle, the sun rises and sets farthest north on the horizon for the year and length of daylight is maximum (12 hours, 8 minutes at equator, increasing to 24 hours at the Arctic Circle).
The United Nations has set aside June 20th as World Refugee Dayto bring attention to the plight of refugees of war and famine around the world.
June 21 26, 1972. Hurricane Agnes hit the eastern seaboard wreaking havoc across seven Atlantic Coast states. Casualties included 118 lives and 116,000 homes, leaving more than 200,000 homeless after Agnes dumped 28.1 trillion gallons of water over 5,000 square miles.
June 22, 1940. WWIIs Battle of France, which began May 12 with German forces crossing into the nation at Sedan and the Meuse River, reached its conclusion with France surrendering. Previously, the British Expeditionary Force had evaculated via Dunkirk on May 27 to June 4, and Parishad been declared an open city on June 13. On June 22, France and Germanysigned a second armistice agreement at the Compigne Forest the same location as the 1918 armistice of WWI. Adolf Hitler made a point of signing the1940 compact in the same railway carriage as the 1918 document.
Anniversary of the Joe Lewis v. Max Schmeling World HeavyweightChampionship on June 22, 1938, when Lewis won the title and held on to it until his retirement in 1949.
On June 22, 1941, German forces invaded the Soviet Union and began a conflict which left 27 million Soviets dead.
June 23, 1912. British mathematician, logician and cryptographer, recognized as the father of modern computer science and artificial intelligence.
Born at London, England, Alan Mathison Turing conceived in 1936 the Turing Machine, an abstract information-processing mathematical model that foreshadowed digital computers. During WWII, he was a member of the top-secret code-breaking team at England’s Bletchley Park. The decoding team saved incalculable Allied lives. Turing was made a member of the Order of the British Empire for his wartime service. In 1945, Turing designed the Automatic Computing Enginewhat would have been the first digital computer had it been built. In the 1950s, Turing devised the Turing Test that would determine the success of an artificial intelligence machine (of whether it was thinking).
Turing was stripped of his government security clearance after being convicted in 1952 for gross indecency Turing was openly gay and homosexuality was a crime in England. He committed suicide June 7,1954, at Wilmslow, England.
Image: In public domain via Wikipedia.org
June 23, 1927. Bob Fosse was born at Chicago, IL. The son of a vaudeville singer, he began his show business career at the age of 13. He was the only director in history to win an Oscar, an Emmy and a Tony forhis work. As a choreographer he was known for his unique dance style that focused on explosive angularity of the human body in its movement. His bodyof work includes the plays Pippin, Sweet Charity, Pajama Game, Chicago and Damn Yankees and the films Cabaret, Lenny and All That Jazz. Fosse died Sept 23, 1987, at Washington, DC.
On June 23, 1868, the first US typewriter was patented by Luther Sholes.
June 23, 1865. The last formal surrender of Confederate troopstook place in the Oklahoma Territory. Cherokee leader and Confederate Brigadier General Waite surrendered his command of a battalion formed by Indians.
June 24, 1314. Decisive battle for Scottish independence in which a smaller force of Scots (mainly pike men) under Robert the Bruce defeated the English (with 3,000 horsemen) under King Edward II. The battle took place by the strategically important Stirling Castle at the Bannock Burn stream and the River Forth. The battle began June 23 and ended June 24 in arout the worst English defeat since the Battle of Hastings.
June 24, 1948. In the early days of the Cold War the Soviet Union challenged the Wests right of access to Berlin. The Soviets created a blockade, and an airlift to supply some 2,250,000 people resulted. The airlift lasted a total of 321 days and brought into Berlin 1,592,787 tons of supplies. Joseph Stalin finally backed down and the blockade ended May 12, 1949.
The birth of Saint John the Baptist is celebrated on June 24th.
it had departments for purchasing, production, shipping, sales and marketing. Swift was also a pioneer in using by-products of animal parts previously discarded for products like glue, fertilizer and soap; this efficiency was the model for the contemptuous fictional Durham Company in Upton Sinclairs The Jungle. Born at Sandwich, MA, Swift died Mar 29, 1903, at Chicago, IL.
June 24, 1813. Famous clergyman and orator, brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe, born at Litchfield, CT. From the pulpit at Plymouth Church, Beecher advocated for many controversial issues of his era, includingtemperance, womens suffrage, Darwinian evolution, and most notably abolition. Beechers tactics in support of abolition were often sensational and contentious, as was the case when he raised money to provide rifles widely dubbed Beechers Bibles to antislavery settlers in Kansas in 1856.In the 1870s Beecher was the subject of one of the biggest scandals of thecentury the Beecher-Tilton Affair when he was accused of adultery by a parishioner and sued in civil court. The trial resulted in a hung jury, andalthough Beecher was exonerated by two ecclesiastical courts, public opinion about his innocence was divided. Died Mar 8, 1887, at Brooklyn, NY.
June 25, 1876. Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer, leading military forces of more than 200 men, attacked an encampment of Sioux Indians led by Chiefs Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse near Little Bighorn River, MT. Custer and all men in his immediate command were killed in the brief battle (about two hours) of Little Bighorn. One horse, named Comanche, is said to have been the only survivor among Custers forces.
June 25, 1951. Columbia Broadcast System broadcast the first color television program. The four-hour program was carried by stations at New York City, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Boston and Washington, DC, although no color sets were owned by the public. At the time CBS itself owned fewer than 40 color receivers.
June 25, 1950. Forces from northern Korea invaded southern Korea, beginning a civil war. US ground forces entered the conflict June 30. An armistice was signed at Panmunjom July 27, 1953, formally dividing thecountry in two North Korea and South Korea.
June 26, 1974. A committee formed in 1970 by US grocers and food manufacturers recommended in 1973 a Universal Product Code (i.e., a barcode) for supermarket items that would allow electronic scanning of prices. On this day in 1974 a pack of Wrigleys gum was swiped across the first checkout scanner at a supermarket in Troy, OH.
On June 26, 2000 it was announced that the entire humane genome – a DNA strand with 3 billion parts representing the genetic code – had been successfully mapped.
The lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender communities mark their history and celebrate their achievements.
