June 15
Arkansas becomes the 25th state to join the United States. – 1836
More than 1,000 individuals taking a pleasure trip on New York City’s East River on the riverboat-style steamer General Slocum, are drowned, or burned to death, when a fire sweeps through the boat. It was one of the United States’ worst maritime disasters. – 1904.
June 16
The first roller coaster in America opens at Coney Island, in Brooklyn, N.Y.. Its speed is approximately six miles per hour and cost a nickel to ride. – 1884.
When daylight breaks, survivors of a tsunami in Japan find that more than 20,000 of their friends and family have perished overnight. Waves may have reached as high as 115 feet in some places and entire villages all along the coast were washed away during the evening. – 1896.
National Industrial Recovery Act becomes law. It establishes the right to unionize, sets maximum hours and minimum wages for every major industry, abolishes sweatshops and child labor. – 1933.
Aboard Vostok 6, Soviet Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman to travel into space. After 48 orbits and 71 hours, she returned to earth, having spent more time in space than all U.S. astronauts combined to that date. – 1963.
June 17
Susan B. Anthony goes on trial in Canandaigua, N.Y. for casting her ballot in a federal election the previous November, in violation of existing statutes barring women from the vote. – 1873.
The dismantled Statue of Liberty, a gift of friendship from the people of France to the people of America, arrives in New York Harbor after being shipped across the Atlantic Ocean in 350 individual pieces packed in more than 200 cases. – 1885.
Viewers across the Nation are glued to their television screens when a fleet of police cars pursue a white Ford Bronco with “O.J.” Simpson inside. – 1994.
June 18
The War of 1812 begins in response to the British economic blockade of France, the induction of American seamen into the British Royal Navy against their will, and the British support of hostile Indian tribes along the Great Lakes frontier. – 1812.
At Waterloo in Belgium, Napoleon Bonaparte suffers defeat at the hands of the Duke of Wellington, which brings an end to the Napoleonic era of European history. – 1815.
From Cape Canaveral, Fla., the space shuttle Challenger is launched into space on its second mission. Aboard the shuttle is Dr. Sally Ride, who becomes the first American woman to travel into space. – 1983.
June 19
Eight-hour work day adopted for federal employees. – 1912.
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were convicted of conspiring to pass U.S. atomic secrets to the Soviets, are executed at Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, N.Y.. – 1953.
June 20
During the Civil War, West Virginia is admitted into the Union as the 35th U.S. state, or the 24th state if the secession of the 11 Southern states were taken into account. The same day, Arthur Boreman was inaugurated as West Virginia’s first state governor. – 1863.
Henry Ford recognizes the United Auto Workers, signs contract for workers at River Rouge plant. – 1941.
Oil begins moving through the Alaska pipeline. Seventy thousand persons worked on building the pipeline, history’s largest privately-financed construction project. – 1977.
June 21
New Hampshire becomes the ninth and last necessary state to ratify the Constitution of the United States, thereby making the document the law of the land. – 1788.
In Neshoba County in central Mississippi, three civil rights field workers disappear after investigating the burning of an African American church by the Ku Klux Klan. The disappearance of the three young men garnered National attention and led to a massive FBI investigation that was code-named MIBURN, for “Mississippi Burning.” – 1964.
An earthquake near the Caspian Sea in Iran kills more than 50,000 and injures another 135,000 persons on this day in 1990. The 7.7-magnitude tremor wrecked havoc on the simply-constructed houses in the Caspian Sea area. – 1990.
Some 100,000 unionists and other supporters march in solidarity with striking Detroit News and Detroit Free Press newspaper workers. – 1997.