1670:\u00a0Henrietta, Duchess of Orleans, brokers the Secret Treaty of Dover<\/h4>\n ![\""Duchess\"]( "\\"\"Duchess\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div> Duchess of Orleans, Henrietta Anne Stuart. (Photo by Hulton Archive\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\nUnder the terms of the deal that Henrietta arranged at Dover, her rich brother-in-law, Louis XIV<\/a>, would pay Charles II<\/a>, her brother, \u00a3230,000 a year, while Charles would send 60 ships and 4,000 infantry to help the French in their war against the Dutch.<\/p>\nThen came an even more shocking detail. Charles, who had long been a Catholic sympathiser but had kept it secret so as not to alienate his Protestant subjects, promised to come out as a Catholic convert. In return, France would pay him an extra \u00a3160,000 and intervene if his people rebelled against him.<\/p>\n
2 June<\/a><\/h2>\n1962: The \u2018battle of Santiago\u2019<\/h4>\n
Chile beat Italy 2\u20130 in an ill-tempered World Cup<\/a> group match, which saw numerous fights, police intervention and two Italian players sent off. The British referee, Ken Aston, is said to have later observed: \u201cI wasn\u2019t reffing a football match. I was acting as an umpire in military manoeuvres.\u201d<\/p>\n- On the podcast | World Cup history: everything you wanted to know<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>
3 June<\/a><\/h2>\n1937: Edward VIII<\/a> and Wallis Simpson<\/a> marry<\/h4>\nSix months after Edward VIII had abdicated the British throne in order to marry the woman he loved, he was united, once and for all, with Wallis Simpson. The venue was the Chateau de Cand\u00e9, near Tours, which was owned by the half-American millionaire Charles Bedaux.<\/p>\n
4 June<\/a><\/h2>\n1989: Hundreds die in Tiananmen Square<\/a><\/h4>\n ![\""A\"]( "\\"\"A\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div> A Beijing demonstrator blocks the path of a tank convoy along the Avenue of Eternal Peace near Tiananmen Square. (Photo by GettyImages)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\nIn the early hours of 4 June, the army cleared the square by force. Government officials initially claimed the action resulted in no deaths \u2013 later revised to about 200; other estimates suggest that as many as 1,000 people lost their lives. Either way, the result was the same: the protesters had been defeated.<\/p>\n
5 June<\/a><\/h2>\n1832: Angry Parisians man the barricades in a two-day uprising against the Orleanist king Louis-Philippe<\/h4>\n
The June Rebellion was triggered by the food shortages of the late 1820s, a devastating cholera epidemic and the death of the popular general Jean Lamarque, who had become a hero to the working classes of Paris. At his funeral on 5 June, republican demonstrators rallied the crowds, waving red flags and calling for \u201cliberty or death\u201d. The mood turned ugly, and by the evening rioters had taken control of much of central and eastern Paris, throwing up barricades.<\/p>\n
6 June<\/a><\/h2>\n1513: The Swiss defeated the French at the battle of Novara in Northern Italy<\/h4>\n
This forced Louis XII of France to abandon his attempt to control Milan.<\/p>\n Famous births in June<\/h2>\n7 June 1811<\/h6>\n
James Young Simpson, Scottish doctor who discovered the anaesthetic qualities of chloroform<\/p>\n
8 June 1810<\/h6>\n
Robert Schumann, German Romantic composer<\/p>\n
9 June 1812<\/h6>\n
Johann Gottfried Galle, German astronomer<\/p>\n
10 June 1913<\/h6>\n
Edward Penley Abraham, English biochemist<\/p>\n
11 June 1832<\/h6>\n
Lucy Holcombe Pickens, socialite and archetypal \u2018Southern Belle\u2019<\/p>\n
13 June 1831\u00a0<\/h6>\n
James Clerk Maxwell, physicist and mathematician<\/p>\n
13 June 1910<\/h6>\n
Mary Whitehouse, campaigner against what she saw as declining moral standards on TV and radio and founder of the National Viewers and Listeners Association<\/p>\n
14 June 1811\u00a0<\/h6>\n
Harriet Beecher Stowe, abolitionist and writer<\/p>\n
15 June 1330<\/h6>\n
Edward the Black Prince, the eldest son of King Edward III and Philippa of Hainault<\/p>\n
15 June 1843<\/h6>\n
Edvard Hagerup Grieg, composer and pianist<\/p>\n
18 June 1511<\/h6>\n
Bartolomeo Ammannati, architect and sculptor<\/p>\n
19 June 1623\u00a0<\/h6>\n
Blaise Pascal, scientist, mathematician and philosopher<\/p>\n
20 June 1763\u00a0<\/h6>\n
Theobald Wolfe Tone, Irish nationalist and political writer<\/p>\n
20 June 1912\u00a0<\/h6>\n
Anthony Malcolm Buckeridge, children\u2019s author<\/p>\n
23 June 1763\u00a0<\/h6>\n
Marie Jos\u00e8phe Rose Tascher de La Pagerie, wife of Napoleon Bonaparte\u00a0<\/p>\n
23 June 1910\u00a0<\/h6>\n
Jean Anouilh, French dramatist<\/p>\n
24 June 1850\u00a0<\/h6>\n
Herbert Kitchener, British soldier<\/p>\n
25 June 1799\u00a0<\/h6>\n
David Douglas, Scottish traveller and botanist<\/p>\n
27 June 1462<\/h6>\n
Future Louis XII of France\u00a0<\/p>\n
27 June 1880<\/h6>\n
Helen Keller, author, political activist, lecturer, and the first deaf-blind person to be awarded a bachelor of arts degree<\/p>\n
28 June 1712<\/h6>\n
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, philosopher and composer<\/p>\n
29 June 1911<\/h6>\n
Bernard Herrmann, composer and\u00a0 frequent collaborator with film director Alfred Hitchcock<\/p>\n
<\/p><\/div> <\/section>
7 June<\/a><\/h2>\n1512: The Marquess of Dorset lands in Spain with 10,000 men to join Ferdinand of Aragon in an attack on France<\/h4>\n
In fact, Ferdinand was more interested in securing Navarre, and the expedition achieved nothing.<\/p>\n
8 June<\/a><\/h2>\n1929: Margaret Bondfield becomes Britain\u2019s first female cabinet minister<\/h4>\n
Former shop worker Margaret Bondfield is appointed minister of labour in Ramsay MacDonald\u2019s\u00a0new government.<\/p>\n
![\""Prime\"]( "\\"\"Prime\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div> Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald in the garden of No. 10 Downing Street with Margaret Bondfield. (Photo by Central Press\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n9 June<\/a><\/h2>\n1865: Charles Dickens<\/a> survives a deadly train crash<\/h4>\nAt 3.13pm, as Dickens\u2019 train sped across a viaduct at Staplehurst, it hit a missing section of the track, which had been removed by workmen. The train was thrown into the air, plunging seven carriages into the quagmire below. Dickens\u2019s carriage was dragged partially off the bridge.<\/p>\n
- Read more | The history of railways in Britain<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>
Luckily, the author was able to clamber free. He then rushed to the carcass of the crushed train to offer his help. He must have been greeted by a shocking scene: 10 passengers had died in the crash and 40 more were injured.<\/p>\n
10 June<\/a><\/h2>\n1190: One of medieval Europe\u2019s most powerful crusaders, Barbarossa, drowns, leaving his army in disarray<\/h4>\n
On 10 June, Frederick Barbarossa\u2019s army was just outside Silifke, in southern Turkey, and attempting to cross the river Saleph, when something went terribly wrong. Medieval chroniclers told different stories: some said the emperor had decided to go for a dip to cool off on a sweltering day, but others said that he had been leading his troops across the ford when his horse slipped and threw him into the cold water. Some claimed that Barbarossa drowned, others that he died from a heart attack brought on by the shock.<\/p>\n
11 June<\/a><\/h2>\n323 BC: Alexander the Great<\/a> dies<\/h4>\nAccounts of Alexander\u2019s death differ widely. The most popular, told by the historian Plutarch, holds that he was taken ill after a drinking session with his friend Medius of Larissa. In the next few days, Alexander developed a fever. Although he managed to put in an appearance before his worried troops, his condition worsened until he could no longer speak. At last, some time in the night between 10 and 11 June, he died.<\/p>\n
- Read more about the death of Alexander the Great<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>
13 June<\/a><\/h2>\n1917: German bombs smash into a Poplar school<\/h4>\n
When the German bomber appeared overhead, there was no time to react. The bomb punched through the roof, killing a 13-year-old girl. It ploughed through the floor to the next level, mortally wounding a 12-year-old boy. Finally, it crashed into the infants\u2019 classroom, where it exploded.<\/p>\n
Sixteen infants were killed and several dozen injured. The survivors huddled sobbing in the playground, while the teachers went to search the building. It was a horrific scene, breaking the hearts of all who saw it.<\/p>\n
14 June<\/a><\/h2>\n1381: The archbishop of Canterbury loses his head<\/h4>\n
Rebels discovered Simon Sudbury, Archbishop of Canterbury (whom they regarded as one of their chief oppressors), cowering in the chapel of the White Tower.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately for Sudbury, his captors weren\u2019t in a merciful mood, and he was soon dragged away to Tower Hill to meet his maker. It allegedly took eight clumsy blows to remove his head, which was then paraded through the streets before being impaled on London Bridge.<\/p>\n
15 June<\/a><\/h2>\n1648:\u00a0Margaret Jones is executed in Massachusetts for witchcraft<\/h4>\n
\u201cAt this court,\u201d begins the 15 June 1648 entry in the journal of John Winthrop, governor of Massachusetts, \u201cone Margaret Jones, of Charlestown, was indicted and found guilty of witchcraft, and hanged for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jones\u2019s death marked the beginning of a witch-hunt craze that would claim the lives of around 80 New England colonists over the next century.<\/p>\n
- Quiz | Would you have been accused of witchcraft?<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>
16 June<\/a><\/h2>\n1487: Henry VII<\/a> decisively wins the last clash in the Wars of the Roses<\/a> at the battle of Stokes Field<\/h4>\n ![\""Henry\"]( "\\"\"Henry\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div> Henry VII. (Photo by The Print Collector\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\nAlthough Lincoln\u2019s mercenaries carried the latest continental firearms, the king\u2019s archers proved decisive, their arrows raining mercilessly down onto the Yorkist ranks, with one chronicler likening the stricken men to hedgehogs. By the end of the battle, the Yorkists had turned and fled, many of them butchered in a gully known afterwards as the Bloody Gutter. The death toll may have been higher than 4,000. Now the civil wars really were over.<\/p>\n
17 June<\/a><\/h2>\n1462: Vlad the Impaler<\/a> massacres 15,000<\/h4>\nIn the early hours of 17 June, Vlad attacked, accompanied by several thousand of his best men. As one Wallachian veteran later recalled: \u201cDuring the entire night he sped like lightning in every direction and caused great slaughter.\u201d The fighting went on until four in the morning, leaving the Ottoman army in utter consternation. And then, according to the Wallachian veteran, Vlad \u201creturned to the same mountain from which he had come. No one dared pursue him, since he had caused such terror and turmoil\u201d.<\/p>\n
In Romania, the Night Attack of T\u00e2rgoviste is remembered as a national triumph. But it also cemented Vlad\u2019s reputation as one of the most fearsome warriors of the age.<\/p>\n
18 June<\/a><\/h2>\n1178: Monks witness an extraordinary lunar event<\/h4>\n
Some time after sunset, the monks had noticed something extraordinary in \u00a0the sky. \u201cNow,\u201d Gervase of Canterbury wrote, \u201cthere was a bright new moon\u2026 its horns were tilted toward the east; and suddenly the upper horn split in two. From the midpoint of the division a flaming torch sprang up, spewing out, over a considerable distance, fire, hot coals, and sparks. Meanwhile the body of the moon which was below writhed, as it were, in anxiety, and to put it in the words of those who reported it to me and saw it with their own eyes, the moon throbbed like a wounded snake.\u201d<\/p>\n
- Read more |\u00a06 of history\u2019s strangest ever theories about outer space<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>
Today, many lunar experts believe the monks had been watching the formation of the moon\u2019s enormous Giordano Bruno crater, named after an Italian philosopher. It was probably created by the impact of an asteroid or comet, which would explain the burst of molten matter seen by the monks \u2013 though they, of course, had no way of understanding what it was they had witnessed.<\/p>\n
19 June<\/a><\/h2>\n1829: Establishment of the Metropolitan Police<\/h4>\n
Parliament passes Home Secretary Robert Peel\u2019s \u2018Act for improving the Police in and near the Metropolis\u2019.<\/p>\n Famous deaths in June<\/h2>\n4 June 1941<\/h6>\n
Wilhelm II, former German kaiser<\/p>\n
9 June 1870<\/h6>\n
Charles Dickens, writer<\/p>\n
11 June 1183<\/h6>\n
Henry \u2018the Young King\u2019, son and heir of King Henry II<\/p>\n
11 June 1970<\/h6>\n
Alexander Kerensky, leader of the Russian provisional government in 1917<\/p>\n
14 June 1883\u00a0<\/h6>\n
Edward FitzGerald, poet, student of the battle of Naseby and translator\u00a0<\/p>\n
16 June 1929\u00a0<\/h6>\n
Bramwell Booth, eldest son of William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army<\/p>\n
17 June 1862<\/h6>\n
Charles, 1st Earl Canning, governor-general of India during the mutiny of the Bengal army in 1857<\/p>\n
23 June 1839\u00a0<\/h6>\n
Lady Hester Stanhope, society hostess and niece of Pitt the Younger<\/p>\n
25 June 1533\u00a0<\/h6>\n
Mary Tudor, widow of Louis XII of France and wife of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk<\/p>\n
25 June 1912\u00a0<\/h6>\n
Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Dutch-born classical painter<\/p>\n
27 June 1831<\/h6>\n
Sophie Germain, French mathematician<\/p>\n
29 June 1509<\/h6>\n
Lady Margaret Beaufort, widow of Edmund Tudor and mother of Henry VII<\/p>\n
30 June 1660\u00a0<\/h6>\n
William Oughtred, English mathematician<\/p>\n
<\/p><\/div> <\/section>
20 June<\/a><\/h2>\n1837: Victoria<\/a> becomes queen<\/h4>\n ![\""Vintage\"]( "\\"\"Vintage\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div> Vintage print of Queen Victoria wearing the George IV State Diadem after her coronation in 1838. (Photo by GraphicaArtis\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\nVictoria recorded in her diary: \u201cThe archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Conyngham were here and wished to see me. I got out of bed and went into my sitting-room (only in my dressing gown) and alone, and saw them. Lord Conyngham then acquainted me that my poor uncle, the king, was no more, and had expired at 12 minutes past two this morning, and consequently that I am queen.\u201d<\/p>\n
21 June<\/a><\/h2>\n1529: Catherine of Aragon<\/a> causes a courtroom sensation<\/h4>\n\u201cSir,\u201d she implored, \u201cI beseech you for all the loves there hath been between us, and for the love of God, let me have justice. Take of me some pity and compassion.\u201d The spectators sat in silence, listening to the queen pleading on her knees in her deep Spanish accent. \u201cI take God and all the world,\u201d she said, \u201cto witness that I have been to you a true, humble and obedient wife, ever comfortable to your will and pleasure.\u201d<\/p>\n
22 June<\/a><\/h2>\n1948: The Windrush<\/a> arrives at Tilbury<\/h4>\nOn a grey, misty day in June 1948, a former German passenger liner arrived at Tilbury docks on the Thames Estuary \u2013 to a storm of media attention.<\/p>\n
23 June<\/a><\/h2>\n1940: Hitler<\/a> tours Paris<\/h4>\nTo Speer, the Nazis\u2019 chief architect, Hitler waxed lyrical about the beauties of the French capital. But he was determined that Germany could do better. \u201cBerlin,\u201d he said later, \u201cmust be more beautiful. When we are finished in Berlin, Paris will be only a shadow.\u201d<\/p>\n
24 June<\/a><\/h2>\n1981: The Humber Bridge opens for traffic<\/h4>\n
Linking Yorkshire and Lincolnshire it was, at the time of its opening, the world\u2019s longest single span suspension bridge.<\/p>\n
25 June<\/a><\/h2>\n1876: General Custer meets his match at Little Bighorn<\/a><\/h4>\n ![\""Custer's\"]( "\\"\"Custer's\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div> Custer\u2019s Last Stand at the Battle of Little Bighorn. (Photo by GraphicaArtis\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\nWhat exactly happened at Little Bighorn will never be known. Confident that he had found Sitting Bull\u2019s camp, General Custer divided his troops into three, hoping to cut his opponents off. But the initial assault went wrong and after less than an hour, Custer found himself trapped on the hill above the river, at the mercy of a vast force of war-whooping Sioux fighters.<\/p>\n
Because there were few survivors, we do not even know exactly how he died. Some say he was cut down by an enemy bullet; others that he was wounded and then shot by his brother to spare him from agonising torture. Either way, the battle brought the end of Custer\u2019s life \u2013 and the beginning of his legend.<\/p>\n
26 June<\/a><\/h2>\nAD 363: A Persian spear fells Roman Emperor Julian<\/h4>\n
On 26 June, Julian had thrown himself into a fray after marching on the Persian capital of Ctesiphon, wrote Ammianus Marcellinus, a historian on the emperor\u2019s military staff, \u201cwhen suddenly a cavalry spear, grazing the skin of his arm, pierced his side and fixed itself in the bottom of his liver\u201d.<\/p>\n
27 June<\/a><\/h2>\n1954:\u00a0Brazil and Hungary\u2019s World Cup quarter-final descends into an all-out brawl<\/h4>\n
\u201cNever in my life have I seen such cruel tackling, the cutting down of opponents as if with a scythe, followed by threatening attitudes and sly jabs when officialdom was engaged elsewhere,\u201d reported The Times<\/em> correspondent.<\/p>\nAt the final whistle, the Brazilians once again invaded the pitch, and the fighting in the dressing room was so intense that Hungary\u2019s manager needed four stitches in his face.\u00a0For the referee, Arthur Ellis from Halifax, the events that day were a terrible disappointment: \u201cI thought it was going to be the greatest game I\u2019d ever see. I was on top of the world,\u201d he said later. \u201cWhether politics and religion had something to do with it I don\u2019t know, but they behaved like animals.\u201d<\/p>\n
28 June<\/a><\/h2>\n1846: The saxophone is invented<\/h4>\n
Having devised instruments such as the saxhorn and the saxotromba, Belgian inventor Adolphe Sax hits the jackpot with his patent for a single-reed instrument made of brass. Once again he names it after himself \u2013 the saxophone.<\/p>\n
29 June<\/a><\/h2>\n1613: The Globe theatre burns to the ground<\/a><\/h4>\nThe production company clearly wanted the play All Is True<\/em> \u2013 which centres on Henry\u2019s marriage to Catherine of Aragon \u2013 to go off with a bang. And so, at a climactic moment in the performance, a cannon was fired towards the theatre\u2019s famous open roof.<\/p>\nThe explosion certainly made an impact, but for all the wrong reasons. Sparks set the thick thatched roof smouldering and, before long, smoke was creeping through the rafters. At first, nobody in the crowd seemed to notice \u2013 according to one onlooker, \u201ctheir eyes [were] more attentive to the show\u201d \u2013 but soon the fire had become impossible to ignore.<\/p>\n
Remarkably, nobody was hurt in the blaze, though one man\u2019s breeches caught alight (his skin was literally saved when someone soaked him in beer).<\/p>\n
The Globe itself wasn\u2019t so lucky and the inferno quickly swept through the building. The theatre that had been built by Shakespeare\u2019s playing company in 1599, and had puton some of his most famous plays, was burned to cinders.<\/p>\n
30 June<\/a><\/h2>\n1934: Hitler tightens his grip on power through a spate of ruthless killings<\/h4>\n
In a brutal purge known as the Night of the Long Knives, dozens, possibly hundreds of people were killed. The victims included not just the SA leadership, but old Nazi comrades who had fallen out with Hitler, senior figures in the Catholic Centre Party and, most famously, Hitler\u2019s predecessor as Germany\u2019s chancellor, General Kurt von Schleicher. R\u00f6hm himself was shot after refusing to commit suicide. Now Hitler\u2019s power was unchecked. For as he boasted to the Reichstag, the Night of the Long Knives<\/a> had confirmed his status as \u201cthe supreme judge of the German people\u201d.<\/p>\n Find out about anniversaries in previous months\u2026\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
![\""Duchess\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2023\/05\/GettyImages-51243742-6fba996-e1685529656497.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"Duchess\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Under the terms of the deal that Henrietta arranged at Dover, her rich brother-in-law, Louis XIV<\/a>, would pay Charles II<\/a>, her brother, \u00a3230,000 a year, while Charles would send 60 ships and 4,000 infantry to help the French in their war against the Dutch.<\/p>\n Then came an even more shocking detail. Charles, who had long been a Catholic sympathiser but had kept it secret so as not to alienate his Protestant subjects, promised to come out as a Catholic convert. In return, France would pay him an extra \u00a3160,000 and intervene if his people rebelled against him.<\/p>\n Chile beat Italy 2\u20130 in an ill-tempered World Cup<\/a> group match, which saw numerous fights, police intervention and two Italian players sent off. The British referee, Ken Aston, is said to have later observed: \u201cI wasn\u2019t reffing a football match. I was acting as an umpire in military manoeuvres.\u201d<\/p>\n Six months after Edward VIII had abdicated the British throne in order to marry the woman he loved, he was united, once and for all, with Wallis Simpson. The venue was the Chateau de Cand\u00e9, near Tours, which was owned by the half-American millionaire Charles Bedaux.<\/p>\n In the early hours of 4 June, the army cleared the square by force. Government officials initially claimed the action resulted in no deaths \u2013 later revised to about 200; other estimates suggest that as many as 1,000 people lost their lives. Either way, the result was the same: the protesters had been defeated.<\/p>\n The June Rebellion was triggered by the food shortages of the late 1820s, a devastating cholera epidemic and the death of the popular general Jean Lamarque, who had become a hero to the working classes of Paris. At his funeral on 5 June, republican demonstrators rallied the crowds, waving red flags and calling for \u201cliberty or death\u201d. The mood turned ugly, and by the evening rioters had taken control of much of central and eastern Paris, throwing up barricades.<\/p>\n This forced Louis XII of France to abandon his attempt to control Milan.<\/p>\n James Young Simpson, Scottish doctor who discovered the anaesthetic qualities of chloroform<\/p>\n Robert Schumann, German Romantic composer<\/p>\n Johann Gottfried Galle, German astronomer<\/p>\n Edward Penley Abraham, English biochemist<\/p>\n Lucy Holcombe Pickens, socialite and archetypal \u2018Southern Belle\u2019<\/p>\n James Clerk Maxwell, physicist and mathematician<\/p>\n Mary Whitehouse, campaigner against what she saw as declining moral standards on TV and radio and founder of the National Viewers and Listeners Association<\/p>\n Harriet Beecher Stowe, abolitionist and writer<\/p>\n Edward the Black Prince, the eldest son of King Edward III and Philippa of Hainault<\/p>\n Edvard Hagerup Grieg, composer and pianist<\/p>\n Bartolomeo Ammannati, architect and sculptor<\/p>\n Blaise Pascal, scientist, mathematician and philosopher<\/p>\n Theobald Wolfe Tone, Irish nationalist and political writer<\/p>\n Anthony Malcolm Buckeridge, children\u2019s author<\/p>\n Marie Jos\u00e8phe Rose Tascher de La Pagerie, wife of Napoleon Bonaparte\u00a0<\/p>\n Jean Anouilh, French dramatist<\/p>\n Herbert Kitchener, British soldier<\/p>\n David Douglas, Scottish traveller and botanist<\/p>\n Future Louis XII of France\u00a0<\/p>\n Helen Keller, author, political activist, lecturer, and the first deaf-blind person to be awarded a bachelor of arts degree<\/p>\n Jean-Jacques Rousseau, philosopher and composer<\/p>\n Bernard Herrmann, composer and\u00a0 frequent collaborator with film director Alfred Hitchcock<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section> In fact, Ferdinand was more interested in securing Navarre, and the expedition achieved nothing.<\/p>\n Former shop worker Margaret Bondfield is appointed minister of labour in Ramsay MacDonald\u2019s\u00a0new government.<\/p>\n At 3.13pm, as Dickens\u2019 train sped across a viaduct at Staplehurst, it hit a missing section of the track, which had been removed by workmen. The train was thrown into the air, plunging seven carriages into the quagmire below. Dickens\u2019s carriage was dragged partially off the bridge.<\/p>\n Luckily, the author was able to clamber free. He then rushed to the carcass of the crushed train to offer his help. He must have been greeted by a shocking scene: 10 passengers had died in the crash and 40 more were injured.<\/p>\n On 10 June, Frederick Barbarossa\u2019s army was just outside Silifke, in southern Turkey, and attempting to cross the river Saleph, when something went terribly wrong. Medieval chroniclers told different stories: some said the emperor had decided to go for a dip to cool off on a sweltering day, but others said that he had been leading his troops across the ford when his horse slipped and threw him into the cold water. Some claimed that Barbarossa drowned, others that he died from a heart attack brought on by the shock.<\/p>\n Accounts of Alexander\u2019s death differ widely. The most popular, told by the historian Plutarch, holds that he was taken ill after a drinking session with his friend Medius of Larissa. In the next few days, Alexander developed a fever. Although he managed to put in an appearance before his worried troops, his condition worsened until he could no longer speak. At last, some time in the night between 10 and 11 June, he died.<\/p>\n When the German bomber appeared overhead, there was no time to react. The bomb punched through the roof, killing a 13-year-old girl. It ploughed through the floor to the next level, mortally wounding a 12-year-old boy. Finally, it crashed into the infants\u2019 classroom, where it exploded.<\/p>\n Sixteen infants were killed and several dozen injured. The survivors huddled sobbing in the playground, while the teachers went to search the building. It was a horrific scene, breaking the hearts of all who saw it.<\/p>\n Rebels discovered Simon Sudbury, Archbishop of Canterbury (whom they regarded as one of their chief oppressors), cowering in the chapel of the White Tower.<\/p>\n Unfortunately for Sudbury, his captors weren\u2019t in a merciful mood, and he was soon dragged away to Tower Hill to meet his maker. It allegedly took eight clumsy blows to remove his head, which was then paraded through the streets before being impaled on London Bridge.<\/p>\n \u201cAt this court,\u201d begins the 15 June 1648 entry in the journal of John Winthrop, governor of Massachusetts, \u201cone Margaret Jones, of Charlestown, was indicted and found guilty of witchcraft, and hanged for it.\u201d<\/p>\n Jones\u2019s death marked the beginning of a witch-hunt craze that would claim the lives of around 80 New England colonists over the next century.<\/p>\n Although Lincoln\u2019s mercenaries carried the latest continental firearms, the king\u2019s archers proved decisive, their arrows raining mercilessly down onto the Yorkist ranks, with one chronicler likening the stricken men to hedgehogs. By the end of the battle, the Yorkists had turned and fled, many of them butchered in a gully known afterwards as the Bloody Gutter. The death toll may have been higher than 4,000. Now the civil wars really were over.<\/p>\n In the early hours of 17 June, Vlad attacked, accompanied by several thousand of his best men. As one Wallachian veteran later recalled: \u201cDuring the entire night he sped like lightning in every direction and caused great slaughter.\u201d The fighting went on until four in the morning, leaving the Ottoman army in utter consternation. And then, according to the Wallachian veteran, Vlad \u201creturned to the same mountain from which he had come. No one dared pursue him, since he had caused such terror and turmoil\u201d.<\/p>\n In Romania, the Night Attack of T\u00e2rgoviste is remembered as a national triumph. But it also cemented Vlad\u2019s reputation as one of the most fearsome warriors of the age.<\/p>\n Some time after sunset, the monks had noticed something extraordinary in \u00a0the sky. \u201cNow,\u201d Gervase of Canterbury wrote, \u201cthere was a bright new moon\u2026 its horns were tilted toward the east; and suddenly the upper horn split in two. From the midpoint of the division a flaming torch sprang up, spewing out, over a considerable distance, fire, hot coals, and sparks. Meanwhile the body of the moon which was below writhed, as it were, in anxiety, and to put it in the words of those who reported it to me and saw it with their own eyes, the moon throbbed like a wounded snake.\u201d<\/p>\n Today, many lunar experts believe the monks had been watching the formation of the moon\u2019s enormous Giordano Bruno crater, named after an Italian philosopher. It was probably created by the impact of an asteroid or comet, which would explain the burst of molten matter seen by the monks \u2013 though they, of course, had no way of understanding what it was they had witnessed.<\/p>\n Parliament passes Home Secretary Robert Peel\u2019s \u2018Act for improving the Police in and near the Metropolis\u2019.<\/p>\n Wilhelm II, former German kaiser<\/p>\n Charles Dickens, writer<\/p>\n Henry \u2018the Young King\u2019, son and heir of King Henry II<\/p>\n Alexander Kerensky, leader of the Russian provisional government in 1917<\/p>\n Edward FitzGerald, poet, student of the battle of Naseby and translator\u00a0<\/p>\n Bramwell Booth, eldest son of William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army<\/p>\n Charles, 1st Earl Canning, governor-general of India during the mutiny of the Bengal army in 1857<\/p>\n Lady Hester Stanhope, society hostess and niece of Pitt the Younger<\/p>\n Mary Tudor, widow of Louis XII of France and wife of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk<\/p>\n Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Dutch-born classical painter<\/p>\n Sophie Germain, French mathematician<\/p>\n Lady Margaret Beaufort, widow of Edmund Tudor and mother of Henry VII<\/p>\n William Oughtred, English mathematician<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section> Victoria recorded in her diary: \u201cThe archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Conyngham were here and wished to see me. I got out of bed and went into my sitting-room (only in my dressing gown) and alone, and saw them. Lord Conyngham then acquainted me that my poor uncle, the king, was no more, and had expired at 12 minutes past two this morning, and consequently that I am queen.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSir,\u201d she implored, \u201cI beseech you for all the loves there hath been between us, and for the love of God, let me have justice. Take of me some pity and compassion.\u201d The spectators sat in silence, listening to the queen pleading on her knees in her deep Spanish accent. \u201cI take God and all the world,\u201d she said, \u201cto witness that I have been to you a true, humble and obedient wife, ever comfortable to your will and pleasure.\u201d<\/p>\n On a grey, misty day in June 1948, a former German passenger liner arrived at Tilbury docks on the Thames Estuary \u2013 to a storm of media attention.<\/p>\n To Speer, the Nazis\u2019 chief architect, Hitler waxed lyrical about the beauties of the French capital. But he was determined that Germany could do better. \u201cBerlin,\u201d he said later, \u201cmust be more beautiful. When we are finished in Berlin, Paris will be only a shadow.\u201d<\/p>\n Linking Yorkshire and Lincolnshire it was, at the time of its opening, the world\u2019s longest single span suspension bridge.<\/p>\n What exactly happened at Little Bighorn will never be known. Confident that he had found Sitting Bull\u2019s camp, General Custer divided his troops into three, hoping to cut his opponents off. But the initial assault went wrong and after less than an hour, Custer found himself trapped on the hill above the river, at the mercy of a vast force of war-whooping Sioux fighters.<\/p>\n Because there were few survivors, we do not even know exactly how he died. Some say he was cut down by an enemy bullet; others that he was wounded and then shot by his brother to spare him from agonising torture. Either way, the battle brought the end of Custer\u2019s life \u2013 and the beginning of his legend.<\/p>\n On 26 June, Julian had thrown himself into a fray after marching on the Persian capital of Ctesiphon, wrote Ammianus Marcellinus, a historian on the emperor\u2019s military staff, \u201cwhen suddenly a cavalry spear, grazing the skin of his arm, pierced his side and fixed itself in the bottom of his liver\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cNever in my life have I seen such cruel tackling, the cutting down of opponents as if with a scythe, followed by threatening attitudes and sly jabs when officialdom was engaged elsewhere,\u201d reported The Times<\/em> correspondent.<\/p>\n At the final whistle, the Brazilians once again invaded the pitch, and the fighting in the dressing room was so intense that Hungary\u2019s manager needed four stitches in his face.\u00a0For the referee, Arthur Ellis from Halifax, the events that day were a terrible disappointment: \u201cI thought it was going to be the greatest game I\u2019d ever see. I was on top of the world,\u201d he said later. \u201cWhether politics and religion had something to do with it I don\u2019t know, but they behaved like animals.\u201d<\/p>\n Having devised instruments such as the saxhorn and the saxotromba, Belgian inventor Adolphe Sax hits the jackpot with his patent for a single-reed instrument made of brass. Once again he names it after himself \u2013 the saxophone.<\/p>\n The production company clearly wanted the play All Is True<\/em> \u2013 which centres on Henry\u2019s marriage to Catherine of Aragon \u2013 to go off with a bang. And so, at a climactic moment in the performance, a cannon was fired towards the theatre\u2019s famous open roof.<\/p>\n The explosion certainly made an impact, but for all the wrong reasons. Sparks set the thick thatched roof smouldering and, before long, smoke was creeping through the rafters. At first, nobody in the crowd seemed to notice \u2013 according to one onlooker, \u201ctheir eyes [were] more attentive to the show\u201d \u2013 but soon the fire had become impossible to ignore.<\/p>\n Remarkably, nobody was hurt in the blaze, though one man\u2019s breeches caught alight (his skin was literally saved when someone soaked him in beer).<\/p>\n The Globe itself wasn\u2019t so lucky and the inferno quickly swept through the building. The theatre that had been built by Shakespeare\u2019s playing company in 1599, and had puton some of his most famous plays, was burned to cinders.<\/p>\n In a brutal purge known as the Night of the Long Knives, dozens, possibly hundreds of people were killed. The victims included not just the SA leadership, but old Nazi comrades who had fallen out with Hitler, senior figures in the Catholic Centre Party and, most famously, Hitler\u2019s predecessor as Germany\u2019s chancellor, General Kurt von Schleicher. R\u00f6hm himself was shot after refusing to commit suicide. Now Hitler\u2019s power was unchecked. For as he boasted to the Reichstag, the Night of the Long Knives<\/a> had confirmed his status as \u201cthe supreme judge of the German people\u201d.<\/p>\n Find out about anniversaries in previous months\u2026\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n2 June<\/a><\/h2>\n
1962: The \u2018battle of Santiago\u2019<\/h4>\n
3 June<\/a><\/h2>\n
1937: Edward VIII<\/a> and Wallis Simpson<\/a> marry<\/h4>\n
4 June<\/a><\/h2>\n
1989: Hundreds die in Tiananmen Square<\/a><\/h4>\n
![\""A\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2023\/05\/GettyImages-517198274-c5b4fe8-e1685529749952.jpg?quality=90&resize=611%2C413"\" "\\"\"A\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>5 June<\/a><\/h2>\n
1832: Angry Parisians man the barricades in a two-day uprising against the Orleanist king Louis-Philippe<\/h4>\n
6 June<\/a><\/h2>\n
1513: The Swiss defeated the French at the battle of Novara in Northern Italy<\/h4>\n
Famous births in June<\/h2>\n
7 June 1811<\/h6>\n
8 June 1810<\/h6>\n
9 June 1812<\/h6>\n
10 June 1913<\/h6>\n
11 June 1832<\/h6>\n
13 June 1831\u00a0<\/h6>\n
13 June 1910<\/h6>\n
14 June 1811\u00a0<\/h6>\n
15 June 1330<\/h6>\n
15 June 1843<\/h6>\n
18 June 1511<\/h6>\n
19 June 1623\u00a0<\/h6>\n
20 June 1763\u00a0<\/h6>\n
20 June 1912\u00a0<\/h6>\n
23 June 1763\u00a0<\/h6>\n
23 June 1910\u00a0<\/h6>\n
24 June 1850\u00a0<\/h6>\n
25 June 1799\u00a0<\/h6>\n
27 June 1462<\/h6>\n
27 June 1880<\/h6>\n
28 June 1712<\/h6>\n
29 June 1911<\/h6>\n
7 June<\/a><\/h2>\n
1512: The Marquess of Dorset lands in Spain with 10,000 men to join Ferdinand of Aragon in an attack on France<\/h4>\n
8 June<\/a><\/h2>\n
1929: Margaret Bondfield becomes Britain\u2019s first female cabinet minister<\/h4>\n
![\""Prime\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2023\/05\/GettyImages-3311690-b8614ca-e1685529606316.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C412"\" "\\"\"Prime\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>9 June<\/a><\/h2>\n
1865: Charles Dickens<\/a> survives a deadly train crash<\/h4>\n
10 June<\/a><\/h2>\n
1190: One of medieval Europe\u2019s most powerful crusaders, Barbarossa, drowns, leaving his army in disarray<\/h4>\n
11 June<\/a><\/h2>\n
323 BC: Alexander the Great<\/a> dies<\/h4>\n
13 June<\/a><\/h2>\n
1917: German bombs smash into a Poplar school<\/h4>\n
14 June<\/a><\/h2>\n
1381: The archbishop of Canterbury loses his head<\/h4>\n
15 June<\/a><\/h2>\n
1648:\u00a0Margaret Jones is executed in Massachusetts for witchcraft<\/h4>\n
16 June<\/a><\/h2>\n
1487: Henry VII<\/a> decisively wins the last clash in the Wars of the Roses<\/a> at the battle of Stokes Field<\/h4>\n
![\""Henry\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2023\/05\/GettyImages-973901038-1c93122-e1685529908488.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C412"\" "\\"\"Henry\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>17 June<\/a><\/h2>\n
1462: Vlad the Impaler<\/a> massacres 15,000<\/h4>\n
18 June<\/a><\/h2>\n
1178: Monks witness an extraordinary lunar event<\/h4>\n
19 June<\/a><\/h2>\n
1829: Establishment of the Metropolitan Police<\/h4>\n
Famous deaths in June<\/h2>\n
4 June 1941<\/h6>\n
9 June 1870<\/h6>\n
11 June 1183<\/h6>\n
11 June 1970<\/h6>\n
14 June 1883\u00a0<\/h6>\n
16 June 1929\u00a0<\/h6>\n
17 June 1862<\/h6>\n
23 June 1839\u00a0<\/h6>\n
25 June 1533\u00a0<\/h6>\n
25 June 1912\u00a0<\/h6>\n
27 June 1831<\/h6>\n
29 June 1509<\/h6>\n
30 June 1660\u00a0<\/h6>\n
20 June<\/a><\/h2>\n
1837: Victoria<\/a> becomes queen<\/h4>\n
![\""Vintage\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2023\/05\/GettyImages-566422257-bf3f15b-e1685529865282.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"Vintage\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>21 June<\/a><\/h2>\n
1529: Catherine of Aragon<\/a> causes a courtroom sensation<\/h4>\n
22 June<\/a><\/h2>\n
1948: The Windrush<\/a> arrives at Tilbury<\/h4>\n
23 June<\/a><\/h2>\n
1940: Hitler<\/a> tours Paris<\/h4>\n
24 June<\/a><\/h2>\n
1981: The Humber Bridge opens for traffic<\/h4>\n
25 June<\/a><\/h2>\n
1876: General Custer meets his match at Little Bighorn<\/a><\/h4>\n
![\""Custer's\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2023\/05\/GettyImages-566421943-40ebcaf-e1685529829671.jpg?quality=90&resize=568%2C412"\" "\\"\"Custer's\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>26 June<\/a><\/h2>\n
AD 363: A Persian spear fells Roman Emperor Julian<\/h4>\n
27 June<\/a><\/h2>\n
1954:\u00a0Brazil and Hungary\u2019s World Cup quarter-final descends into an all-out brawl<\/h4>\n
28 June<\/a><\/h2>\n
1846: The saxophone is invented<\/h4>\n
29 June<\/a><\/h2>\n
1613: The Globe theatre burns to the ground<\/a><\/h4>\n
30 June<\/a><\/h2>\n
1934: Hitler tightens his grip on power through a spate of ruthless killings<\/h4>\n