Milestones for June 21

the first day of Summer or the summer solstice, a word that comes from the Latin meaning "the static Sun", since at this time of year and on the first day of winter, sunrises and sunsets only vary by a few seconds, giving the impression that the sun is staying still.

1633 Rome Italy

Mathematician Galileo Galilei 1564-1642 accused of heresy and forced by the Inquisition to "abjure, curse & detest" his Copernican heliocentric views, that the Sun was the centre of the Solar System; also forbidden to publish, and condemned to house arrest, for life, at his villa at Arcetri (above Florence). In 1609, he had heard about a spyglass that a Dutchman had shown in Venice; made his own telescopes whose optical performance was much better than that of the Dutch instrument; 1610 described his discoveries in a short book called Message from the stars (Sidereus Nuncius), causing a sensation with claims to have seen mountains on the Moon, to have proved the Milky Way was made up of tiny stars, and to have seen four small bodies orbiting Jupiter; 1613 discovered that Venus showed phases like those of the Moon, and therefore must orbit the Sun not the Earth; 1616 given a secret, but official, warning from the Church that he was not to defend the Copernican viewpoint.
Quote: "I wish, my dear Kepler, that we could have a good laugh together at the extraordinary stupidity of the mob. What do you think of the foremost philosophers of this University? In spite of my oft-repeated efforts and invitations, they have refused, with the obstinacy of a glutted adder, to look at the planets or Moon or my telescope." On Oct 31, 1992, the Vatican admitted that the Church was wrong to condemn Galileo..
[pictures: by Leoni; by Giusto Sustermans, Uffizi, Florence, 1636]

1675 London, England

Christopher Wren begins work on a new St. Paul's Cathedral, to replace the old one destroyed nine years earlier in the Great Fire of 1666; will take 35 years to build; the dome is the second largest ever built (the largest being St. Peter's Basilica in Rome); Wren also designed 52 other London churches, as well as the Royal Exchange, College of Physicians, Chelsea Hospital, the Royal Naval College, Custom House and the Drury Lane Theatre; when he died in 1723 he became the first person to be buried in St. Paul's Cathedral.

1868 Munich, Germany

Richard Wagner premieres his opera, "Die Meistersinger von Nuernberg, in Munich.

1893 Chicago, Illinois

First Ferris wheel opens at Chicago's Columbian Exposition.

1919 Orkney, Scotland

The captured German high seas fleet, based at Scapa Flow in Scotland, scuttles itself on the orders of Admiral von Reuter, to the surprise of the British who were guarding it, over 70 vessels are sunk.

1945 Okinawa, Pacific

The last battle of World War II ends as Japan surrenders Okinawa at 10 pm; US Marines landed on the heavily defended island on Easter Sunday, April, 1945, and during the battle lost almost 12,520 men; the Japanese, about 65,908 regular soldiers and 28,228 Okinawans; almost 94,000 civilians also died; during the assault, 3,500 kamikazes struck at the US Navy, sinking 30 U.S. ships and damaging another 223; the ferocity of Japanese resistance helped convince the US to drop the atomic bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki rather than risk an invasion of the home islands of Japan.

1948 Manchester, England

Running of the Mark I, the world's first modern working computer, with the first stored computer program; devised by mathematician Alan Turing and colleagues; five years later, Turing was arrested and tried as a homosexual, and commited suicide.

1948 New York City

Edward Wallerstein, President of Columbia Records, introduces the first successful microgroove, or long-playing records, developed by Peter Goldmark of CBS Laboratories, made of lighter Vinylite plastic; they played at 33 1/3 revolutions per minute, in contrast to the standard 78 rpm, and could contain up to 23 minutes of music a side, versus the three minutes that could squeezed on to a 78rpm disk; LPs quickly become the standard of the industry when RCA comes on board in 1950. One of the first LPs produced was of the original cast of the Broadway show, South Pacific

1990 Budapest, Hungary

Hungary officially re-launches its national stock exchange 42 years after it was closed by the Communist Party. The Budapest Stock Exchange is the first Western-style securities exchange in any Warsaw Pact country.

Other Events

0524 06 21 Battle at Vezerone: Burgundy beats France
0996 06 21 Pope Gregory V crowns Otto III Roman Catholic German emperor of Elzas
1128 06 21 Battle of Akspoele: earl Willem of Normandy beats Diederik
1498 06 21 Jews are expelled from Nurenberg Bavaria by Emperor Maximillian
1529 06 21 Battle at Landriano: Leyva beats France
1547 06 21 Great fire in Moscow
1572 06 21 Garrison under Adrian of Swieten conquers Gouda
1607 06 21 First Protestant Episcopal parish in America established, Jamestown
1633 06 21 Galileo Galilei is forced by Inquisition to abjure, curse, & detest his Copernican heliocentric views
1661 06 21 Treaty of Kardis: Russia & Sweden sign peace treaty
1667 06 21 Dutch Admiral Michiel de Ruyter occupies Sheerness, England
1672 06 21 Dutch pension advisor Johan de Witt seriously wounded
1672 06 21 French troops under king Louis XIV occupy Utrecht
1684 06 21 King Charles II revokes Massachusetts Bay Colony charter
1749 06 21 Pieter Steyn installed as pension advisor of Neth
1768 06 21 First US bachelor of medicine degree (Dr John Archer)
1788 06 21 US Constitution goes into effect as NH is 9th to ratify
1788 06 21 Vizille France population demands local parliament
1791 06 21 Fleeing French King Louis XVI & family captured at Varennes-en-Argonne
1792 06 21 Vancouver meets Spanish ships Sutil & Mexicana off Vancouver, BC
1805 06 21 Great Stoneface Mt found in NH
1821 06 21 African Methodist Episcopal Zion (AMEZ) Church organizes (NYC)
1834 06 21 Cyrus Hall McCormick patents reaping machine
1849 06 21 Battle at Wagh„usel: Prussian troops beat Baden rebels
1858 06 21 Louisiana chess prodigy Paul Morphy arrives in Europe
1863 06 21 Battle at Upperville Virginia, 389 casualities
1868 06 21 Wagner's opera Meistersinger von Nuernberg, premieres in Munich
1879 06 21 F W Woolworth opens first store (failed almost immediately)
1887 06 21 Britain celebrates golden jubilee of Queen Victoria
1893 06 21 First Ferris wheel premieres (Chicago's Columbian Exposition)
1894 06 21 Workers in Pittsburgh strike Pullman sleeping car company
1895 06 21 British Roseberry govt falls
1898 06 21 Guam becomes a territory of US
1900 06 21 Dodgers score 7 in top of 11th to go ahead of Phillies, 20-13, In bottom of 11th Phillies stalls so umpire forfeits game to Dodgers
1903 06 21 Sherlock Holmes Adventure of Mazarine Stone takes place (BG)
1904 06 21 Boston Herald tells of Red Sox trade Dougherty as a Yankee, first known reference to NY club as Yankees (became Yankees in 1913)
1907 06 21 13th US Golf Open: Alec Ross shoots a 302 at Phila Cricket Club PA
1907 06 21 E W Scripps founded United Press
1913 06 21 Tiny Broadwick is first woman to parachute from an airplane
1915 06 21 Anti-British revolt in South-Africa ends with arrest of Gen De Law
1916 06 21 Boston Rube Forster no-hits NY Yankees, 2-0
1916 06 21 Mexican troops beat US expeditionary force under Gen Pershing
1917 06 21 Hawaiian Red Cross forms
1919 06 21 Bauer forms German govt
1919 06 21 German Admiral von Reuter scuttles his own captured fleet
1921 06 21 HSC '21 soccer team forms in Haaksbergen
1923 06 21 Marcus Garvey sentenced to 5 years for using mail to defraud
1924 06 21 NCRV, Dutch Christian Radio Society, forms
1930 06 21 Ruth hits 3 HRs as Yanks blow 6-0 lead in 7th & lose 15-7
1932 06 21 Heavyweight Jack Sharkey TKOs Max Schmeling (NYC)
1932 06 21 Jack Sharkey beats Max Schmeling in 15 for heavyweight boxing title
1933 06 21 First Great Lakes-to-Gulf of Mexico barge trip completed, New Orleans
1937 06 21 French People's front govt-Blum falls
1938 06 21 Baseball's Pinky Higgins gets 12th straight hit
1938 06 21 Bradman scores 101* in 77 minutes, Australia v Lancashire
1939 06 21 Doctors reveal Lou Gehrig has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
1939 06 21 NY Yankees announce Lou Gehrig's retirement
1940 06 21 German occupiers disband Dutch States-General/Council of State
1941 06 21 2nd French troops occupies Damascus Syria
1941 06 21 After winning 20 straight at Fenway, Lefty Grove loses to Browns
1942 06 21 129øF (54øC), Tirat Zevi, Israel (Asian record)
1942 06 21 Jacqueline Kennedy's mother marries Hugh Auchincloss
1942 06 21 President Roosevelt/premier Churchill arrives in Washington, DC
1942 06 21 Rommel takes Tobruk in North Africa
1942 06 21 Seinheuer throws female world record spear (47.24m)
1943 06 21 Federal troops put down racial riot in Detroit 30 dead
1944 06 21 Very heavy bombing on Berlin
1945 06 21 US defeat Japanese forces on Okinawa during WW II
1946 06 21 10 die in fire at Baker Hotel, Dallas Texas
1946 06 21 Bill Veeck buys Indians for $2.2 million
1946 06 21 Fed judge rules Seattle club doesn't have to play returning serviceman
1948 06 21 First stored computer program run, on Manchester Mark I
1948 06 21 33 1/3 RPM LP record introduced (DR Peter Goldmark-Columbia Records)
1948 06 21 Lord Mountbatten resigns as gov-gen of India
1948 06 21 Rhodes conference on Israeli-Arab war opens
1948 06 21 WNAC (now KNEV) TV channel 7 in Boston, MA (CBS) begins broadcasting
1948 06 21 Columbia commits to 33 1/3 rpm records, plans to phase out 78's as Dr Peter Goldmark of CBS demonstrates long playing record
1950 06 21 Joe DiMaggio gets his 2,000th hit
1951 06 21 17 opens at Broadhurst Theater NYC for 180 performances
1951 06 21 Patty Berg wins LPGA Women's Western Golf Open
1951 06 21 Pope Pius XII publishes encyclical Evangelii praecones
1952 06 21 Betsy Rawls wins LPGA Women's Western Golf Open
1954 06 21 John Landy runs world record mile (3:58.0)
1956 06 21 Anti-protons detected in the atmosphere
1956 06 21 German DR frees almost 19,000 prisoners
1956 06 21 Oriole Connie Johnson beats WS Jack Harshman (1-0) in dual 1 hitters
1958 06 21 French franc devalues
1960 06 21 Armin Hary runs world record 100m (10.0)
1962 06 21 USAF Maj Robert M White takes X-15 to 75,190 m
1963 06 21 Pope Paul VI (Giovanni Battista Montini) succeeds John XXIII
1964 06 21 Beckwith arrested for murder of Medger Evers, found guilty 30 yr later
1964 06 21 Mickey Wright wins LPGA Lady Carling Eastern Golf Open
1964 06 21 Phillies Jim Bunning pitches perfect game (Mets) on Fathers day, in 2nd game of DH, Mets get 3 hits, 3 being fewest hits in NL DH
1964 06 21 3 civil rights workers-Michael H Schwerner Andrew Goodman & James E Chaney-disappeared after release from a Mississippi jail
1965 06 21 65th US Golf Open: Gary Player shoots 282 at Bellerive CC in St Louis
1966 06 21 Queen Juliana opens Coen tunnel in Amsterdam
1967 06 21 Yanks take 5-3 lead in 11th & lose 6-5, in 2nd game Red Sox lead 3-2 in 9th & Yanks beat them 6-3
1968 06 21 Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren resigns
1969 06 21 First reported hearing of pirate radio WGHP (With God's Help Peace)
1969 06 21 Dmitri Shostakovitch's 14th Symphony, premieres in Moscow
1969 06 21 John Pennel pole vaults world record (5.45 m)
1969 06 21 Zager & Evans release In the Year 2525
1970 06 21 70th US Golf Open: Tony Jacklin shoots a 281 at Hazeltine Natl Minn
1970 06 21 Brazil beats Italy, 4-1, to win soccer's World Cup (in Mexico City)
1970 06 21 Detroit's Cesar Gutierrez goes 7-for-7 to tie a record set in 1892
1970 06 21 Judy Rankin wins LPGA George Washington Golf Classic
1971 06 21 50,000 attend Celebration of Life, rock concert, McCrea Louisiana
1971 06 21 71st US Golf Open: Lee Trevino shoots a 280 at Merion GC in Ardmore PA
1971 06 21 Indians Ken Harrelson retires from baseball to play pro golf
1971 06 21 Intl Court of Justice asks South-Africa to pull out of Namibia
1975 06 21 Jaws by Steven Spielberg opens
1975 06 21 Elton John, Eagles & Beach Boys play Wembley
1975 06 21 Ritchie Blackmore quits Deep Purple, forms Rainbow
1975 06 21 Soyuz 19 returns to Earth
1975 06 21 West Indies beat Australia by 17 runs to win Cricket World Cup
1976 06 21 Berlinguers PCI wins election in Italy
1977 06 21 Former White House chief of staff HR Haldeman enters prison
1977 06 21 Menachem Begin (Likud), becomes Israel's 6th PM
1978 06 21 Andrew Lloyd Webber & Rice's musical Evita, premiers in London
1979 06 21 Sri Lanka beat Canada by 60 runs to win the first ICC Trophy
1981 06 21 12-bottle case of 1979 Napamedoc Cabernet wine auctioned for $24,000
1981 06 21 81st US Golf Open: David Graham shoots 273 at Merion GC in Ardmore Pa
1981 06 21 Don Fagan & Walter Becker quit Steely Dan
1981 06 21 Joanne Carner wins LPGA Lady Keystone Golf
1981 06 21 Riots at Casablanca, kills 66-200
1981 06 21 Socialists/communists win French parliamentary election
1982 06 21 Paul McCartney releases Take it Away
1982 06 21 Wash DC jury finds John Hinckley Jr innocent by insanity
1982 06 21 John Hinckley found not guilty of 1981 attempted assassination of President Reagan by reason of insanity
1983 06 21 Stephanie Kay Ashmore, of Alabama, 18, crowned America's Junior Miss
1983 06 21 Tennis ace Arthur Ashe undergoes double bypass heart surgery
1985 06 21 American, Brazilian & West German forensic pathologists confirm skeletal remains exhumed in Brazil were Nazi Dr Josef Mengele
1986 06 21 Living on Video by Trans-X peaks at #61
1986 06 21 Vienna Calling by Falco peaks at #18
1986 06 21 Bo Jackson, Heisman Trophy winner, singns with KC Royals
1986 06 21 Heike Drechsler of East Germany long jumps 7.45 m (women's record)
1986 06 21 Pres Reagan gives speech defending his judicial appointments
1987 06 21 87th US Golf Open: Scott Simpson shoots a 277 at Olympic Club in SF
1987 06 21 Ayako Okamoto wins LPGA Lady Keystone Golf Open
1987 06 21 Discovery rolls over from OPF to Vandenberg AFB
1987 06 21 Mike Tyson sexually harasses a parking lot attendant
1988 06 21 42nd NBA Championship: LA Lakers beat Detroit Pistons, 4 games to 3
1988 06 21 Many killed at demonstration against general Ne Win in Rangoon
1988 06 21 Rascals begin first tour in 20 years
1989 06 21 Carlton Fisk becomes AL catcher HR hitter, 307th at Yankee stadium
1989 06 21 Melanie Griffith & Don Johnson remarry
1989 06 21 Supreme Court rules ok to burn US flag as a political expression
1989 06 21 Yankees trade Rickey Henderson to A's for Plunk, Cadaret & Polonia
1990 06 21 7.7 Earthquake with 100s of after shocks hits Iran; about 50,000 die
1990 06 21 Little Richard gets a star on Hollywood's walk of fame
1990 06 21 NYC's Zodiac killer shoots 4th victim, Larry Parham
1990 06 21 Parliament of W & E Germany recognize Oder-Neissegrens
1990 06 21 US House of Reps vote 254-177 to stop US flag burning, doesn't pass
1990 06 21 At Yankee Stadium rally, Nelson Mandela dons a NY Yankee baseball cap & proclaims I am a Yankee!
1991 06 21 Eleanor Mondale marries Greg Thunder Malban (Minn DJ)
1991 06 21 Islanders Denis Potvan & Michael Bossy inducted into NHL Hall of Fame
1991 06 21 J”rg Haider resigns as premier of Karinthia
1991 06 21 NY Islanders Denis Potvin & Mike Bossy, elected to Hockey Hall of Fame
1992 06 21 92nd US Golf Open: Tom Kite shoots a 285 at Pebble Beach GL Calif
1992 06 21 Actor Michael Chiklis (Commish) marries Michelle Epstein
1992 06 21 Actress Marina Sirtis (Star Trek NG) marries rocker Michael Lamper
1992 06 21 Danielle Ammaccapan wins LPGA Lady Keystone Golf Open
1992 06 21 Last day of test cricket for Ian Botham & Allan Lamb
1993 06 21 Camelot opens at Gershwin Theater NYC for 56 performances
1993 06 21 English mathematician Andrew Wiles proves last theorem of Fermat
1993 06 21 STS-57 (Endeavour) launches into orbit
1994 06 21 Steffi Graf becomes first defending tennis champ to lose in first round of a major tournament (Wimbledon to Lorrie McNeal)
1997 06 21 Defending the Caveman, closes at Helen Hayes NYC after 671 perfs
1997 06 21 35th NHL draft Boston picks center Joe Thornton 1st
1997 06 21 Women's National Basketball Association begins as NY Liberty beats LA Sparks
1998 06 21 98th US Golf Open: at Olympic Club SF
1998 06 21 wins Friendly's Golf Classic
2001 06 21 Total solar eclipse in Madagascar-Atl Ocean (4m56s)

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