This Day in History

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June 11

Today, in the United Kingdom, is the Queen's Official Birthday.

1184 BC – Trojan War: Troy is sacked and burned, according to calculations by Eratosthenes.

1509 – Henry VIII of England marries Catherine of Aragon.

1770 – British explorer Captain James Cook runs aground on the Great Barrier Reef.

1776 – The Continental Congress appoints Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston to the Committee of Five to draft a declaration of independence.

1919 – Sir Barton wins the Belmont Stakes, becoming the first horse to win the U.S. Triple Crown.

1920 – During the U.S. Republican National Convention in Chicago, U.S. Republican Party leaders gathered in a room at the Blackstone Hotel to come to a consensus on their candidate for the U.S. presidential election, leading the Associated Press to first coin the political phrase "smoke-filled room".

1935 – Inventor Edwin Armstrong gives the first public demonstration of FM broadcasting in the United States at Alpine, New Jersey.

1949 - Hank Williams, Sr. made his debut at the 'Grand Ole Opry' in Nashville and received an unprecedented total of six encores.

1955 – Eighty-three spectators are killed and at least 100 are injured after an Austin-Healey and a Mercedes-Benz collide at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the deadliest ever accident in motorsports.

1960 - Drummer Tommy Moore made the fateful decision to quit The Beatles and return to his job of driving a forklift at Garston bottle works.

1962 – Frank Morris, John Anglin and Clarence Anglin allegedly become the only prisoners to escape from the prison on Alcatraz Island.

1963 – American Civil Rights Movement: Governor of Alabama George Wallace defiantly stands at the door of Foster Auditorium at the University of Alabama in an attempt to block two black students, Vivian Malone and James Hood, from attending that school. Later in the day, accompanied by federalized National Guard troops, they are able to register.

Buddhist monk Thích Quảng Đức burns himself with gasoline in a busy Saigon intersection to protest the lack of religious freedom in South Vietnam.

John F. Kennedy addresses Americans from the Oval Office proposing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that would revolutionize American society.

1966 - European radio stations mistakenly reported that The Who's lead singer Roger Daltrey was dead. Actually, it was guitarist Pete Townshend who had been injured in a car accident a few days earlier.

1970 – After being appointed on May 15, Anna Mae Hays and Elizabeth P. Hoisington officially receive their ranks as U.S. Army Generals, becoming the first females to do so.

1971 – The U.S. Government forcibly removes the last holdouts to the Native American Occupation of Alcatraz, ending 19 months of control.

1987 – Diane Abbott, Paul Boateng and Bernie Grant are elected as the first black Parliamentarians in Great Britain.

1993 – The film "Jurassic Park" is released in the United States, becoming the highest-grossing film of all time until the release of "Titanic" in 1997.

1998 – Compaq Computer pays US$9 billion for Digital Equipment Corporation.

2001 – Timothy McVeigh is executed for his role in the Oklahoma City bombing.

2002 – Antonio Meucci is acknowledged as the first inventor of the telephone by the United States Congress.

Sir Paul McCartney marries Heather Mills at St. Salvator Church, Ireland.

2003 - Adam Ant was arrested after going berserk and stripping down in a London cafe. The former 1980's pop star had thrown stones at neighbours' homes, smashing windows before going to the nearby cafe.

2004 – Cassini–Huygens makes its closest flyby of the Saturn moon Phoebe.

2005 - Jimmy Page, Led Zeppelin founding member and guitarist, was awarded an OBE in the Queen of England's Birthday Honours list.

2011 - Pink Floyd's 1973 album The Dark Side Of The Moon, re-entered the Billboard Album chart at No. 47, and reached the milestone of 1,000 weeks on Billboard's charts. The album which was released in 1973 has done consistently well reaching No.1 on more than one occasion.

Births

1864 – Richard Strauss; 1888 – Bartolomeo Vanzetti (of Sacco & Vanzetti); 1910 – Jacques Cousteau; 1913 – Vince Lombardi; 1915 – Magda Gabor (older sister to Zsa Zsa & Eva); 1925 – William Styron; 1930 – Charles Rangel; 1932 – Athol Fugard; 1933 – Gene Wilder; 1937 – Chad Everett; 1939 – Christina Crawford (author of 'Mommie Dearest', daughter of Joan Crawford), Jackie Stewart; 1943 – Henry Hill; 1945 – Adrienne Barbeau; 1947 – Richard Palmer-James; 1949 – Frank Beard (the unbeared member of ZZ Top); 1950 – Graham Russell (Air Supply); 1952 – Donnie Van Zant; 1954 – Johnny Neel (Allman Bros.); 1956 – Joe Montana; 1959 – Hugh Laurie; 1965 – Manuel Uribe (third heaviest man ever recorded); 1969 – Peter Dinklage; 1982 – Marco Arment (co-creator Tumblr); 1986 – Shia LaBeouf

Deaths

1879 – William, Prince of Orange; 1920 – William F. Halsey, Sr. (father of Fleet Admiral William F. "Bull" Halsey, Jr.); 1941 – Daniel Carter Beard (Boy Scouts of America); 1979 – John Wayne; 1999 – DeForest Kelley ('Dr. McCoy' in "Star Trek"); 2001 – Timothy McVeigh; 2003 – David Brinkley; 2014 – Ruby Dee; 2015 – Jim Ed Brown; 2015 – Ornette Coleman; 2015 – Dusty Rhodes