8 June

68       The Roman Senate proclaims Galba as emperor.

632     Muhammad (died), Saudi Arabian prophet (born 570)

793     Vikings raid the abbey at Lindisfarne in Northumbria, commonly accepted as the beginning of the Scandinavian invasion of England.

1042   Edward the Confessor becomes King of England, one of the last Anglo-Saxon kings of England.

1154    William of York (died), English archbishop

1191    Richard I arrives in Acre (Palestine) thus beginning his crusade.

1376   Edward, the Black Prince (died), English son of Edward III of England (born 1330)

1625   Giovanni Domenico Cassini (born), Italian-French mathematician and astronomer (died 1712)

1783   Laki, a volcano in Iceland, begins an eight-month eruption which kills over 9,000 people and starts a seven-year famine.

1789   James Madison introduces twelve proposed amendments to the United States Constitution in the House of Representatives; by 1791, ten of them are ratified by the state legislatures and become the Bill of Rights; another is eventually ratified in 1992 to become the 27th Amendment.

1794   Robespierre inaugurates the French Revolution’s new state religion, the Cult of the Supreme Being, with large organized festivals all across France.

1809   Thomas Paine (died), English-American theorist and author (born 1737)

1810   Robert Schumann (born), German composer and critic (died 1856)

1845   Andrew Jackson (died), American general, judge, and politician, 7th President of the United States (born 1767)

1856   A group of 194 Pitcairn Islanders, descendants of the mutineers of HMS Bounty, arrives at Norfolk Island, commencing the Third Settlement of the Island.

1861   American Civil War: Tennessee secedes from the Union.

1867   Frank Lloyd Wright (born), American architect, designed the Price Tower and Fallingwater (died 1959)

1874   Cochise (died), American tribal chief (born 1805)

1887   Herman Hollerith applies for US patent #395,791 for the ‘Art of Applying Statistics’ his punched card calculator.

1906   Theodore Roosevelt signs the Antiquities Act into law, authorizing the President to restrict the use of certain parcels of public land with historical or conservation value.

1912    Carl Laemmle incorporates Universal Pictures.

1921    LeRoy Neiman (born), American painter (died 2012)

1921    Suharto (born), Indonesian soldier and politician, 2nd President of Indonesia (died 2008)

1924   George Mallory (died), English lieutenant and mountaineer (born 1886)

1924   Lyn Nofziger (born), American journalist and author (died 2006)

1925   Barbara Bush (born), American wife of George H. W. Bush, 41st First Lady of the United States

1927   Jerry Stiller (born), American comedian and actor

1933   Joan Rivers (born), American comedian, actress, and author

1940   Nancy Sinatra (born), American singer and actress

1942   Andrew Weil (born), American author and educator

1942   Chuck Negron (born), American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Three Dog Night)

1942   World War II: The Japanese imperial submarines I-21 and I-24 shell the Australian cities of Sydney and Newcastle.

1944   Boz Scaggs (born), American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Steve Miller Band)

1948   Milton Berle hosts the debut of Texaco Star Theater.

1949   George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four is published.

1949   The celebrities Helen Keller, Dorothy Parker, Danny Kaye, Fredric March, John Garfield, Paul Muni and Edward G. Robinson are named in an FBI report as Communist Party members.

1953   The United States Supreme Court rules that restaurants in Washington, D.C., cannot refuse to serve black patrons.

1955    Tim Berners-Lee (born), English-American computer scientist and engineer, invented the World Wide Web

1958   Keenen Ivory Wayans (born), American actor, director, and screenwriter

1959   The USS Barbero and United States Postal Service attempt the delivery of mail via Missile Mail.

1962   Nick Rhodes (born), English keyboard player and producer (Duran Duran, Arcadia, and The Devils)

1965   Kevin Farley (born), American actor, director, and screenwriter

1965   Rob Pilatus (born), American-German singer and dancer (Milli Vanilli and Rob & Fab) (died 1998)

1966   Julianna Margulies (born), American actress and producer

1968   Robert F. Kennedy’s funeral takes place at the Basilica of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, New York City.

1969   Robert Taylor (died), American actor and singer (born 1911)

1970   Abraham Maslow (died), American psychologist (born 1908)

1970   Gabrielle Giffords (born), American politician

1972   Vietnam War: The Associated Press photographer Nick Ut takes his Pulitzer Prize-winning photo of a naked 9-year-old Phan Thị Kim Phúc running down a road after being burned by napalm.

1979   Derek Trucks (born), American guitarist and songwriter (The Allman Brothers Band, The Derek Trucks Band, and Tedeschi Trucks Band)

1982   Bluff Cove Air Attacks during the Falklands War: 56 British servicemen are killed by an Argentine air attack on two landing ships, RFA Sir Galahad and RFA Sir Tristram.

1982   Satchel Paige (died), American baseball player (born 1906)

1983   Kim Clijsters (born), Belgian tennis player

1984   Gordon Jacob (died), English composer (born 1895)

1984   Homosexuality is declared legal in the Australian state of New South Wales.

2003  Leighton Rees (died), Welsh darts player (born 1940)

2009  Two American journalists are found guilty of illegally entering North Korea and sentenced to 12 years of penal labor.

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EO Smith

Interests include biological anthropology, evolution, social behavior, and human behavior. Conducted field research in the Tana River National Primate Reserve, Kenya and on Angaur, Palau, Micronesia, as well as research with captive nonhuman primates at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center and the Institute for Primate Research, National Museums of Kenya.
EO Smith
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