12 History Lessons + 3 Births & 6 Deaths for June 11, 2025
Today’s History:
- 1184 BCE – According to legend, Troy is sacked and burned by the Greeks using the Trojan Horse.
- 1509 – Henry VIII marries Catherine of Aragon, his first of six wives.
- 1770 – British explorer James Cook runs aground on the Great Barrier Reef off Australia.
- 1776 – Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston are appointed to draft the Declaration of Independence.
- 1935 – Inventor Edwin Armstrong gives the first public demonstration of FM radio in the U.S.
- 1955 – The first motor race is held at Lydden Hill Race Circuit in Kent, England.
- 1963 – Alabama Governor George Wallace stands at the University of Alabama doors in symbolic opposition to desegregation; President Kennedy federalizes the National Guard.
- 1963 – President John F. Kennedy delivers his famous civil rights address on national television.
- 1979 – Actor John Wayne dies at age 72 from cancer.
- 1982 – The film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is released in the U.S.
- 2001 – Timothy McVeigh is executed for the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
- 2018 – U.S. President Donald Trump meets North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore in the first-ever summit between the two nations.
Today’s Birthdays:
- 1956 – Joe Montana, American Hall of Fame NFL quarterback (69)
- 1962 – Tracy Bingham, American actress (Baywatch) (63)
- 1986 – Shia LaBeouf, American actor (Transformers, Honey Boy) (39)
Today’s Deaths:
- 1727 – George I of Great Britain, first monarch of the House of Hanover (Age 67)
- 1934 – Lev Vygotsky, Russian psychologist known for sociocultural theory (Age 37)
- 1979 – John Wayne, American film icon and Academy Award winner (True Grit) (Age 72)
- 2001 – Timothy McVeigh, American domestic terrorist and Oklahoma City bomber (Age 33)
- 2003 – David Brinkley, American television journalist (NBC Nightly News) (Age 82)
- 2015 – Ornette Coleman, American jazz saxophonist and composer (Age 85)
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