12 History Lessons + 5 Births & 6 Deaths for June 19, 2025
Today’s History:
- 1865 – Union General Gordon Granger announces emancipation in Texas, marking the origin of Juneteenth, now a U.S. federal holiday.
- 1846 – The first officially recorded baseball game is played in Hoboken, New Jersey.
- 1910 – The first Father’s Day is celebrated in Spokane, Washington.
- 1934 – The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is established.
- 1953 – Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are executed for espionage in the U.S., sparking global controversy.
- 1964 – The U.S. Senate passes the Civil Rights Act of 1964 after an 83-day filibuster.
- 1970 – The Patent Cooperation Treaty is signed, simplifying patent applications across multiple countries.
- 1978 – Garfield, the comic strip cat, debuts in 41 newspapers.
- 1987 – The Supreme Court rules in Edwards v. Aguillard that creationism cannot be taught in public schools.
- 2000 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules that a group prayer led by students at football games violates the First Amendment.
- 2012 – WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange seeks asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
- 2021 – The U.S. formally recognizes Juneteenth as a federal holiday for the first time.
Today’s Birthdays:
- 1947 – Salman Rushdie, British-Indian author of The Satanic Verses (78)
- 1954 – Kathleen Turner, actress known for Romancing the Stone and Body Heat (71)
- 1970 – Brian Vander Ark, lead singer of The Verve Pipe (55)
- 1978 – Zoe Saldana, actress known for roles in Avatar and Guardians of the Galaxy (47)
- 1980 – Dirk Nowitzki, German NBA Hall of Famer and Dallas Mavericks legend (45)
Today’s Deaths:
- 1867 – Maximilian I of Mexico, executed after the fall of the Second Mexican Empire (34)
- 1937 – J.M. Barrie, Scottish author of Peter Pan (77)
- 1986 – Colleen Dewhurst, Canadian-American actress and two-time Tony winner (62)
- 1993 – William Golding, Nobel Prize-winning British author of Lord of the Flies (81)
- 2013 – Slim Whitman, American country and western singer known for his yodeling (90)
- 2014 – Stephanie Kwolek, chemist who invented Kevlar (90)
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