Today is Thursday June 18, 2015 192 day of 2015, 173 remaining Sunrise: 5:47 a.m. Sunset: 8:34 p.m. 14 hours and 46 minutes of daylight today Moonrise: 8:01 a.m. Moonset: 10:14 p.m. Special Celebrations today: Today is : International Picnic Day, International Panic Day , National Sushi Day, National Cherry Tart Day as well as NAtional Splurge Day on this day in.... 1155 - Frederick I Barbarossa was crowned emperor of Rome. 1429 - French forces defeated the English at the battle of Patay. The English had been retreating after the siege of Orleans. 1621 - The first duel in America took place in the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts. 1667 - The Dutch fleet sailed up the Thames toward London. 1778 - Britain evacuated Philadelphia during the U.S. Revolutionary War. 1812 - The War of 1812 began as the U.S. declared war against Great Britain. The conflict began over trade restrictions. 1815 - At the Battle of Waterloo Napoleon was defeated by an international army under the Duke of Wellington. Napoleon abdicated on June 22. 1817 - London's Waterloo Bridge opened. The bridge, designed by John Rennie, was built over the River Thames. 1861 - The first American fly-casting tournament was held in Utica, NY. 1863 - J.J. Richardson received a patent for the ratchet wrench. 1873 - Susan B. Anthony was fined $100 for attempting to vote for a U.S. President. 1898 - Atlantic City, NJ, opened its Steel Pier. 1915 - During World War I, the second battle of Artois ended. 1918 - Allied forces on the Western Front began their largest counter-attack against the German army. (World War I) 1925 - The first degree in landscape architecture was granted by Harvard University. 1927 - The U.S. Post Office offered a special 10-cent postage stamp for sale. The stamp was of Charles Lindbergh’s "Spirit of St. Louis." 1928 - Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean as she completed a flight from Newfoundland to Wales. 1936 - The first bicycle traffic court was established in Racine, WI. 1939 - The CBS radio network aired "Ellery Queen" for the first time. 1942 - The U.S. Navy commissioned its first black officer, Harvard University medical student Bernard Whitfield Robinson. 1948 - The United Nations Commission on Human Rights adopted its International Declaration of Human Rights. 1951 - General Vo Nguyen Giap ended his Red River Campaign against the French in Indochina. 1953 - Seventeen major league baseball records were tied or broken in a game between the Boston Red Sox and the Detroit Tigers. 1953 - Egypt was proclaimed to be a republic with General Neguib as its first president. 1959 - A Federal Court annulled the Arkansas law allowing school closings to prevent integration. 1959 - The first telecast received from England was broadcast in the U.S. over NBC-TV. 1961 - "Gunsmoke" was broadcast for the last time on CBS radio. 1966 - Samuel Nabrit became the first African American to serve on the Atomic Energy Commission. 1975 - Fred Lynn of the Boston Red Sox hit three home runs, a triple and a single in a game against the Detroit Tigers. 1979 - In Vienna, U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Leonid Brezhnev signed the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT) 2. 1982 - The U.S. Senate approved the renewal of the 1965 Voting Rights Act for an additional twenty-five years. 1983 - Dr. Sally Ride became the first American woman in space aboard the space shuttle Challenger. 1998 - The Walt Disney Co. purchased a 43% stake in the Web search engine company Infoseek Corp. Disney movies, music and books 1998 - Nine commemorative U.S. postage stamps were reissued. The stamps were considered to be classically beautiful examples of stamp engraving. 1998 - "The Boston Globe" asked Patricia Smith to resign after she admitted to inventing people and quotes in four of her recent columns. 1999 - Walt Disney's "Tarzan" opened. Disney movies, music and books 2000 - In Algiers, Algeria, the foreign ministers of Ethiopia and Eritrea signed a preliminary cease-fire accord and agreed to work toward a permanent settlement of their two-year border war. 2009 - NASA launched the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter/LCROSS probes to the Moon. It was the first American lunar mission since Lunar Prospector in 1998. 2009 - Greenland assumed control over its law enforcement, judicial affairs, and natural resources from the Kingdom of Denmark. Greenlandic became the official language. If today is your birthday you share it with: Sir Paul McCartney Carol Kane Isabella Rossellni Roger Ebert Tags: Daily Almanac/tides
June 18, 2015
