ON THIS DAY: 16 June 1963 – Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova became the first woman in space when she launched aboard the spacecraft Vostok 6. Born in 1937 in the village of Maslennikovo, in what is now Russia, Tereshkova came from a working-class family. Her father, a tractor driver, was killed during the Soviet-Finnish War. She … Read more
ON THIS DAY: 4 June 1913 – during the running of the famous Epsom Derby at Epsom Downs Racecourse, Emily Wilding Davison stepped onto the racetrack as the horses thundered past. She was struck by the horse Anmer, owned by King George V. The collision knocked Davison to the ground and brought down both horse … Read more
ON THIS DAY: 25 June 1876 – Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer met his end at the Battle of the Little Bighorn—an event that would become famously known as Custer’s Last Stand. He was just 36 years old. The battle, a key conflict in the Great Sioux War of 1876, took place near the Little … Read more
ON THIS DAY: 17 June 1631 – Mumtaz Mahal, ‘The Exalted One of the Palace,’ died while giving birth to her 14th child. The Taj Mahal would be built as her mausoleum, and as a tribute from her adoring husband. Mumtaz Mahal was the second wife of the fifth Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan, until her … Read more
ON THIS DAY: 7? June, 1558 – Robert Recorde, the man who invented the mathematical equals sign (=), died in a debtors’ prison in London. Recorde was born in Tenby, He earned his degree at Oxford in 1531 and went on to teach mathematics there as well as at Cambridge. At some point, he began … Read more
The Treaty of Versailles, officially ending WWI, was signed in the Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles, Paris, France. After five years of war, the treaty was signed between the Allied Powers, which included the United States, Britain, France, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, India, Italy, Japan, and Germany. Germany’s allies within … Read more
The Statue of Liberty, a gift from France to the USA, arrives in New York. The statue represents Libertas, the Roman Goddess of Liberty, and is located on Liberty Island (formerly Bedloe’s Island) in New York Harbour, New York City. The metal framework was built by Gustave Eiffel, and the sculptor was Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi. … Read more
Roman Emperor Nero committed suicide at the age of 30. Nero was adopted at the age of three by his great-uncle, Emperor Claudius, who had married his mother, Agrippina. Nero ascended to the throne at the age of 17 in AD 54 following Claudius’s death (caused by a dish of mushrooms poisoned by Agrippina). Initially, … Read more