June 13
1514 -
Henry Grace ΰ Dieu, at over 1,000 tons the largest warship in the world at this time, built at the new Woolwich Dockyard in England, is dedicated.
1774
Rhode Island becomes the first of Britain's North American colonies to ban the importation of slaves.
1777 American Revolutionary War:
Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette lands near Charleston, South Carolina, in order to help the Continental Congress to train its army.
1805 Lewis and Clark Expedition: scouting ahead of the expedition, Meriwether Lewis and four companions sight the
Great Falls of the Missouri River.
1893
Grover Cleveland notices a rough spot in his mouth and on July 1
undergoes secret, successful surgery to remove a large, cancerous portion of his jaw; the operation was not revealed to the public until 1917, nine years after the president's death.
1917 World War I: The deadliest German air raid on London during World War I is carried out by
Gotha G bombers and results in 162 deaths, including 46 children, and 432 injuries.
1940 - The battleship
USS North Carolina (BB-55),
the most highly decorated American battleship of WWII (15
battle stars), is launched.
1944 World War II:
The Battle of Villers-Bocage -
German tank ace Michael Wittmann ambushes elements of the
British 7th Armoured Division, destroying up to fourteen tanks and fifteen personnel carriers, along with two anti-tank guns in a
Tiger 1 tank.
1952
Catalina affair: A Swedish
Douglas DC-3 is shot down by a Soviet
MiG-15 fighter.
1966 The United States Supreme Court rules in
Miranda v. Arizona that the police must inform suspects of their rights before questioning them.
1967 U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson nominates Solicitor-General
Thurgood Marshall to become the first black justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.
1970
"The Long and Winding Road" becomes The Beatles' last U.S. number one song.
1975 -
Peter Frampton played the first of two nights at the
Winterland Ballroom, San Francisco, California. Recordings from these two shows were used as part of his No.1 double album '
Frampton Comes Alive'. It became the best-selling album of 1976, selling over 6 million copies in the US and Frampton Comes Alive! was voted "Album of the year" in the 1976 Rolling Stone readers poll. It remained on the charts for 97 weeks.
1977 Convicted
Martin Luther King Jr. assassin
James Earl Ray is recaptured after escaping from prison three days before.
1981 At the
Trooping the Colour ceremony in London, a teenager, Marcus Sarjeant, fires six blank shots at Queen Elizabeth II.
1983
Pioneer 10 becomes the first man-made object to leave the central Solar System when it passes beyond the orbit of Neptune (the farthest planet from the Sun at the time).
1992 -
Billy Ray Cyrus started a 17-week run at No.1 on the US album chart with
'Some Gave All'. His debut album featured the world-wide breakthrough song
'Achy Breaky Heart', which was originally recorded as 'Don't Tell My Heart' by
The Marcy Brothers on their 1991 self-titled album.
1994 A jury in Anchorage, Alaska, blames recklessness by Exxon and
Captain Joseph Hazelwood for the
Exxon Valdez disaster, allowing victims of the oil spill to seek $15 billion in damages.
2000 Italy pardons Mehmet Ali Ağca, the Turkish gunman who tried to kill
Pope John Paul II in 1981.
2005 A jury in Santa Maria, California
acquits pop singer Michael Jackson of molesting 13-year-old Gavin Arvizo at his Neverland Ranch.
2010 A capsule of the
Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa, containing particles of the asteroid
25143 Itokawa, returns to Earth.
2015 A man
opens fire at policemen outside the police headquarters in the Texas city of Dallas, while a bag containing a pipe bomb is also found. He was later shot dead by police.
Births
1786 Winfield Scott; 1865 W. B. Yeats; 1892 Basil Rathbone; 1903 Red Grange; 1913 Ralph Edwards; 1918 Ben Johnson; 1926 Paul Lynde; 1943 Malcolm McDowell; 1943 Jim Guy Tucker; 1945 Whitley Strieber; 1949 - Dennis Locorriere; 1951 Richard Thomas ('John Boy Walton'), Stellan Skarsgεrd; 1953 Tim Allen; 1959 Lance Kinsey (
"Police Academy"); 1962 Ally Sheedy; 1968 David Gray; 1969 Laura Kightlinger; 1970 Rivers Cuomo; 1973 Tanner Foust; 1986 Kat Dennings; 1986 Ashley & Mary-Kate Olsen
Deaths
1231 Anthony of Padua; 1979 Darla Hood (
"Our Gang"); 1986 Benny Goodman; 1987 Geraldine Page; 1993 Deke Slayton; 2008 Tim Russert; 2010 Jimmy Dean; 2013 David Deutsch; 2014 Chuck Noll