On 8th June 452 AD, the Roman Empire’s biggest bogeyman came to invade Italy: Attila. Referred to as “scourge of God” by his opponents, Attila’s empire stretched thousands of miles from the Ural River to the Rhine River and from the Danube River to…
Read MoreOn June 7, 1099, after a brutal journey across Europe and the Levant, the weary but determined Crusader army arrived outside the walls of Jerusalem. Their arrival marked the beginning of one of the defining and bloodiest chapters of the First Crusade. The Crusaders,…
Read MoreOn June 7, 1494, two rival powers sat down to sign a treaty that would shape North and South America for the centuries that followed. Following the reports of Christopher Columbus’s discoveries in the Americas, Spanish rulers Ferdinand and Isabella went to the Vatican to help back Spanish…
Read MoreThe Battle of Midway, fought from June 4 to June 7, 1942, stands as a crucial naval engagement in the Pacific Theater of World War II. This battle dramatically altered the course of the war by halting Japanese expansion and shifting the balance of…
Read MoreIn a remote cemetery outside São Paulo, Brazilian officials exhumed a grave on June 6, 1985, bearing the name “Wolfgang Gerhard.” For years, it had been largely unremarkable—until intelligence from West German investigators indicated it might conceal one of the last great fugitives of…
Read MoreOn June 5, 1944, General Dwight D. Eisenhower faced one of the most crucial decisions of World War II. As the Supreme Allied Commander, he was responsible for launching Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe. Despite unfavorable weather conditions, Eisenhower decided to…
Read MoreIf there are two things Americans love deeply, it’s cars and movies. On June 6, 1933, Richard Hollingshead opened the first official drive-in movie theater in Camden, New Jersey. Patrons paid a quarter to see the British comedy Wives Beware from the comfort of their automobiles. …
Read MoreIn a quiet but fateful moment on June 5, 1851, the abolitionist newspaper The National Era published the first installment of Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly, a serialized novel by a relatively unknown New England woman named Harriet Beecher Stowe. The…
Read MoreOn June 5, 1947, United States Secretary of State George C. Marshall delivered a speech at Harvard University that shaped the course of modern history. He proposed a comprehensive aid program to help Europe recover from the devastation of World War II. This address…
Read MoreJune 5, 1956, was a day that changed Rock and Roll forever. On the Milton Berle Show, a young musician named Elvis Presley scandalized the country on national television. Elvis’s performance included exaggerated gyrations that drove the girls in the audience wild, and enraged…
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