TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY IS SATURDAY, JUNE 17, 2017

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY:

362 - Emperor Julian issued an edict banning Christians from teaching in Syria.

1579 - Sir Francis Drake claimed San Francisco Bay for England.

1775 - The British took Bunker Hill outside of Boston.

1789 - The Third Estate in France declared itself a national assembly, and began to frame a constitution. 1799 - Napoleon Bonaparte incorporated Italy into his empire.

1848 - Austrian General Alfred Windischgratz crushed a Czech uprising in Prague. 1854 - The Red Turban revolt broke out in Guangdong, China.

1885 - The Statue of Liberty arrived in New York City aboard the French ship Isere. 1893 - Gold is discovered at Kalgoorlie in Western Australia.

1912 - The German Zeppelin SZ 111 burned in its hangar in Friedrichshafen.

1917 - The Russian Duma met in a secret session in Petrograd and voted for an immediate Russian offensive against the German Army.

1924 - The Fascist militia marched into Rome.

1926 - Spain threatened to quit the League of Nations if Germany was allowed to join. 1928 - Amelia Earhart began the flight that made her the first woman to successfully fly across the Atlantic Ocean. 1931 - British authorities in China arrested Indochinese Communist leader Ho Chi Minh.

1940 - The Soviet Union occupied Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.

1940 - France asked Germany for terms of surrender. 1944 - French troops landed on the island of Elba in the Mediterranean.

1944 - The republic of Iceland was established.

1953 - Soviet tanks fought thousands of Berlin workers that were rioting against the East German government. 1969 - Boris Spasky became chess champion of the world after checkmating former champion Tigran Petrosian in Moscow.

1991 - The Parliament of South Africa repealed the Population Registration Act. The act had required all South Africans for classified by race at birth.