TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY IS SATURDAY, JUNE 24, 2017

On this day in history:

1314 - Scottish forces led by Robert the Bruce won over Edward II of England at the Battle of Bannockburn in Scotland.

1340 - The English fleet defeated the French fleet at Sluys, off the Flemish coast. 1497 - Italian explorer John Cabot, sailing in the service of England, landed in North America on what is now Newfoundland.

1509 - Henry VIII was crowned King of England.

1664 - New Jersey, named after the Isle of Jersey, was founded.

1675 - King Philip’s War began when Indians massacre colonists at Swansee, Plymouth colony.

1717 - The Freemasons were founded in London.

1793 - The first republican constitution in France was adopted.

1812 - Napoleon crossed the Nieman River and invaded Russia.

1859 - At the Battle of Solferino, also known as the Battle of the Three Sovereigns, the French army led by Napoleon III defeated the Austrian army under Franz Joseph I in northern Italy. 1870 - Australian horseman and poet, Adam Lindsay Gordon, commits suicide. 1896 - Booker T. Washington became the first African American to receive an honorary MA degree from Howard University.

1910 - The Japanese army invaded Korea.

1913 - Greece and Serbia annulled their alliance with Bulgaria following border disputes over Macedonia and Thrace.

1931 - The Soviet Union and Afghanistan signed a treaty of neutrality.

1940 - France signed an armistice with Italy.

1940 - TV cameras were used for the first time in a political convention as the Republicans convened in Philadelphia, PA. 1941 - U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt pledged all possible support to the Soviet Union. 1948 - The Soviet Union began the Berlin Blockade.

2002 - A painting from Monet’s Waterlilies series sold for $20.2 million.

2010 - Julia Gillard, Australia’s first female Prime Minister, is sworn in.