TODAY in HISTORY

Today is Wednesday, June 7, the 158th day of 2017. There are 207 days left in the year.

1099 The siege of Jerusalem begins. 1420 Troops of the Republic of Venice capture Udine, ending the independence of the Patria del Friuli. 1494 Spain and Portugal sign the Treaty of Tordesillas, which divides the New World between the two countries. 1628 The petition of right, a major English constitutional document, is granted the royal assent by Charles I and becomes law. 1654 Louis 14 is crowned King of France. 1776 Richard Henry Lee presents the “Lee Resolution” to the Continental Congress. The motion is seconded by John Adams and will lead to the US declaration of Independence. 1810 The newspaper Gazeta de Buenos Ayres is first published in Argentina. 1862 The United States and the United Kingdom agree in the LyonsSeward Treaty to suppress the African slave trade. 1892 Homer Plessy is arrested for refusing to leave his seat in the “whites-only” car of a train; he lost the resulting court case, Plessy v. Ferguson. 1905 Norway’s Parliament dissolves its union with Sweden. The vote was confirmed by a national plebiscite on August 13 of that year. 1929 The Lateran Treaty is ratified, bringing Vatican City into existence. 1936 The Steel Workers Organizing Committee, a trade union, is founded in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Philip Murray elected as its first president. 1938 The Douglas DC-4E makes its first test flight. 1938 In the second SinoJapanese War, the Chinese Nationalist government creates the 1938 Yellow River flood to halt Japanese forces. 500,000 to 900,000 civilians are killed. 1942 In World War 2, the Battle of Midway ends in American victory. 1944 In World War 2,the steamer Danae, carrying 350 Cretan Jews and 250 Cretan partisans, is sunk without survivors off the shore of Santorini. 1948 Edvard Beneš resigns as President of Czechoslovakia rather than signing the Ninth-of-May Constitution, making his nation a Communist state. 1955 Lux Radio Theatre signs off the air permanently. The show launched in New York in 1934, and featured radio adaptations of Broadway shows and popular films. 1975 The inaugural Cricket World Cup begins in England. 2000 The United Nations defines the Blue Line as the border between Israel and Lebanon. 2013 A gunman opens fire at Santa Monica College in Santa Monica, California, after setting a house on fire nearby, killing six people.