Today in history
On June 15, 1215, England’s King John put his seal to the Magna Carta at Runnymede.
In 1520 Pope Leo X threatened to excommunicate Martin Luther if he did not recant his religious beliefs.
In 1752 Benjamin Franklin demonstrated the relationship between lightning and electricity when he launched a kite in a Philadelphia storm. In 1775 the Second Continental Congress voted unanimously to appoint George Washington commander of the Continental Army.
In1836 Arkansas becamethe 25th state.
In 1844 Charles Goodyear received a patent for his process to strengthen rubber through a process called vulcanization. In 1846 the U. S. and Britain signed a treaty settling the Canadian boundary in the Pacific Northwest.
In 1864 Secretary of War Edwin Stanton signed an order establishing the military burial ground thatwould become Arlington National Cemetery. In 1904 more than1,000 people died in a fire aboard the steamboat General Slocum in New York’s East River.
In1938 Cincinnati Reds left-hander Johnny Vander Meer becamethe only major leaguer to pitch successive no-hit, no-run games.
In 1944 American forces began their successful invasion of Saipan during World War II. Also in 1944 American B-29 Super for tresses made their first bombing raids on Japan.
In1977 voters went to the polls in Spain’s first democratic parliamentary election in more than four decades. In1978 Jordan’s King Hussein married 26-year-old American Lisa Halaby and proclaimed her Queen Noor.
In 1994 Israel and the Vatican established full diplomatic relations. Also in 1994 former President Jimmy Carter arrived in North Korea on a private mission to try to reduce tensions with the
Communist nation.
In 1996 singer Ella Fitzgerald died in Beverly Hills, Calif.; she was 78. Also in 1996 Joseph Jeremiah McCarthy, the Chicago firefighter whose heroic dash across a killing field in World War II’s Battle of Iwo Jima earned him a Medal of Honor, died in Delray Beach, Fla.; hewas 83.
In 1998 the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that state prison inmates are protected by the Americans with Disabilities Act.
In 2012 President Barack Obama ordered his administration to stop deporting hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. as children. Those who arrived before age16 may apply for a two-year stay on deportation proceedings until their 31st birthday.
Day in History: June 14
On June 14, 1775, the Continental Army was founded.
In1777 the Continental Congress adopted the Stars and Stripes as the national flag.
In 1841 the first Canadian parliament opened in Kingston, Ontario.
In 1846 settlers in Sonoma, Calif., proclaimed California a republic.
In 1940 German forces entered Paris in World War II.
Also the Nazis opened their notorious Auschwitz concentration campin Germanoccupied Poland.
In1954 President Dwight Eisenhower signed an order adding thewords “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance.
In1982 Argentine forces in the Falkland Islands surrendered to British troops at Stanley.
In1985, beginning a17-day ordeal aboard a TWA jet liner, two Lebanese Shiite Muslim gunmen seized Flight 847 shortly after its takeoff from Athens.
In 1993 President Bill Clinton chose Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg to serve on the Supreme Court.