Event-a-Day

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1678 – Venetian Elena Cornaro Piscopia is the first woman awarded a doctorate of philosophy when she graduates from the University of Padua.

1741 – Maria Theresa of Austria is crowned Queen of Hungary.

1788 – Virginia becomes the tenth state to ratify the United States Constitution.

1876 – Battle of the Little Bighorn and the death of Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer.

1910 – The United States Congress passes the Mann Act, which prohibits interstate transport of females for “immoral purposes”; the ambiguous language would be used to selectively prosecute people for years to come. Igor Stravinsky's ballet The Firebird is premiered in Paris, bringing him to prominence as a composer.

1913 – American Civil War veterans begin arriving at the Great Reunion of 1913.

1940 – World War II: France officially surrenders to Germany at 01:35.

1943 – The Holocaust: Jews in the Częstochowa Ghetto in Poland stage an uprising against the Nazis.

1947 – The Diary of a Young Girl (better known as The Diary of Anne Frank) is published.

1948 – The Berlin airlift begins.

1950 – The Korean War begins with the invasion of South Korea by North Korea.

1960 – Two cryptographers working for the United States National Security Agency left for vacation to Mexico, and from there defected to the Soviet Union.

1978 – The rainbow flag representing gay pride is flown for the first time during the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade.

1981 – Microsoft is restructured to become an incorporated business in its home state of Washington.

1984 – American singer Prince releases his most successful studio album Purple Rain

1997 – An unmanned Progress spacecraft collides with the Russian space station Mir.

1998 – In Clinton v. City of New York, the United States Supreme Court decides that the Line Item Veto Act of 1996 is unconstitutional.

1460 – Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, and Edward, Earl of March (The future Edward IV), land in England with a rebel army and march on London.

1483 – Richard III becomes King of England.

1541 – Francisco Pizarro is assassinated in Lima by the son of his former companion and later antagonist, Diego de Almagro the younger. Almagro is later caught and executed.

1718 – Alexei Petrovich, Tsarevich of Russia, Peter the Great's son, mysteriously dies after being sentenced to death by his father for plotting against him.

1794 – French Revolutionary Wars: Battle of Fleurus marked the first successful military use of aircraft.

1830 – William IV becomes king of Britain and Hanover.

1906 – The first Grand Prix motor racing event held.

1909 – The Science Museum in London comes into existence as an independent entity.

1917 – The American Expeditionary Forces begin to arrive in France. They will first enter combat four months later.

1918 – Allied Forces under John J. Pershing and James Harbord defeat Imperial German Forces under Wilhelm, German Crown Prince in the Battle of Belleau Wood.

1924 – The American occupation of the Dominican Republic ends after eight years.

1927 – The Cyclone roller coaster opens on Coney Island.

1934 – United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Federal Credit Union Act, which establishes credit unions.

1936 – Initial flight of the Focke-Wulf Fw 61, the first practical helicopter.

1945 – The United Nations Charter is signed in San Francisco.

1948 – The first supply flights are made in response to the Berlin Blockade.

1963 – U.S. President John F. Kennedy gave his "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech, underlining the support of the United States for democratic West Germany shortly after Soviet-supported East Germany erected the Berlin Wall.

2015 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled, 5–4, that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marriage under the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution.