Earthquake devastates Iran

On June 21, 1779, Spain declares war on Great Britain, creating a de facto alliance with the Americans. Spain’s King Charles III would not consent to a treaty of alliance with the United States. For one imperial power to encourage another imperial power’s colonies in revolt was a treacherous game, and he was unwilling to […]

On this day in June (in two different years), two future presidents, Zachary Taylor and Richard Nixon, marry the women who will become their first ladies. On this day in 1810, 26-year-old Zachary Taylor married Margaret Smith, age 31, in her sister’s log house in Louisville, Kentucky. The daughter of a wealthy planter, Margaret met […]

Embittered and impoverished, the once mighty Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna dies in Mexico City. Born in 1792 at Jalapa, Vera Cruz, Mexico, Santa Anna was the son of middle-class parents. As a teen, he won a commission in the Spanish army and might have been expected to live out an unspectacular career as a […]

Swarms of admirers mob the Hollywood film actors Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, who arrive in London on their honeymoon on June 21, 1920. Two of film’s earliest stars, Pickford and Fairbanks had been business partners since 1919, when they teamed up with Charlie Chaplin and director D.W. Griffith to form United Artists. As a […]

Playwright Arthur Miller defies the House Committee on Un-American Activities and refuses to name suspected communists. Miller’s defiance of McCarthyism won him a conviction for contempt of court, which was later reversed by the Supreme Court. His passport had already been denied when he tried to go to Brussels to attend the premiere of his […]

Released on June 21, 1965, the Byrds’ debut album, Mr. Tambourine Man, marks the beginning of the folk-rock revolution. In just a few months, the Byrds had become a household name, with a number-one single and a smash-hit album that married the ringing guitars and backbeat of the British Invasion with the harmonies and lyrical […]

John W. Hinckley, Jr., who on March 30, 1981, shot President Ronald Reagan and three others outside a Washington, D.C., hotel, is found not guilty of attempted murder by reason of insanity. In the trial, Hinckley’s defense attorneys argues that their client was ill with narcissistic personality disorder, citing medical evidence, and had a pathological […]