Events, Births and Deaths Happening on this Date

1586

English colonists sailed from Roanoke Island, N.C., after failing to establish England's first permanent settlement in America.

1862

Slavery was outlawed in U.S. territories.

1910

Father's Day was celebrated for the first time, in Spokane, Wash.

1917

During World War I, King George V ordered the British royal family to dispense with German titles and surnames. The family took the name Windsor.

1934

The Federal Communications Commission was created.

1953

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg - U.S. atomic secrets to the Soviet Union - were executed at Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, N.Y.

1961

The Supreme Court struck down a provision in Maryland's constitution requiring state officeholders to profess a belief in God.

1963

Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova returned to Earth after spending nearly three days as the first woman in space.

1964

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was approved after surviving an 83-day filibuster in the United States Senate.

1977

Pope Paul VI proclaimed a 19th-century Philadelphia bishop, John Neumann, the first male U.S. saint.

1978

Garfield, the lasagna-loving cat, first appeared in a comic strip.

1982

In a case that galvanized Asian-Americans, Vincent Chin, a Chinese-American, was beaten to death outside a nightclub in Highland Park, Mich., by autoworker Ronald Ebens.

1986

University of Maryland basketball star Len Bias, the second pick in the NBA draft, suffered a fatal cocaine-induced seizure. University of Maryland sports information director Jack Zane.

1987

The Supreme Court struck down a Louisiana law requiring any public school teaching the theory of evolution to teach creationism science as well.

1999

Britain's Prince Edward married commoner Sophie Rhys-Jones in Windsor, England.

2000

The Supreme Court, in a 6-3 ruling, barred officials from letting students lead stadium crowds in prayer before football games.

1903

Ludwig Heinrich 'Lou' Gehrig is born in New York City. For 13 straight seasons starting in 1925 the 'Iron Horse' played for the Yankees and batted .340. He died in 1941 at age 37 of ALS, known since as Lou Gehrig's disease.

2013

The Sopranos actor James Gandolfini died at 51 while on a trip in Rome, Italy.