June 1

1867 - Viscount Monck became the first governor general of Canada. An enthusiastic supporter of Confederation, he worked hard to overcome opposition in Nova Scotia & New Brunswick to joining the Union. Monck had been governor general of British North America and his term was to have expired in 1866, but Queen Victoria extended his appointment to give him the honour of being the first governor general of a country he helped create.

1801 - Mormon leader Brigham Young was born in Whitinham, Vt.

1868 - James Buchanan, the 15th president of the U.S., died near Lancaster, PA.

1813 - Captain James Lawrence says "Don't give up the ship," which becomes the U.S. Navy Motto.

June 2

1886 - President Cleveland married Frances Folsom in a White House Ceremony.

1897 - Mark Twain, 61, was quoted by the New York Journal as saying from London that "the report of my death was an exageration."

June 3

1808 - Jefferson Davis, the first and only president of Confederacy, was born in Kentucky.

1621 - Dutch West India Company receives charter for New Amsterdam.

June 4

1647 - The English army seized King charles I as a hostage.

June 5

June 6

1891 - Sir John A. Macdonald, Canada's first prime minister, died. He is buried at Kingston, Ontario.

1799 - American orator Patrick Henry died in Charlotte County, VA.

1654 - Queen Christina of Sweden abdicates and converts to Catholicism.

June 7

1329 - Robert the Bruce, national hero of Scotland, died.

1654 - Louis the XIV was crowned King of France in Rheims.

1848 - French post impressionist painter Paul Gaugwin was born in Paris.

1494 - Sapin and Portugal sign the Treaty of Tordesillas, agreeing to divide the New World between them.

June 8

632 - The prophet Mohammed, died.

1845 - Andrew Jackson, seventh president of the US, died in Nashville, Tenn.

1876 - Author George Sand died in Nohant, France.

1869 - Architect Frank Lloyd Wright born in Richland Center, Wi.

June 9

1846 - St. John's Nfld. was almost completely detroyed by fire. Some 12,000 people were left homeless and property worth $5 million was lost.

AD68 - The Roman Emperor Nero committed suicide.

1870 - Author Charles Dickens died in Godshill, England.

June 10

1801 - The north African state of Tripoli declared war on the US in a dispute over safe passage of merchangt vessels through the Mediteranean.

June 11

1638 - The first Earthquake recorded in Canada occurred in Quebec.

1509 - England's King Henry VIII married Catherine of Aragon.

1770 - Capt. James Cook, commander of the British ship Endeavour, discovered the Great Barrier Reef off Australia by running into it.

June 12

1665 - England installed a municipal goverment in New York - formerly the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam.

June 13

1818 - Richard Talbot sailed for Canada with 200 Irish settlers who founded St. Thomas, Ontario.

1886 - King Ludwig II of Bavaria drowned in Lake Starberg

June 14

1775 - The US Army was founded.

June 15

1520 - Pope Leo X threatened to excommunitcat Martin Luther unless he recanted his religious beliefs.

1849 - James Polk, the 11th president of the US died in Nashville, Tenn.

1864 - Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton signed and order establishing a military burial ground -- which became Arlington National Cemetery.

1752 - Benjamin Franklin flies a kite in a thunderstorm, proving lightning contains electricity.

June 16

1567 - Mary, Queen of Scots was imprisoned in Lochleven Castle in Scotland.

June 17

June 18

1812 - The United States declared war on Britain.

1815 - Battle of Waterloo, Napoleon defeated by Wellington.

June 19

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 US Terrie

June 20

1756 - in India, a group of British soldiers were imprisoned in a suffocating cell that gained notoriety as the "Black Hole of Calcutta"; most died.

1837 - Queen Victoria ascended the British throne following the death of her uncle, King William IV.

1863 - West Virginia became the 35th state.

1893 - a jury in New Bedford, Mass., found Lizzie Borden innocent of the ax murders of her father and stepmother.

1898 - during the Spanish-American War, the U.S. cruiser Charleston captured the Spanish-ruled island of Guam.

June 21

1834 - Cyrus Hall McCormick received a patent for his reaping machine

June 22

1788 - the U.S. Constitution went into effect as New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify it.

1815 - Napoleon Bonaparte abdicated a second time.

1868 - Arkansas was re-admitted to the Union.

1870 - Congress created the Department of Justice.

June 23

1817 - Canada's first chartered bank, the Bank of Montreal, was founded. It participated in many of the developments that contributed to the growth of the economy, including the first canals, the telegraph, the Canadian Pacific Railway, hydroelectric projects and the development of Canada's energy and mining resources. The Bank of Montreal was used by the federal government from 1863 until the formation of the Bank of Canada in 1935.

1887 - Parliament passed legislation creating Banff National Park, launching Canada's national parks system.

1868 - Christopher Latham Sholes received a patent for an invention he called a "Type-Writer."

1888 - abolitionist Frederick Douglass received one vote from the Kentucky delegation at the Republican convention in Chicago, effectively making him the first black candidate nominated for U.S. president. (The nomination went to Benjamin Harrison.)

June 24

1880 - O Canada was performed for the first time at a public celebration in Quebec City.

1497 - the first recorded sighting of North America by a European took place as explorer John Cabot spotted land, probably in present-day Canada.

1509 - Henry VIII was crowned king of England.

1793 - the first republican constitution in France was adopted.

1842, author-journalist Ambrose Bierce was born in Meigs County, Ohio.

June 25

1788 - the state of Virginia ratified the U.S. Constitution.

1868 - Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina were re-admitted to the Union.

1876 - Lt. Col. George A. Custer and his Seventh Cavalry were wiped out by Sioux and Cheyenne Indians in the Battle of the Little Bighorn in Montana.

June 26

1870 - the first section of Atlantic City, N.J.'s Boardwalk was opened to the public.

1900 - a commission that included Dr. Walter Reed began the fight against the deadly disease yellow fever.

June 27

1860 - The Queen's Plate was first held at the Carlton Race Track in Toronto. In 1939, George VI became the first ruling monarch to attend the race, the oldest stakes race for thoroughbred horses in North America.

1885 - Arthur Lismer, the Group of Seven artist, was born.

1844 - Mormon leader Joseph Smith and his brother, Hyrum, were killed by a mob in Carthage, Ill.

1847 - New York and Boston were linked by telegraph wires.

1893 - the New York stock market crashed.

June 28

1778 - "Molly Pitcher" (Mary Ludwig Hays) carried water to American soldiers at the Revolutionary War Battle of Monmouth, N.J.

1836 - the fourth president of the United States, James Madison, died in Montpelier, Va.

1838 - Britain's Queen Victoria was crowned in Westminster Abbey.

June 29

1767 - the British Parliament approved the Townshend Revenue Acts, which imposed import duties on certain goods shipped to America. Colonists bitterly protested the Acts, which were repealed in 1770.

1776 - the Virginia state constitution was adopted, and Patrick Henry made governor.

June 30