1306 – The Earl of Pembroke’s army defeats Bruce’s Scottish army at the Battle of Methven.
1586 – English colonists leave Roanoke Island, after failing to establish England’s first permanent settlement in North America.
1846 – The first officially recorded, organized baseball game is played under Alexander Cartwright’s rules on Hoboken, New Jersey’s Elysian Fields with the New York Base Ball Club defeating the Knickerbockers 23-1. Cartwright umpired.
1862 – Congress prohibits slavery in United States territories, nullifying Dred Scott v. Sandford.
1865 – Over two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, slaves in Galveston, Texas, United States, are finally informed of their freedom. The anniversary is still officially celebrated in Texas and 41 other contiguous states as Juneteenth.
1875 – The Herzegovinian rebellion against the Ottoman Empire begins.
1910 – The first Father’s Day is celebrated in Spokane, Washington.
1913 – Natives Land Act, 1913 in South Africa implemented.
1934 – The Communications Act of 1934 establishes the United States’ Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
1944 – World War II: First day of the Battle of the Philippine Sea.
1949 – The first ever NASCAR race was held at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
1953 – Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are executed at Sing Sing, in New York.
1961 – Kuwait declares independence from the United Kingdom.
1964 – The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is approved after surviving an 83-day filibuster in the United States Senate.
1978 – Garfield, holder of the Guinness World Record for the world’s most widely syndicated comic strip, makes its debut.
1985 – Members of the Revolutionary Party of Central American Workers, dressed as Salvadoran soldiers, attack the Zona Rosa area of San Salvador.
1987 – Basque separatist group ETA commits one of its most violent attacks, in which a bomb is set off in a supermarket, Hipercor, killing 21 and injuring 45.
1988 – Pope John Paul II canonizes 117 Vietnamese Martyrs.
1990 – The current international law defending indigenous peoples, Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989, is ratified for the first time by Norway.
1991 – The Soviet occupation of Hungary ends.
2009 – Mass riots involving over 10,000 people and 10,000 police officers break out in Shishou, China, over the dubious circumstances surrounding the death of a local chef.
2009 – War in North-West Pakistan: The Pakistani Armed Forces open Operation Rah-e-Nijat against the Taliban and other Islamist rebels in the South Waziristan area of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.
2012 – WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange requests asylum in London’s Ecuadorian Embassy for fear of extradition to the US after publication of previously classified documents including footage of civilian killings by the US army.
Births
1861 – José Rizal, Filipino nationalist, author (‘Noli Me Tángere’, ‘El Filibusterismo’) and ophthalmologist
1896 – Wallis Simpson [Duchess of Windsor], American divorcee whom British King Edward VIII abdicated his throne to marry
Deaths
1867 – Maximilian I of the Mexican Empire is executed by firing squad in Querétaro, Querétaro at 34
1975 – Sam Giancana, American gangster, dies of gunshot wounds at 67
1993 – William Golding, author (Lord of the Flies, Nobel 1983)
Edited from various sources including historyorb.com, the NYTimes.com
Wikipedia and other internet searches