On This Day — 7 June

2017

A Myanmar Air Force Shaanxi Y-8 crashes into the Andaman Sea near Dawei, Myanmar, killing all 122 aboard.

Myanmar Air Force

2000

The United Nations defines the Blue Line as the border between Israel and Lebanon.

United Nations

1991

Mount Pinatubo erupts, generating an ash column 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) high.

Mount Pinatubo

1989

Surinam Airways Flight 764 crashes on approach to Paramaribo-Zanderij International Airport in Suriname because of pilot error, killing 176 of 187 aboard.

Surinam Airways Flight 764

1982

Priscilla Presley opens Graceland to the public; the bathroom where Elvis Presley died five years earlier is kept off-limits.

Priscilla Presley

1981

The Israeli Air Force destroys Iraq's Osiraq nuclear reactor during Operation Opera.

Israeli Air Force

1977

Five hundred million people watch the high day of the Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II begin on television.

Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth II

1975

Sony launches Betamax, the first videocassette recorder format.

Sony

1971

The United States Supreme Court overturns the conviction of Paul Cohen for disturbing the peace, setting the precedent that vulgar writing is protected under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Cohen v. California

1971

The Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms Division of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service raids the home of Ken Ballew for illegal possession of hand grenades.

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives

1971

Allegheny Airlines Flight 485 crashes on approach to Tweed New Haven Airport in New Haven, Connecticut, killing 28 of 31 aboard.

Allegheny Airlines Flight 485

1967

Six-Day War: Israeli soldiers enter Jerusalem.

Six-Day War

1965

The Supreme Court of the United States hands down its decision in Griswold v. Connecticut, prohibiting the states from criminalizing the use of contraception by married couples.

Supreme Court of the United States

1962

The Organisation Armée Secrète (OAS) sets fire to the University of Algiers library building, destroying about 500,000 books.

Organisation armée secrète

1955

Lux Radio Theatre signs off the air permanently. The show launched in New York in 1934, and featured radio adaptations of Broadway shows and popular films.

Lux Radio Theatre

1948

Anti-Jewish riots in Oujda and Jerada take place.

1948 anti-Jewish riots in Oujda and Jerada

1948

Edvard Beneš resigns as President of Czechoslovakia rather than signing the Ninth-of-May Constitution, making his nation a Communist state.

Edvard Beneš

1946

The United Kingdom's BBC returns to broadcasting its television service, which has been off air for seven years because of World War II.

BBC

1945

King Haakon VII of Norway returns from exactly five years in exile during World War II.

Haakon VII

1944

World War II: Battle of Normandy: At Ardenne Abbey, members of the SS Division Hitlerjugend massacre 23 Canadian prisoners of war.

Operation Overlord

1942

World War II: The Battle of Midway ends in American victory.

World War II

1940

King Haakon VII, Crown Prince Olav and the Norwegian government leave Tromsø and go into exile in London. They return exactly five years later.

Haakon VII

1938

The Douglas DC-4E makes its first test flight.

Douglas DC-4E

1938

Second Sino-Japanese War: The Chinese Nationalist government creates the 1938 Yellow River flood to halt Japanese forces. Five hundred thousand to nine hundred thousand civilians are killed.

Second Sino-Japanese War

1929

The Lateran Treaty is ratified, bringing Vatican City into existence.

Lateran Treaty

1919

Sette Giugno: Nationalist riots break out in Valletta, the capital of Malta. British soldiers fire into the crowd, killing four people.

Sette Giugno

1917

World War I: Battle of Messines: Allied soldiers detonate a series of mines underneath German trenches at Messines Ridge, killing 10,000 German troops.

World War I

1906

Cunard Line's RMS Lusitania is launched from the John Brown Shipyard, Glasgow (Clydebank), Scotland.

Cunard Line

1905

Norway's parliament dissolves its union with Sweden. The vote was confirmed by a national plebiscite on August 13 of that year.

Dissolution of the union between Norway and Sweden

1899

American Temperance crusader Carrie Nation begins her campaign of vandalizing alcohol-serving establishments by destroying the inventory in a saloon in Kiowa, Kansas.

Temperance movement in the United States

1892

Homer Plessy is arrested for refusing to leave his seat in the "whites-only" car of a train; he lost the resulting court case, Plessy v. Ferguson.

Homer Plessy

1880

War of the Pacific: The Battle of Arica, the assault and capture of Morro de Arica (Arica Cape), ends the Campaña del Desierto (Desert Campaign).

War of the Pacific

1866

One thousand eight hundred Fenian raiders are repelled back to the United States after looting and plundering the Saint-Armand and Frelighsburg areas of Canada East.

Fenian raids

1862

The United States and the United Kingdom agree in the Lyons–Seward Treaty to suppress the African slave trade.

United Kingdom

1832

The Great Reform Act of England and Wales receives royal assent.

Reform Act 1832

1832

Asian cholera reaches Quebec, brought by Irish immigrants, and kills about 6,000 people in Lower Canada.

1826–1837 cholera pandemic

1810

The newspaper Gazeta de Buenos Ayres is first published in Argentina.

Gazeta de Buenos-Ayres

1800

David Thompson reaches the mouth of the Saskatchewan River in Manitoba.

David Thompson (explorer)

1788

French Revolution: Day of the Tiles: Civilians in Grenoble toss roof tiles and various objects down upon royal troops.

French Revolution

1776

Richard Henry Lee presents the "Lee Resolution" to the Continental Congress. The motion is seconded by John Adams and will lead to the United States Declaration of Independence.

Richard Henry Lee

1692

Port Royal, Jamaica, is hit by a catastrophic earthquake; in just three minutes, 1,600 people are killed and 3,000 are seriously injured.

Port Royal

1654

Louis XIV is crowned King of France.

Louis XIV

1640

Corpus de Sang in Barcelona: Catalan reapers rioted against Spanish Royal soldiers and officers, killing the Viceroy of Catalonia, Dalmau de Queralt. Escalation of hostilities between the Principality of Catalonia and the Spanish Monarchy, leading to the Reapers' War.

Corpus de Sang

1628

The Petition of Right, a major English constitutional document, is granted the Royal Assent by Charles I and becomes law.

Petition of Right

1494

Spain and Portugal sign the Treaty of Tordesillas which divides the New World between the two countries.

Spain

1420

Troops of the Republic of Venice capture Udine, ending the independence of the Patria del Friuli.

Republic of Venice

1099

First Crusade: The Siege of Jerusalem begins.

First Crusade

1002

Henry II, a cousin of Emperor Otto III, is elected and crowned King of Germany.

Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor

879

Pope John VIII recognises the Duchy of Croatia under Duke Branimir as an independent state.

Pope John VIII

421

Emperor Theodosius II marries Aelia Eudocia at Constantinople (Byzantine Empire).

Theodosius II