June 7th in History

Michael Dobson | June 7
Graceland, Memphis home of Elvis Presley, opens to the public, June 7, 1982

Today in History

  • The Treaty of Tordesillas divides the New World between Spain and Portugal (1494)
  • Plessy v. Ferguson: Homer Plessy is arrested for refusing to leave his seat in a “whites-only” train car (1892)
  • Mohandas Gandhi commits his first act of civil disobedience (1893)
  • RMS Lusitania is launched (1906)
  • Mary Pickford makes her screen debut (1909)
  • World War II: The Battle of Midway ends (1942)
  • The Supreme Court effectively legalizes the use of contraception by married couples in Griswold v. Connecticut (1965)
  • The Israeli Air Force destroys the Osiraq nuclear reactor in Iraq (1981)
  • Graceland opens to the public (1982)

Birthdays

  • Beau Brummel, fashion icon (1778)
  • Alois Hitler, dictator’s father (1837)
  • Paul Gauguin, painter (1848)
  • Robert S. Mulliken, physicist and chemist (1896)
  • Jessica Tandy, actress (1909)
  • “Ghastly” Graham Ingels, EC artist (1915)
  • Dean Martin, singer and actor (1917)
  • Tom Jones, singer (1940)
  • Liam Neeson, actor (1952)
  • Prince, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, actor, producer (1958)
  • Dave Navarro, singer-songwriter (1967)
  • Bill Hader, SNL cast member (1978)
  • Anna Torv, actress (1979)
  • Anna Kournikova, tennis player (1981)
  • Michael Cera, actor (1988)

Deaths

  • Robert the Bruce, Scottish monarch (1329)
  • Joseph von Fraunhofer, discoverer of Fraunhofer lines (1826)
  • Chief Seattle, Native American tribal leader (1866)
  • Jean Harlow, actress (1937)
  • Alan Turing, mathematician, cryptanalyst, and computer scientist (1954)
  • ZaSu Pitts, actress (1963)
  • Judy Holliday, actress and singer (1965)
  • Jean Arp, sculptor and painter (1966)
  • Dorothy Parker, author (1967)
  • Dan Duryea, actor (1968)
  • E. M. Forster, author (1970)
  • Asa Earl Carter, Ku Klux Klan leader, Alabama gubernatorial candidate, Western novelist (1979)
  • Henry Miller, author (1980)
  • Max Factor, Jr., cosmetics tycoon (1996)
  • Lil Phat, rapper (2012)

Holidays and Celebrations

  • Flag Day (Peru)
  • Foundation Day (Western Australia)
  • Journalist Day (Argentina)
  • Prins Joachims fødselsdag (Birthday of Prince Joachim) (Denmark)
  • Revolution Day (Chad)
  • Sette Giugno (Seventh of June) (Malta, commemoration of the first uprising against the British colonial government)
  • Union Dissolution Day (Norway)
  • Vestalia (ancient Rome)
  • Výročie Memoranda národa slovenského (Anniversary of the Memorandum of the Slovak Nation) (Slovakia)
Informal and made-up holidays include Accordion Lovers Day, Career Nurse Assistants Day, Cheer Coach Day, Daniel Boone Day, Fairies’ Leaping Songs Day, Festival of All Possible Worlds, Fete of St. Gilbert the Englishman, Family Recreation Day, Fleur-de-Lis Day, Freedom of the Press Day, June Bug Day, National Chocolate Ice Cream Day, National Moth Day (UK), National Trails Day, Native American Appreciation Day, Plymouth Day, Tailors Day, Trial Technology day, and Vivien Kellems Memorial Day.
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June 7 is the 158th day of the year (159th in leap years). There are 207 days remaining until the end of the year.