This Day In History

On June 15, 1864, Ulysses S. Grant launched the Siege of Petersburg. The long struggle that followed stretched Union and Confederate forces across miles of trenches and helped decide the final months of the Civil War.

On June 14, 1846, California settlers staged the Bear Flag Revolt in rebellion against the Mexican government. Their handmade flag, painted with a grizzly bear and a single star, gave the short-lived California Republic its symbol and later inspired the state flag still used today.

On June 13, 1974, the US issued its first stamps designed in a diamond format, honoring America’s Mineral Heritage. The four bright 10¢ stamps turned ordinary minerals into miniature works of art and gave rock collectors a long-awaited place in US postal history.

On June 12, 1963, civil rights activist Medgar Evers was killed while standing in his own driveway. As Mississippi’s first NAACP field secretary, Evers led voter registration drives, investigated racial violence, pushed to desegregate schools and public spaces, and became one of the state’s most visible voices for justice.

On May 5, 1961, Alan Shepard became the first American to travel into space when he launched aboard Freedom 7. The brief suborbital flight lasted just over 15 minutes, but it marked a turning point in the United States’ early space efforts.

On March 29, 1974, Mariner 10 became the first space probe to fly by Mercury. It would eventually send back over 2,700 photos, capturing nearly half of the planet’s surface.

On March 18, 1965, Alexei Leonov did what no human had ever done before—he stepped out of a spacecraft and into the vacuum of space. Suspended above Earth with only a thin tether holding him to life, Leonov’s daring walk marked a turning point in the early Space Race.

On March 2, 1972, Pioneer 10 lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida. It became the first spacecraft to travel beyond the outer planets and eventually the first human-made object to head out of the Solar System.

On June 16, 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt signed legislation passing the National Industrial Recovery Act. It was a bold and ambitious attempt to fix a broken economy during one of the hardest times in American history.

On June 16, 1938, the post office issued a 3¢ Jefferson stamp, which was convincingly counterfeited. In fact, the counterfeits are more valuable than the genuine stamp, which rarely happens!

On June 16, 1858, Abraham Lincoln delivered his famous House Divided Speech in Springfield, Illinois. The speech helped propel Lincoln onto the national stage, setting him on course to become one of America’s greatest presidents.

Barbara McClintock was born Eleanor McClintock on June 16, 1902, in Hartford, Connecticut.  She’s the first, and to date only woman to receive an unshared Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, for her discovery of transposition, or genetic “switches” in genes.