June 11th in History

1346 - Charles IV of Luxembourg was elected Holy Roman Emperor in Germany.

1509 - King Henry VIII married his first of six wives, Catherine of Aragon.

1770 - Captain James Cook discovered the Great Barrier Reef off of Australia when he ran aground.

1776 - In America, the Continental Congress formed a committee to draft a Declaration of Independence from Britain.

1798 - Napoleon Bonaparte took the island of Malta.

1915 - British troops took Cameroon in Africa. 

1937 - Soviet leader Josef Stalin began a purge of Red Army generals. 

1940 - The Italian Air Force bombed the British fortress at Malta in the Mediterranean. 

1943 - During World War II, the Italian island of Pantelleria surrendered after a heavy air bombardment. 

1963 - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was arrested in Florida for trying to integrate restaurants. 

1963 - Alabama Gov. George Wallace allowed two black students to enroll at the University of Alabama. 

1967 - Israel and Syria accepted a U.N. cease-fire. 

1987 - Margaret Thatcher became the first British prime minister in 160 years to win a third consecutive term of office. 

1998 - Pakistan announced moratorium on nuclear testing and offered to talk with India over disputed Kashmir.  

Famous Birthdays:

1572 - Ben Johnson, English Renaissance Dramatist

1776 - John Constable, English Romantic painter 

1880 - Jeannette Rankin, First woman to be elected to the US House of Representatives 

1939 - Sir John Young Stewart (Jackie Stewart), Racing driver

1949 - Ingrid Newkirk, Founder of PETA

June 10th in History

1776 - The Continental Congress appointed a committee to write a Declaration of Independence.

1793 - The Jardin des Plantes zoo opened in Paris. It was the first public zoo.

1801 - The North African State of Tripoli declared war on the U.S. The dispute was over merchant vessels being able to travel safely through the Mediterranean.

1898 - U.S. Marines landed in Cuba during the Spanish-American War.

1909 - The SOS distress signal was used for the first time. The Cunard liner SS Slavonia used the signal when it wrecked off the Azores.


1935 - Alcoholic Anonymous was founded by William G. Wilson and Dr. Robert Smith.

1940 - Italy declared war on France and Britain. In addition, Canada declared war on Italy.

1943 - The Allies began bombing Germany around the clock. 

1946 - Italy established a republic replacing its monarchy. 

1967 - Israel and Syria agreed to a cease-fire that ended the Six-Day War. 

1971 - The U.S. ended a 21-year trade embargo of China. 

1984 - The United States and the Vatican established full diplomatic relations for the first time in 117 years. 

1985 - The Israeli army pulled out of Lebanon after 1,099 days of occupation. 

1990 - The Civic Forum movement won Czechoslovakia's first free elections since 1946. The movement was founded by President Vaclav Havel. 

1990 - Bulgaria's former Communist Party won the country's first free elections in more than four decades. 

1996 - Britain and Ireland opened Northern Ireland peace talks. The IRA's political arm Sinn Fein was excluded. 

1999 - NATO suspended air strikes in Yugoslavia after Slobodan Milosevic agreed to withdraw his forces from Kosovo.

Famous Birthdays:

1836 - Andre-Marie Ampere,  Developed technology for measuring electricity 

1921 - HRH Prince Philip the Duke of Edinburgh, Husband of Queen Elizabeth II

1922 - Judy Garland, Singer and Actress (Most famous as Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz) 

1944 - Rick Price, Musician

1959 - Eliot Spitzer, Govenor of New York

1965 - Elizabeth Hurley, Model and actress

1982 - HRH Princess Madeleine of Sweden, Duchess of Hälsingland and Gästrikland, youngest child of  King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia of Sweden

June 9th in History

1064 - Coimbra, Portugal fell to Ferdinand, the King of Castile.

1534 - Jacques Cartier became the first to sail into the river he named Saint Lawrence.

1790 - Civil war broke out in Martinique.


1923 - Bulgaria’s government was overthrown by the military.

1934 - Donald Duck made his debut in the Silly Symphonies cartoon "The Wise Little Hen." 

1940 - Norway surrendered to the Nazis during World War II. 

1945 - Japanese Premier Kantaro Suzuki declared that Japan would fight to the last rather than accept unconditional surrender. 

1978 - Leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints struck down a 148-year-old policy of excluding black men from the Mormon priesthood. 

1999 - NATO and Yugoslavia signed a peace agreement over Kosovo. 

Famous Birthdays:

1640 - Leopold I, Holy Roman emperor 

1672 - Peter the Great (Peter I of Russia) 

1791 - John Howard Payne, Actor, poet, playwright

1908 - Louis Kutner, Human rights activist, lawyer, helped to found Amnesty International 

1961 - Michael J. Fox, Actor

1981 - Natalie Portman, Actres

June 8th in History

452 - Italy was invaded by Attila the Hun. 

793 - The Vikings raided the Northumbrian coast of England. 

1786 - In New York City, commercial ice cream was manufactured for the first time. 

1861 - Tennessee voted to secede from the Union and joined the Confederacy. 

1866 - Prussia annexed the region of Holstein.

1953 - The U.S. Supreme Court outlawed segregated restaurants in Washington, DC. 

1965 - U.S. troops in South Vietnam were given orders to begin fighting offensively. 

1969 - U.S. President Richard Nixon met with President Thieu of South Vietnam to tell him 25,000 U.S. troops would pull out by August. 

1982 - U.S. President Reagan became the first American chief executive to address a joint session of the British Parliament. 

1996 - China set off an underground nuclear test blast.  

Famous Birthdays:

1625 - Giovanni Domenico Cassini, Mathematician and Astronomer

1810 - Robert Schumann, Composer

1925 - Barbara Bush, Wife of former President George H.W. Bush

1940 - Nancy Sinatra, Singer

1957 - Scott Adams, Cartoonist

1977 - Kanye West, Singer, rapper

1983 - Kim Clijsters, Tennis player

Mary, Queen of Scots

Mary Stuart was born on the 8th of December 1542 at Linlithgow Palace. Her father was King James V of Scotland(1512-1542) and her mother was Mary of Guise(1515-1560)Mary was baptised at the nearby Church of St Michael shortly after she was born.
She was the great-niece of King Henry VIII of England, as her paternal grandmother, Margaret Tudor, was Henry VIII's sister. On 14 December, six days after her birth, she became Queen of Scotland when her father died.
Scotland was ruled by regents until she became an adult. From the outset, there were two different claims to the Regency: one from the Protestant Earl of Arran, who was next in line to the throne, and the other from Catholic Cardinal Beaton. Beaton's claim was based on a version of the late King's will that his opponents dismissed as a forgery. Arran, with the support of his friends and relations, became the regent until 1554 when Mary's mother managed to remove and succeed him.

Young Mary, Queen of Scots(around the age of 12-14)

As her mother was regent she sent her daughter to France in 1548. She had married the future King of France - Francis II. She was fifteen and he was fourteen. Her father-in-law, was Henry II, King of France Mary lived in luxury travelling from one palace to another. She developed a love of animals - especially dogs - and spent a lot of time learning. She could speak French, Latin, Spanish and some Ancient Greek. Mary could also play the lute with some skill. Her religious teacher was a monk from the priory at Inchmahome in Scotland and she developed very strong views on religion.

Francis had always been a sickly youth and his death aged sixteen in 1560 surprised no-one but it left Mary a widow at the age of seventeen.

Mary, Queen of Scots, aged 17

She returned to Scotland as Queen of the Scots aged eighteen in 1561. 

In 1565, she married her cousin, Lord Darnley, when she was 22. He was very unpopular with the people of Scotland as he was a violent, bad-tempered drunkard. During a party Darnley stabbed to death Mary's private secretary an Italian called David Rizzio. Mary was horrified.

In June 1566, Mary gave birth to a son, called James. He would later become King James VI of Scotland and after the death of his cousin Elizabeth I of England he would become King James I of England. (James was the first monarch to rule both Scotland and England)

On February 9th 1567, Mary and Lord Darnley were at a house called Kirk O'Field. Late in the evening she remembered that she had to see some friends and rode off. Scotland was a very dangerous country in the Sixteenth Century and it would have needed a very brave person to venture out at night without being fully guarded. That night, Kirk O'Field was blown up. Darnley's body was found in the garden of the house. The explosion had not killed him - he had been strangled. Just three months later, Mary married the Earl of Bothwell. He was as disliked as Darnley by the Scots lords and they rose up against Mary.The Earl of Bothwell escaped to Europe where he died an alcoholic and all but insane. Mary was arrested and held prisoner at Loch Leven Castle. 

She was made to give up the throne for James, her son. Mary later escaped from her prison and she fled to England where she hoped her cousin, Elizabeth, would look after her. Mary's logic was twofold. First, Mary was a Queen and so was Elizabeth. Mary expected a Queen to help a Queen. Secondly, Mary assumed that their family ties would prove strong. She could not have been more wrong. 

Simply by being in England, Mary represented a threat to Elizabeth. Elizabeth had a belief that if someone was a Catholic and practiced their beliefs privately and represented no threat to the Queen, then she was willing to tolerate their religion. If the Catholics were respectful to the Queen and obedient, then Elizabeth could see no reason why they should not be tolerated. The nation greatly benefited from religious stability. Mary, Queen of Scots, threatened this stability. As a Catholic, she might become a focus for all the Catholics who existed in England and a leader for them. In this sense, Mary was a very real threat to Elizabeth.

Another major reason is as follows: there were some who believed that the marriage between Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn had been illegal. Catholics certainly did not recognise Henry's divorce from the Catholic Catherine of Aragon and there were rumours that Henry had married Anne before his divorce  had actually come through. Therefore, if the marriage was illegal, Elizabeth was illegitimate and had no right to the throne. If Elizabeth had no right to the throne, the nearest legal heir to the English throne was.........Mary, Queen of Scots. This could have acted as an incentive for the Catholics in England to rebel against Elizabeth and put Mary onto the throne. It may also have been a reason for Elizabeth's advisors to decide that England was better off with Mary dead - though they would need proof to convince a court of law about her guilt.

Elizabeth now hit a problem. Her cousin quite clearly posed problems for her. If Mary was sent back to Scotland, from where she had escaped, she may well have been killed and Elizabeth would not accept that a Queen (and family) should be treated in such a way. But by being in England, Mary might act as a spur for Catholics to rebel.

Elizabeth's solution was to keep Mary, Queen of Scots, in prison. For the next 19 years, Mary was kept in safe custody in various castles and manor houses. In all this time, Mary never met Elizabeth.

Mary the prisoner 

Mary, Queen of Scots, did not help herself. She made it clear to anybody who would listen, that she felt that she should be the queen of England. In 1570, she received the backing of the pope. This meant that there was no reason why a Catholic should not assassinate Elizabeth because it would not be a sin as the pope had said that Mary should be queen of England. Mary was clearly becoming a major problem for Elizabeth and her advisor's.

It took many years for the government to build up a case against Mary - even if such a case actually existed! This work was carried out by Sir Francis Walsingham. His spy network kept a close eye on Mary.In 1586, a man called Anthony Babington devised a plot to kill Elizabeth, rescue Mary and then see her as the next Queen of England. Babington wrote in code to Mary to explain what he was doing. Mary wrote back, stating that she agreed with what he was doing.  Walsingham's spies intercepted both letters. Babington was arrested and charged with treason. In September 1586, Babington was executed. Now the government had a case against Mary.On 11 August 1586, Mary was arrested after being implicated in the Babington Plot. She was moved to Fotheringay Castle in a four-day journey ending on 25 September, and in October was put on trial for treason under the Act for the Queen's Safety before a court of 36 noblemen.

Mary denied the charges and was spirited in her defence. She drew attention to the fact that she was denied the opportunity to review the evidence or her papers that had been removed from her, that she was denied access to legal counsel and that as a foreign anointed Queen she had never been an English subject and thus could not be convicted of treason. 

An innocent Queen

Mary was convicted on 25 October and sentenced to death with only one commissioner, Lord Zouche, expressing any form of dissent. Despite this, Elizabeth hesitated to order her execution, even in the face of pressure from the English Parliament to carry out the sentence. She was concerned that the killing of a Queen set a discreditable precedent, and was fearful of the consequences, especially if, in retaliation, Mary's son James formed an alliance with the Catholic powers and invaded England. On 1 February 1587, Elizabeth signed the death warrant. 

At Fotheringhay on the evening of 7 February 1587, Mary was told that she was to be executed the next morning. She spent the last hours of her life in prayer, distributing her belongings to her household, and writing her will and a letter to the King of France.The scaffold that was erected in the Great Hall was two feet high and draped in black. It was reached by two or three steps and furnished with the block, a cushion for her to kneel on and three stools, for her and the earls of Shrewsbury and Kent, who were there to witness the execution. The executioners (one named Bull and his assistant) knelt before her and asked forgiveness. She replied, "I forgive you with all my heart, for now, I hope, you shall make an end of all my troubles." Her servants, Jane Kennedy and Elizabeth Curle, and the executioners helped Mary to remove her outer garments, revealing a velvet petticoat, satin bodice and a pair of sleeves all in dark red, the liturgical colour of martyrdom in the Catholic Church.As she disrobed she smiled and said that she "never had such grooms before ... nor ever put off her clothes before such a company". She was blindfolded by Kennedy with a white veil embroidered in gold, and knelt down on the cushion in front of the block. She positioned her head on the block and stretched out her arms. Her last words were, In manus tuas, Domine, commendo spiritum meum ("Into thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit").

It took two strikes to kill Mary: the first blow missed her neck and struck the back of her head. The second blow severed the neck, except for a small bit of tendon that the executioner cut through by using the axe as a saw. Afterward, the executioner held her head aloft and declared, "God save the Queen." At that moment, the auburn tresses in his hand turned out to be a wig and the head fell to the ground, revealing that Mary had had very short, grey hair. 

Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots (1587)

Mary's request to be buried in France was refused by Elizabeth. Her body was embalmed and left unburied in a secure lead coffin until her burial, in a Protestant service, at Peterborough Cathedral in late July 1587. Her entrails, removed as part of the embalming process, were buried secretly within Fotheringay Castle. Her body was exhumed in 1612 when her son, King James VI and I, ordered she be reinterred in Westminster Abbey, in a chapel opposite the tomb of Elizabeth I.

Tomb effigy of Mary, Queen of Scots in Westminster Abbey

June 7th in History

1494 - Spain and Portugal divided the new lands they had discovered between themselves. 

1498 - Christopher Columbus left on his third voyage of exploration. 

1546 - Peace of Ardes ended the war between France and England. 

1654 - Louis XIV was crowned King of France. 

1712 - The Pennsylvania Assembly banned the importation of slaves. 

1775 - The United Colonies changed their name to the United States. 

1863 - Mexico City was captured by French troops.

1903 - Professor Pierre Curie revealed the discovery of Polonium. 

1929 - The sovereign state of Vatican City came into existence as copies of the Lateran Treaty were exchanged in Rome.

1939 - King George VI and his wife, Queen Elizabeth, arrived in the U.S. It was the first visit to the U.S. by a reigning British monarch. 

1942 - The Battle of Midway ended. The sea and air battle lasted 4 days.

1948 - The Communists completed their takeover of Czechoslovakia. 

Famous Birthdays:

1848 - Paul Gauguin, Post-Impressionist artist

1909 - Jessica Tandy, Actress

1909 - Virginia Apgar, Physician that specialized in anesthesia

1928 - Charles Strouse, Composer

1930 - Dolores Gray, Actress

1940 - Tom Jones, Singer

1952 - Liam Neeson, Actor

1956 - L.A Reid, Record producer

June 6th in History

1674 - Sivaji crowned himself King of India.

1813 - The U.S. invasion of Canada was halted at Stony Creek, Ontario.


1924 - The German Reichtag accepted the Dawes Plan. It was an American plan to help Germany pay off its war debts.

1942 - Japanese forces retreated in the World War II Battle of Midway. The battle had begun on June 4. 

1944 - The D-Day invasion of Europe took place on the beaches of Normandy, France. 400,000 Allied American, British and Canadian troops were involved. 

1968 - U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy died at 1:44am in Los Angeles after being shot by Sirhan Sirhan. Kennedy was was shot the evening before while campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination. 

1982 - Israel invaded southern Lebanon in an effort to drive PLO guerrillas out of Beirut. 

1985 - The body of Nazi war criminal Dr. Josef Mengele was located and exhumed near Sao Paolo, Brazil. Mengele was known as the "Angel of Death." 

1993 - Mongolia held its first direct presidential elections. 

Famous Birthdays:

1606 - Pierre Corneille, Dramatist

1755 - Nathan Hale, Soldier for Continental Army during American Revolutionary War, America's first spy

1903 - Aram Khachaturian, Composer 

1932 - David Scott, NASA astronaut 

1934 - Roy Innis, Civil Rights Activist

1956 - Bjorn Borg, Tennis player