June 15th in History

1215 - King John of England put his seal on the Magna Carta. 

1381 - The English peasant revolt was crushed in London. 

1389 - Ottoman Turks crushed Serbia in the Battle of Kosovo. 

1752 - Benjamin Franklin experimented by flying a kite during a thunderstorm. The result was a little spark that showed the relationship between lightning and electricity. 

1775 - George Washington was appointed head of the Continental Army by the Second Continental Congress. 

1836 - Arkansas became the 25th U.S. state. 

1846 - The United States and Britain settled a boundary dispute concerning the boundary between the U.S. and Canada, by signing a treaty. 

1866 - Prussia attacked Austria. 

1917 - Great Britain pledged the release of all the Irish captured during the Easter Rising of 1916. 

1947 - The All-Indian Congress accepted a British plan for the partition of India.

1964 - The last French troops left Algeria. 

1978 - King Hussein of Jordan married 26-year-old American Lisa Halaby, who became Queen Noor. 

1982 - In the capital city of Stanley, the Falklands war ended as Argentine troops surrendered to the British.

 1994 - Israel and the Vatican established full diplomatic relations. #

Famous Birthdays:

1330 - Edward the Black, Prince of Wales and Aquitaine. Eldest son of King Edward III and father of King Richard II.

1902 - Erik H. Erickson, Psychologist

1946 - Janet Lennon, Singer

1964 - Courtney Cox, Actress

1969 - O'Shea Jackson (Ice Cube), Rapper

1981 - Billy Martin, Musician 

John F. Kennedy - The People's President

John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963.
The second son of Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., and Rose Fitzgerald; Rose was the eldest child of John "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald, a prominent Boston political figure who was the city's mayor and a three-term member of Congress.  JFK had four brothers and five sisters. Jack was not a very healthy baby, and Rose recorded on his notecard the childhood diseases from which he suffered, such as: "whooping cough, measles, chicken pox."

Young JFK

When he was a student at Harvard College and having a difficult time fitting in as an Irish Catholic, he swore to himself he would make a million dollars by the age of 35. There was a lot of prejudice against Irish Catholics in Boston at that time.  Jack’s great-grandparents had come from Ireland and managed to provide for their families, despite many hardships. Jack’s grandfathers did even better for themselves, both becoming prominent Boston politicians. Jack, because of all his family had done, could enjoy a very comfortable life. The Kennedy's had everything they needed and more.

Jack was a senior at Harvard and decided to write his thesis on why Great Britain was unprepared for war with Germany. It was later published as a book called Why England Slept.  In June 1940, Jack graduated from Harvard. His father sent him a cablegram from London:
Soon after graduating, both Joe and Jack joined the Navy. Joe was a flyer and sent to Europe, while Jack was made Lieutenant (Lt.) and assigned to the South Pacific as commander of a patrol torpedo boat, the PT-109. Lt. Kennedy had a crew of twelve men whose mission was to stop Japanese ships from delivering supplies to their soldiers. On the night of August 2, 1943, Lt. Kennedy’s crew patrolled the waters looking for enemy ships to sink. A Japanese destroyer suddenly became visible. But it was traveling at full speed and headed straight at them. Holding the wheel, Lt. Kennedy tried to swerve out of the way, but to no avail. The much larger Japanese warship rammed the PT-109, splitting it in half and killing two of Lt. Kennedy’s men. The others managed to jump off as their boat went up in flames. Lt. Kennedy was slammed hard against the cockpit, once again injuring his weak back. Patrick McMahon, one of his crew members, had horrible burns on his face and hands and was ready to give up. In the darkness, Lt. Kennedy managed to find McMahon and haul him back to where the other survivors were clinging to a piece of the boat that was still afloat. At sunrise, Lt. Kennedy led his men toward a small island several miles away. Despite his own injuries, Lt. Kennedy was able to tow Patrick McMahon ashore, a strap from McMahon’s life jacket clenched between his teeth. Six days later two native islanders found them and went for help, delivering a message Jack had carved into a piece of coconut shell. The next day, the PT-109 crew was rescued. Jack’s brother Joe was not so lucky. He died a year later when his plane blew up during a dangerous mission in Europe.

Lt Kennedy

When he returned home, Jack was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for his leadership and courage. With the war finally coming to an end, it was time to choose the kind of work he wanted to do. Jack had considered becoming a teacher or a writer, but with Joe’s tragic death suddenly everything changed. After serious discussions with Jack about his future, Joseph Kennedy convinced him that he should run for Congress in Massachusetts' eleventh congressional district, where he won in 1946. This was the beginning of Jack’s political career. As the years went on, John F. Kennedy, a Democrat, served three terms (six years) in the House of Representatives, and in 1952 he was elected to the U.S. Senate.

Jacqueline Lee Bouvier was born on July 28, 1929, in Southampton, New York. Jacqueline met John F. Kennedy, who was a congressman and soon to be elected a Senator from Massachusetts. On September 12, 1953, they married at St. Mary’s Church in Newport, Rhode Island. After their honeymoon in Mexico, the Kennedys returned to Washington D.C. Early on in their marriage, Senator Kennedy suffered crippling pain in his back from football and wartime injuries and had two operations. While recovering from surgery, Mrs. Kennedy encouraged him to write a book about several U.S. senators who had risked their careers to fight for the things they believed in. The book, called Profiles in Courage, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for biography in 1957. That same year, the Kennedys’ first child, Caroline, was born.

Jacqueline and John in their wedding day

On January 2, 1960, Kennedy initiated his campaign for President in the Democratic primary election, where he faced challenges from Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota and Senator Wayne Morse of Oregon. Kennedy visited a coal mine in West Virginia; most miners and others in that predominantly conservative, Protestant state were quite wary of Kennedy's Roman Catholicism. His victory in West Virginia confirmed his broad popular appeal. At the Democratic Convention, he gave his well-known "New Frontier" speech, saying: "For the problems are not all solved and the battles are not all won—and we stand today on the edge of a New Frontier ... But the New Frontier of which I speak is not a set of promises—it is a set of challenges. It sums up not what I intend to offer the American people, but what I intend to ask of them." on July 13 the Democratic convention nominated Kennedy as its candidate. Kennedy asked Lyndon Johnson to be his Vice Presidential candidate, despite opposition from many liberal delegates and Kennedy's own staff, including his brother, Robert.
He needed Johnson's strength in the South to win what was considered likely to be the closest election since 1916. Major issues included how to get the economy moving again, Kennedy's Roman Catholicism, Cuba, and whether the Soviet space and missile programs had surpassed those of the U.S. To address fears that his being Catholic would impact his decision-making, he famously told the Greater Houston Ministerial Association on September 12, 1960, "I am not the Catholic candidate for President. I am the Democratic Party candidate for President who also happens to be a Catholic. I do not speak for my Church on public matters – and the Church does not speak for me."
In September and October, Kennedy appeared with Republican candidate Richard Nixon, then Vice President, in the first televised U.S. presidential debates in U.S. history.
On November 8, Kennedy defeated Nixon in one of the closest presidential elections of the 20th century. In the national popular vote Kennedy led Nixon by just two-tenths of one percent (49.7% to 49.5%), while in the Electoral College he won 303 votes to Nixon's 219 (269 were needed to win). Another 14 electors from Mississippi and Alabama refused to support Kennedy because of his support for the civil rights movement; they voted for Senator Harry F. Byrd of Virginia, as did the elector from Oklahoma. Kennedy was the youngest man elected president, succeeding Eisenhower, who was then the oldest (Ronald Reagan surpassed Eisenhower as the oldest president in 1981).

Campaign poster

John F. Kennedy was sworn in as the 35th President at noon on January 20, 1961. In his inaugural address he spoke of the need for all Americans to be active citizens, famously saying, "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country." He asked the nations of the world to join together to fight what he called the "common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself". He added: "All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days. Nor will it be finished in the first one thousand days, nor in the life of this Administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin." In closing, he expanded on his desire for greater internationalism: "Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world, ask of us here the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you."
President Kennedy's foreign policy was dominated by American confrontations with the Soviet Union, manifested by proxy contests in the early stage of the Cold War. In 1961, Kennedy anxiously anticipated a summit with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev.

The prior Eisenhower administration had created a plan to overthrow the Fidel Castro regime in Cuba. The plan, led by the CIA with help from the U.S. military, was for an invasion of Cuba by a counter-revolutionary insurgency composed of U.S.-trained anti-Castro Cuban exiles led by CIA paramilitary officers. The intention was to invade Cuba and instigate an uprising among the Cuban people in hopes of removing Castro from power. On April 17, 1961, Kennedy ordered what became known as the "Bay of Pigs Invasion": 1,500 U.S.-trained Cubans, called "Brigade 2506", landed on the island. No U.S. air support was provided. Allen Dulles, director of the CIA, later stated that they thought the president would authorize any action required for success once the troops were on the ground. By April 19, 1961, the Cuban government had captured or killed the invading exiles, and Kennedy was forced to negotiate for the release of the 1,189 survivors. After twenty months, Cuba released the captured exiles in exchange for $53 million worth of food and medicine.The incident made Castro wary of the U.S. and led him to believe another invasion would occur.

President Kennedy

On October 14, 1962, CIA U-2 spy planes took photographs of intermediate-range ballistic missile sites being built in Cuba by the Soviets. The photos were shown to Kennedy on October 16; a consensus was reached that the missiles were offensive in nature and thus posed an immediate nuclear threat. Kennedy faced a dilemma: if the U.S. attacked the sites, it might lead to nuclear war with the U.S.S.R., but if the U.S. did nothing, it would be faced with the increased threat from close range nuclear weapons. More than a third of the members of the National Security Council (NSC) favored an unannounced air assault on the missile sites, but for some of them this conjured up an image of "Pearl Harbor in reverse". There was as well some reaction from the international community (asked in confidence) that the assault plan was an overreaction in light of U.S. missiles that had been placed in Turkey by Eisenhower. And there could be no assurance that the assault would be 100% effective. In concurrence with a majority vote of the NSC, Kennedy decided on a naval quarantine. On October 22 he dispatched a message to Khrushchev and announced the decision on TV.

In 1963, Germany was enduring a time of particular vulnerability due to Soviet aggression to the east, de Gaulle's French nationalism to the west, and the impending retirement of German Chancellor Adenauer. On June 26 Kennedy gave a public speech in West Berlin reiterating the American commitment to Germany and criticizing communism; he was met with an ecstatic response from a massive audience. Kennedy used the construction of the Berlin Wall as an example of the failures of communism: "Freedom has many difficulties and democracy is not perfect, but we have never had to put a wall up to keep our people in." The speech is known for its famous phrase "Ich bin ein Berliner" ("I am a citizen of Berlin")

The President in Berlin

During his visit to Ireland in 1963, Kennedy accepted a grant of armorial bearings from the Chief Herald of Ireland. He visited the cottage at Dunganstown, near New Ross, where his ancestors had lived before emigrating to America. On December 22, 2006, the Irish Department of Justice released declassified police documents indicating that security was heightened as Kennedy was the subject of three death threats during this visit.

The President in Ireland

On April 12, 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person to fly in space, reinforcing American fears about being left behind in a technological competition with the Soviet Union. Kennedy was eager for the U.S. to take the lead in the Space Race for reasons of strategy and prestige. He first announced the goal of landing a man on the Moon in the speech to a Joint Session of Congress on May 25, 1961, stating:
"First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish."


On November 21, 1963, President Kennedy flew to Texas to give several political speeches. At 12:30 p.m., as Kennedy's uncovered limousine entered Dealey Plaza, Nellie Connally, then the First Lady of Texas, turned around to Kennedy, who was sitting behind her, and commented, "Mr. President, you can't say Dallas doesn't love you," which President Kennedy acknowledged. From Houston Street, the presidential limousine made the planned left turn to put it on Elm Street to allow it to pass to the Stemmons Freeway exit. As it turned on Elm, the motorcade passed the Texas School Book Depository. As it continued down Elm Street, shots were fired at Kennedy; a clear majority of witnesses recalled hearing three shots. A minority of the witnesses did recognize the first gunshot blast they heard as a weapon blast, but there was hardly any reaction from a majority in the crowd or riding in the motorcade itself to the first shot, with many later saying they heard what they first thought to be a firecracker or the exhaust backfire of a vehicle just after the president started waving.

Moments before the President is shot

He was shot once in the upper back and killed with a final shot to the head. He was taken to Parkland Hospital for emergency medical treatment, but pronounced dead at 1:00 pm. Only 46, President Kennedy died younger than any U.S. president to date. Lee Harvey Oswald, an employee of the Texas School Book Depository from which the shots were suspected to have been fired, was arrested on charges for the murder of a local police officer and was subsequently charged with the assassination of Kennedy. He denied shooting anyone, claiming he was a patsy, but was killed by Jack Ruby on November 24, before he could be indicted or tried. Ruby was then arrested and convicted for the murder of Oswald. Ruby successfully appealed his conviction and death sentence but became ill and died of cancer on January 3, 1967, while the date for his new trial was being set.

Scene of the crime

A Requiem Mass was held for Kennedy at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle on November 25, 1963. Afterwards, John F. Kennedy's body was buried in a small plot, in Arlington National Cemetery. Kennedy's wife, Jacqueline and their two deceased minor children were buried with him later. His brother, Senator Robert Kennedy, was buried nearby in June 1968. In August 2009, his brother, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, was also buried near his two brothers. JFK's grave is lit with an "Eternal Flame."

The grave of President Kennedy and his wife Jackie

June 14th in History

1775 - The Continental Army was founded by the Second Continental Congress for purposes of common defense. This event is considered to be the birth of the United States Army. On June 15, George Washington was appointed commander-in-chief.

1777 - The Continental Congress in Philadelphia adopted the "Stars and Stripes" as the national flag of the United States.

1841 - The first Canadian parliament opened in Kingston. 

1846 - A group of U.S. settlers in Sonoma proclaimed the Republic of California. 

1893 - Philadelphia observed the first Flag Day. 

1900 - Hawaii became a U.S. territory. 

1907 - Women in Norway won the right to vote. 

1940 - The Nazis opened their concentration camp at Auschwitz in German-occupied Poland. 

1940 - German troops entered Paris. As Paris became occupied loud speakers announced the implementation of a curfew being imposed for 8 p.m. 

1945 - Burma was liberated by Britain. 

1949 - The state of Vietnam was formed. 

1982 - Argentine forces surrendered to British troops on the Falkland Islands. 

1989 - Former U.S. President Reagan received an honorary knighthood from Britain's Queen Elizabeth II. 

Famous Birthdays:

1811 - Harriet Beecher Stowe, Abolitionist (Anti-Slavery)

1848 - Antoine-Joseph Sax, Inventor of the saxophone 

1946 - Donald Trump, real estate developer

1968 - Yasmine Bleeth, Actress

June 13th in History

1415 - Henry the Navigator, the prince of Portugal, embarked on an expedition to Africa. 

1777 - The Marquis de Lafayette arrived in the American colonies to help with their rebellion against the British. 

1789 - Ice cream was served to General George Washington by Mrs. Alexander Hamilton. 

1866 - The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was passed by the U.S. Congress. It was ratified on July 9, 1868. 

1923 - The French set a trade barrier between the occupied Ruhr and the rest of Germany. 

1927 - For the first time, an American Flag was displayed from the right hand of the Statue of Liberty. 

1940 - Paris was evacuated before the German advance on the city. 

1943 - German spies landed on Long Island, New York. They were soon captured. 

1949 - Bao Dai entered Saigon to rule Vietnam. He had been installed by the French. 

1951 - U.N. troops seized Pyongyang, North Korea. 

1978 - Israelis withdrew the last of their invading forces from Lebanon. 

1981 - At a parade in London a teenager fired six-blank shots at Queen Elizabeth II. 

Famous Birthdays:


40 - Gnaeus Julius Agricola, Roman General

1786 - Winfield Scott, United States Army General

1865 - William Butler Yeats, Poet

1926 - Paul Lynde, Comedian

1953 - Tim Allen, Comedian

1974 - Steve Gover (Steve-O)

1986 - Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen, Actresses

Elizabeth I - The Golden age Queen

Elizabeth I was born on 7 September 1533 at Greenwich Palace. Her parents were King Henry VIII and his second wife Anne Boleyn. She was named after both her grandmothers, Elizabeth of York and Elizabeth Howard. At birth, Elizabeth was the heiress presumptive to the throne of England. Her older half-sister, Mary, had lost her position as a legitimate heir when Henry annulled his marriage to Mary's mother, Catherine of Aragon, in order to marry Anne and sire a male heir to ensure the Tudor succession. Elizabeth was baptised on 10 September; Archbishop Thomas Cranmer.

King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn

When Elizabeth was two years and eight months old her mother was executed on 19 May 1536. Elizabeth was declared illegitimate and deprived of the title of Princess. Eleven days after Anne Boleyn's death, Henry married Jane Seymour, but she died shortly after the birth of their son, Prince Edward, in 1537. Edward now became the undisputed heir to the throne. Elizabeth was placed in Edward's household and carried the chrisom, or baptismal cloth, at his christening. She received an excellent education, proving very good at languages.

Lady Elizabeth, 1546

King Henry VIII died in 1547; Elizabeth's half-brother, Edward VI became King at age 9. Edward VI's uncle became the Lord Protector. Lady Elizabeth at this stage was second in line to the throne. Before Edward died he declared his succession. Edward proclaimed Lady Jane Grey as his heiress. He excluded both of his sisters in his succession act. King Edward VI died on July 6th in 1553, aged 15. Lady Jane Grey had now ascended to the throne. Her reign would be brief. Lady Jane Grey would reign from the 10th of July to the 19th of July 1553. She would lose the throne and eventually her head to the new Queen of England, Mary I.  Under Queen Mary I England returned to Catholicism. During this period Lady Elizabeth feered that her sister the Queen would have her put to death. Luckily for Elizabeth, Mary I did not seek her sisters death. Mary (who was married to King Philip II of Spain) failed to produce an heir. In 1558 Mary fell ill. With no heir Mary proclaimed her sister Elizabeth as her successor. On November 17th 1558 Queen Mary I died at St. James's Palace, aged 42. There was now a new Queen of England. News of Mary's death on November 17, 1558 reached Elizabeth at Hatfield, where she was said to be out in the park, sitting under an oak tree. Upon hearing that she was Queen, legend has it that Elizabeth quoted the 118th Psalm's twenty-third line, in Latin: "A Dominum factum est illud, et est mirabile in oculis notris" -- "It is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes."

On January 15, 1559, Elizabeth I was crowned Queen by Owen Oglethorpe, Bishop of Carlisle at Westminster Abbey, a little less than two months after the death of Mary I. The total cost of the celebrations, excluding the coronation banquet was £16,741, which according to one calculation would equal about £3.5 million today. Like her predecessors, Elizabeth knew the importance of a good show, especially for a new monarch who needed to re-affirm her right to her crown. For the procession, Elizabeth walked on a blue carpet that ran from the palace to the abbey, which was torn up by souvenir seekers after the Queen walked passed. 

Elizabeth I's Coronation Portrait

Elizabeth I has traditionally been seen as one of England's greatest monarchs - if not in fact the greatest.

Her reign witnessed widespread increase in literacy and great achievements in the arts (Shakespeare, Spenser, Marlowe, Ralegh) as well as expansion overseas (Drake, Ralegh, Frobisher) and military victory over threatened invasion.

Elizabeth herself was regarded as wise and just, able to choose good advisers yet not be dominated by them and to handle recalcitrant Parliaments without despotism; a ruler supremely skilled at compromise in both the religious and political spheres.

In recent years, however, interpretations of Elizabeth and her reign have been less favorable.

When Elizabeth nearly died from smallpox in 1562, many of her advisers thought that she should marry and produce an heir as soon as possible. In fact, although Elizabeth entered into marriage negotiations with various foreign Princes and flirted with some of her own subjects, she was never to marry. Elizabeth's early years saw other problems, in particular, the wars in Scotland and France inherited from Mary. 

English support for the successful Scottish Protestant rebellion of 1560 led by John Knox, combined with the outbreak in 1562 of the French Wars of Religion diminished both threats. Unlike her bellicose father, Elizabeth made peace as soon as possible and tried to stay out of expensive wars; she even attempted to maintain peaceful relations with Spain (although she drew the line at marrying Philip as he proposed). Elizabeth adopted a moderate religious policy. The Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity (1559), the Prayer Book of 1559, and the Thirty-Nine Articles (1563) were all Protestant in doctrine, but preserved many traditionally Catholic ceremonies. Moreover, Elizabeth did not persecute Catholics - the penalties for recusancy were mild and often not enforced. 

In Scotland there lied a real threat to Elizabeth. This was her cousin Mary, Queen of Scots (http://ahistoryblogger.blogspot.ie/2012/06/mary-queen-of-scots.html) Mary was a devout Catholic who believed that she should be the rightful Queen of England. It is believed that many English Catholics would have favoured Mary, Queen of Scots to rebel against Elizabeth and remove her cousin and proclaim herself Queen of England. But this did not happen. Elizabeth would later have the Queen of Scots arrested for treason and would eventually sign the death warrant for the execution of Mary. Mary's death was said to have remained on Elizabeth's conscience for the rest of her life.

The defeat of the Spanish Armada is one of the most famous events in English history. It was arguably Queen Elizabeth's finest hour. For years she had been hailed as the English Deborah, the saviour of the English people, and now it seemed that this is what she had really become. She was now Bellona, the goddess of war, and in triumph she had led her people to glory, defeating the greatest power in the 16th century world.
Spain was the most powerful country in the world. Philip II ruled vast territories of land, and had unparalleled wealth from the New World. England was a small country, with little wealth, few friends, and many enemies. If Queen Elizabeth ever felt nervous about challenging the greatest power in the known world, she never showed it, and appeared to believe completely in the devotion and loyalty of her people. By believing in them, they believed in her.


Although relations between Spain and England had began rather well, with Philip even proposing marriage to the English Queen, over the 30 years since the Queen's accession, relations had deteriorated. There were many reasons for this. To begin with, England was a Protestant country, and Spain was a Roman Catholic one. The Spanish made no secret of their hostility to the English Queen, who they believed was illegitimate and had no right to the English throne, and had been involved in plots to dethrone her. Elizabeth herself had encouraged the activities of the English pirates, who plundered Philip's ships as they made their way from the New World, seizing their treasures. This had angered Philip immensely, especially as the stolen treasure was used to help fund those people rebelling against his rule in the Netherlands.
As early as 1585, Philip had begun to prepare a great fleet that, under the Spanish commander Santa Cruz, would invade England. At first the aim of the Armada was to liberate the captive Queen of Scots, but when Mary was executed for conspiring Elizabeth's death in 1587, Philip planned to invade England in the name of his daughter, the Infanta Isabella.  Philip believed he had a genuine claim to the English throne, both by descent from John of Gaunt, and as Queen Mary I's husband. The purpose of the mission was to depose Elizabeth, put Mary/Isabella on the throne, and make England Roman Catholic once again. Queen Elizabeth had heard mutterings of the intended invasion of England by Spain for some time. She was not, however, at first concerned about the rumors. She had heard such rumors for almost 30 years, and easily dismissed them. Her Councilors were not so dismissive. It eventually became clear to Elizabeth, however, that this time, the Spanish were really going to send a fleet against England. Although the Queen had spent considerable amounts of money funding the Netherlands campaign, she now employed all her efforts in raising funds to ensure that when the Spanish fleet came, England would be prepared.

The plans of the Spanish were meticulous. It was planned that the Spanish fleet, consisting of over 100 ships, would sail up from Spain along the English Channel and meet with the forces of the Duke of Parma, Philip's nephew, making their way from the Netherlands. Together they would sail towards England. It was believed that this force would overwhelm the English.  The English would be conquered, and the heretical Queen would be captured.

But the English were waiting. On the cliffs of England and Wales, men watched the seas day and night, waiting for the first sighting of the great Armada. When at last the great ships appeared on the horizon, beacons were lit on the hillsides, which sent the message over the cliffs and throughout the country, that the Spanish were coming. The beacons sent the message quicker than any horseman could ever ride, and by morning, London and the Queen knew that the day of reckoning had come. As soon as the ships began to make their way up the channel, the fighting began.
While English soldiers and sailors fought for England's liberty, Queen Elizabeth made her way to Tilbury. She was not going to sit trembling inside a guarded Palace while her people fought, but was going to go to the coast of the battle and "live or die" with them. Like a true warrior Queen, Elizabeth, upon a White Horse, inspected her soldiers, and made what was possibly her most famous speech of all.

Elizabeth I inspects her troops

In her most powerful speech to the troops she said: "I know I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a King, and of a King of England too". These words inspired her troops to defeat the Spanish.


The Queen's confidence in God and her people was rewarded. In the English channel, the Spanish were suffering a humiliating defeat. The weather was dreadful, with the wind and rain against them, and they were not able to compete with the superior English ships and war tactics. They fled in terror when fire ships were aimed at them. The only way back to Spain was the perilous journey around the coast of Scotland, and many a Spaniard never saw his home country again. The battle was over, the English had won.
The Queen and her people were jubilant. No more were they a second rate sea power, for they had conquered the fleet of the mighty Spanish Empire. A thanksgiving service was held at St. Paul's Cathedral for the delivery of the country, and a medal was struck with the words "God blew and they were scattered" inscribed on it. They believed that the storm that had besieged the Spanish ships was no ordinary storm, but the work of a Protestant God.

But amongst the joy, there was considerable sorrow for the Queen. The Earl of Leicester, who had been her companion since her accession, and who she undoubtedly loved, had died unexpectedly not long after sharing with her the great victory. The Queen was devastated and secluded herself for a while. In the Armada portrait she reputedly wears the pearls he left her in his will. But her people needed her, and despite her grief, the Queen participated fully in the celebrations at St. Pauls. "God bless you my people" she called out, and her people called a thousand blessings on her.
Although King Philip sent other fleets against England in the 1590's, none was as significant, or as threatening as that of the great Armada of 1588, and none has captured the imagination of successive generations as much. 

Elizabeth I's Armada portrait

The Elizabethan age is celebrated for its literary and dramatic culture, its music and chivalry. The Elizabethan nobility loved to have a good time, and knew just how to have it. The wealthy of the land would entertain each other with great banquets of rich foods, wine, music and dancing. They would play games against each other, play sports such as tennis or bowls, and they would ride and hunt. Women too would participate in some of these sports, aswell as play musical instruments, draw, sew and embroider.
When Queen Elizabeth was not busy with matters of state, she too would enjoy some of  these pleasures.  Evenings at court were full of entertainments often dedicated to the Queen, and often there would be public performances conducted especially for her, but the Queen also enjoyed less public activities. Elizabeth loved to horse ride. She would spend many an hour riding fast through the Palace grounds. Her love for the sport terrified her Councilors, who feared that she would seriously injure, or even kill herself, from a fall. But Elizabeth was undaunted, and continued to ride long distances and at great speed until the end of her life. Even in her sixties she could ride a distance of ten miles, which she once proved to a courtier who advised the aging Queen to take the carriage.

Queen Elizabeth was a great follower of fashion. While in private she preferred to wear simple gowns, and would reputedly wear the same plain gown for two or three days, when she was in public, she dressed to impress. Clothes were an important status symbol to the Elizabethans, and a person had to dress in accordance with their social status. It was thus in keeping that the Queen dressed more magnificent than everyone else. No one was allowed to rival the Queen's appearance.

Queen Elizabeth as Gloriana may have seemed to many to be immortal, but by the turn of the seventeenth century, she was beginning to display very real human frailty.  Life as a monarch may have been glorious at times, but it was a difficult, demanding, and often very lonely task, and Elizabeth was tired both physically and emotionally. She herself said :
“To be a king and wear a crown, is a thing more glorious to them that see it, than it is pleasant to them that bear it”


By the late winter of 1602/3 Elizabeth was feeling unwell. She had caught a chill after walking out in the cold winter air, and complained of a sore throat as well as aches and pains.  She lay resignedly on her cushions in her private apartments, and could not be persuaded to leave them for the comfort of her bed.  “I am not well” she declared, but refused the administrations of her doctors. It was the opinion of her contemporaries that she would have recovered from this illness if she had fought against it, but she was did not want to. She was old, she was tired, and she was lonely. She was ready to slip into the world where all those she had loved had gone before her. As her condition deteriorated, Archbishop Whitgift (her favourite of all her Archbishops of Canterbury) was called to her side, and the Queen clung tight to his hand. When he spoke to her of getting better, she made no response, but when he spoke to her of the joys of Heaven, she squeezed his hand contentedly.  By this time she was beyond speech and could only communicate with gestures. It was clear to all of those around that the great Queen was dying. It was getting late, and those in vigilance around the Queen's bed left her to the care of her ladies. The Queen fell into a deep sleep, and died in the early hours of the 24th of March, 1603.  It was a Thursday, the death day of her father, and her sister.  It was the eve of the annunciation of the Virgin Mary,  perhaps an apt day for the Virgin Queen to die. The Elizabethan calendar was also different to ours, as they still used the Julian calendar - the new year beginning on the 25th of March. Thus the last day of the year 1602 also saw the last hours of the last Tudor monarch. The new year would bring a new reign, that of King James I (James VI of Scotland), a new ruling dynasty (the Stuarts), and a new era in British history.

On the 28th of April 1603, the Queen was given a magnificent funeral.  Her coffin, covered in purple velvet, was drawn by four horses draped in black.  An effigy of the great Queen, dressed in the robes of state with a crown on her head and a sceptre in her hands, lay on the coffin beneath a mighty canopy held by six knights. Behind the Queen came her palfrey, led by her Master of Horse.  The chief mourner, the Marchioness of Northampton, led the peeresses of the realm all dressed in black, and behind them came all the important men of the realm, as well as over two hundred poor folks.  The streets were full of people, all come to pay their last respects to the Queen who had ruled them so wisely and for so long as she made her way to her final resting place at Westminster Abbey.

Tomb of Elizabeth I in Westminster Abbey.
The Queen is buried beside her half sister Mary I 

On the base of tomb writes "Partners in throne and grave, here we sleep, Elizabeth and Mary, sisters, in hope of the Resurrection."

June 12th in History

1099 - Crusade leaders visited the Mount of Olives where they met a hermit who urged them to assault Jerusalem.

1442 - Alfonso V of Aragon was crowned King of Naples.

1665 - England installed a municipal government in New York. It was the former Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam.

1812 - Napoleon's invasion of Russia began.

1838 - The Iowa Territory was organized.

1898 - Philippine nationalists declared their independence from Spain.

1900 - The Reichstag approved a second law that would allow the expansion of the German navy.

1901 - Cuba agreed to become an American protectorate by accepting the Platt Amendment.

1918 - The first airplane bombing raid by an American unit occurred on World War I's Western Front in France. 

1926 - Brazil quit the League of Nations in protest over plans to admit Germany. 

1935 - U.S. Senator Huey Long of Louisiana made the longest speech on Senate record. The speech took 15 1/2 hours and was filled by 150,000 words. 

1935 - The Chaco War was ended with a truce. Bolivia and Paraguay had been fighting since 1932. 

1937 - The Soviet Union executed eight army leaders under Joseph Stalin. 

1944 - Chinese Communist leader Mao Tse-tung announced that he would support Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek in the war against Japan. 

1963 - Civil rights leader Medgar Evers was fatally shot in front of his home in Jackson, MS. 

1967 - State laws which prohibited interracial marriages were ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court. 

1990 - The parliament of the Russian Federation formally declared its sovereignty. 

2003 - In Arkansas, Terry Wallis spoke for the first time in nearly 19 years. Wallis had been in a coma since July 13, 1984, after being injured in a car accident. 

Famous Birthdays:

1915 - David Rockefeller, Banker

1924 - George H.W. Bush, 41st President of the United States

1929 - Annelies Marie "Anne" Frank, Known for her diary which documented her experiences during World War II 

1944 - Reg Presley, Musician

1977 - Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Musician

Marie Antoinette (1755-1793)

Marie Antoinette

Maria Antonia of Austria was born on November 2nd 1755 at Hofburg Palace in Vienna, Austria. She was baptised Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna the next day. Her father was Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor (1708-1765) and her mother was Empress Maria Theresa also Queen of Hungary and Croatia and archduchess of Austria (1717-1780). Maria was the youngest daughter and the 15th (out of 16) child of the Emperor and Empress.

Maria Antonia had a simple and carefree childhood, especially in comparison to that of Louis XVI. She was never lonely, since she never had the chance to be alone. The Imperial family was one that thoroughly enjoyed music. She herself learned to play the harpsichord, spinet and clavichord, as well as the harp, taught by Gluck. During the family's musical evenings, she would sing French songs and Italian arias. She also excelled at dancing – an accomplishment often remarked by those who saw her, whether friendly or hostile, having been carefully trained in it since her early youth. Her education was poor, or at least it lacked the rigorous training of Louis XVI's; her handwriting, for was sprawling and careless in form. She learned Italian, from Metastasio, on top of the necessary French and German, as well as Austrian history and French history, though from an Austrian perspective. But while she flourished in her learning of Italian, her other languages proved to be a weak point. Conversations with her were stilted, and her ability to read and write German and French (the 'universal' language of Europe at this point in time) was poor

With the conclusion of the Seven Years' War in 1763, the preservation of a fragile alliance between Austria and France became a priority for Empress Maria Theresa; cementing alliances through matrimonial connections was a common practice among European royal families at the time. In 1765, the son of French Emperor Louis XV, Louis Ferdinand, died, leaving his 11-year-old grandson Louis Auguste heir to the French throne. Within months, Marie Antoinette and Louis Auguste were pledged to marry each other. 

A dowry was set at 200,000 crowns; as was the custom, portraits and rings were exchanged.Finally, Antonia was married by proxy on May 16 1770 at Versailles. Her brother Ferdinand stood in as the bridegroom. She was also officially restyled as Marie Antoinette, Dauphine of France. Through her father, Marie Antoinette became the second (after Margaret of Valois, the renowned Queen Margot) French Queen ever to descend from Henry II of France and Catherine de' Medici.

Marie Antoinette in her wedding dress

Louis XV passed away on May 10th 1774, and Louis Auguste succeeded him to the French throne as Louis XVI, making Marie Antoinette, at 19 years old, Queen of France. However, as personalities went Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette could not have been more different. He was introverted, shy and indecisive, a lover of solitary pleasures such as reading and metalwork. She was vivacious, outgoing and bold, and very social. She enjoyed to party, as a result she would awake before noon while her husband had been at work for hours.

Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette

In 1777, word reached Empress Maria Theresa that her daughter and her husband had not yet consummated their marriage, and she immediately dispatched Joseph II, Marie Antoinette's older brother, to France to act as a sort of marriage counselor. Whatever his counsels, they apparently worked; a year later, Marie Antoinette gave birth to a daughter, Marie Therese Charlotte. She would go on to give birth to Louis-Joseph in 1781, Louis-Charles in 1785,and Sophie-Béatrix in 1786.

The Royal Family

Beginning in 1780, Marie Antoinette began spending more and more time at Petit Trianon, her private castle on the grounds of the Palace of Versailles, almost always without the king. Around this time the first rumors surfaced about her relationship with Swedish diplomat Count Axel von Fersen. During the 1780s, with the French government sliding into financial turmoil and poor harvests driving up grain prices across the country, Marie Antoinette's fabulously extravagant lifestyle increasingly became the subject of popular ire. Countless pamphlets accused the queen of ignorance, extravagance and adultery, some featuring salacious cartoons and others dubbing her "Madame Deficit." In 1785, the infamous diamond necklace scandal permanently tarnished the queen's reputation. A thief posing as Marie Antoinette obtained a 647-diamond necklace and smuggled it to London to be sold off in pieces. Although Marie Antoinette was innocent of any involvement, she was nevertheless guilty in the eyes of the people. Refusing to let public criticism alter her behavior, in 1786 she began building the Hameau de la Reine, an extravagant retreat near the Petit Trianon in Versailles.

On July 14, 1789, 900 French workers and peasants stormed the Bastille Prison to take arms and ammunition, marking the beginning of the French Revolution. On October 6, a crowd of 10,000 gathered outside the Palace at Versailles and demanded that the King and Queen be brought to Paris. At the Tuileries Palace in Paris, the always indecisive Louis XVI acted almost paralyzed, and Marie Antoinette immediately stepped into his place, meeting with advisors and ambassadors and dispatching urgent letters to other European rulers begging them to help save France's monarchy. In a plot hatched primarily by Marie Antoinette and her lover Count Axel von Fersen, the royal family attempted to escape France in June 1791, but they were captured and returned to Paris; in September, King Louis XVI agreed to uphold a new constitution drafted by the Constituent National Assembly in return for keeping at least his symbolic power. However, in the summer of 1792, with France at war with Austria and Prussia, the increasingly powerful radical Jacobin leader Maximilien de Robespierre called for the removal of the king. In September, after a month of terrible massacres in Paris, the National Convention abolished the monarchy, declared the establishment of a French Republic, and arrested the King and Queen.

In January of 1793, the radical new republic placed King Louis XVI on trial, convicted him of treason and condemned him to death. On January 21, 1793, he was dragged to the guillotine and executed. In October, a month into the infamous and bloody Reign of Terror that claimed tens of thousands of French lives, Marie Antoinette was put on trial for treason, theft, and a false and disturbing charge of sexually abusing her son. After the two-day trial, an all-male jury found her guilty on all charges. Like her husband several months before, Marie Antoinette was beheaded at the guillotine on October 16, 1793. The night previous, she had written her last letter to her sister-in-law Elisabeth. "I am calm," the Queen wrote, "as people are whose conscience is clear." Then in the moments before her execution, when the priest present told her to have courage, Marie Antoinette responded, "Courage? The moment when my ills are going to end is not the moment when courage is going to fail me."

The last Queen of France, Marie Antoinette has been both vilified as the personification of all the evils of monarchy and exalted as pinnacle of fashion and beauty. Marie Antoinette the villain is perhaps best captured by the famous, although almost certainly apocryphal, story that upon hearing that the people had no bread to eat she remarked, "Let them eat cake." Marie Antoinette the heroine is reflected in the obsessive scholarship on her choices in wardrobe and jewelry and the endless speculation about her extramarital love life. Both of these takes on the character of Marie Antoinette demonstrate the tendency, as prevalent today as it was in her own time, to see her life and death as symbolic of the downfall of European monarchies in face of global revolution. As Thomas Jefferson said, predicting the way Marie Antoinette would be viewed by posterity, "I have ever believed that if there had been no Queen there would have been no Revolution."

Her execution

Her grave