1862, slavery was outlawed in U.S. territories.
1865, Emancipation Day, also known as Juneteenth, was born when Union General Granger declared that slaves were free in Texas.
1897, Three Stooges member Moe Howard is born. He dies in 1975.
1917, during World War One, King George the Fifth ordered the British royal family to do away with German titles and surnames. The family took the name “Windsor.”
1934, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was established to supervise radio, telegraph, and telephone communications.
1941, Cheerios cereal was introduced.
1953, Julius & Ethel Rosenberg are executed by electric chair at Ossining Prison in New York after being convicted of spying for the Soviet Union. He was 36, and she was 37.
1961, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a provision in Maryland’s Constitution requiring state officeholders to profess a belief in God.
1964, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was approved after surviving an 83-day Senate filibuster.
1973, hockey great Gordie Howe came out of retirement at 45 to accept a $1 million contract with the Houston Aeros in order to play with his sons, Mark and Marty. Houston won the World Hockey Association title and Gordie won his seventh MVP.
1978, the comic strip Garfield, created by Jim Davis, debuted in 40 U.S. newspapers.
1987, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Louisiana law requiring any public school teaching the theory of evolution to also teach creationism science.
1987, Ben & Jerry Ice Cream & the Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia announce a new ice cream flavor, Cherry Garcia.
1999, Britain’s Prince Edward married commoner Sophie Rhys-Jones.
2000, the Supreme Court reaffirmed, 6-to-3, that prayer in public schools had to be private, barring student-led prayer before football games.