GOOD MORNING – TODAY IS SATURDAY, June 24, the 173rd day of 2017 with 192 to follow. Sunrise in the Boston area is @ 5:07 and sunset is @ 8:25. The moon is waxing. The morning stars are stars are Jupiter, Saturn & Mercury. The evening stars are Mars, Neptune, Uranus & Venus.
ON THIS DAY IN: 1314 – Scottish forces led by Robert the Bruce won over Edward II of England at the Battle of Bannockburn in Scotland.
1340 – The English fleet defeated the French fleet at Sluys, off the Flemish coast.
1497 – Italian explorer John Cabot, sailing in the service of England, landed in North America on what is now Newfoundland.
1509 – Henry VIII was crowned King of England.
1664 – New Jersey, named after the Isle of Jersey, was founded.
1675 – King Philip’s War began when Indians massacre colonists at Swansee, Plymouth colony.
1717 – The Freemasons were founded in London.
1793 – The first republican constitution in France was adopted.
1812 – Napoleon crossed the Nieman River and invaded Russia.
1844 – Charles Goodyear was granted U.S. patent #3,633 for vulcanized rubber.
1859 – At the Battle of Solferino, also known as the Battle of the Three Sovereigns, the French army led by Napoleon III defeated the Austrian army under Franz Joseph I in northern Italy.
1861 – Federal gunboats attacked Confederate batteries at Mathias Point, Virginia.
1862 – U.S. intervention saved the British and French at the Dagu forts in China.
1869 – Mary Ellen “Mammy” Pleasant officially became the Vodoo Queen in San Francisco, CA.
1896 – Booker T. Washington became the first African American to receive an honorary MA degree from Howard University.
1910 – The Japanese army invaded Korea.
1913 – Greece and Serbia annulled their alliance with Bulgaria following border disputes over Macedonia and Thrace.
1922 – The American Professional Football Association took the name of The National Football League.
1931 – The Soviet Union and Afghanistan signed a treaty of neutrality.
1940 – France signed an armistice with Italy.
1940 – TV cameras were used for the first time in a political convention as the Republicans convened in Philadelphia, PA.
1941 – U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt pledged all possible support to the Soviet Union.
1947 – Kenneth Arnold reported seeing flying saucers over Mt. Rainier, Washington.
1948 – The Soviet Union began the Berlin Blockade.
1953 – John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier announced their engagement.
1955 – Soviet MIG’s down a U.S. Navy patrol plane over the Bering Strait.
1962 – The New York Yankees beat the Detroit Tigers, 9-7, after 22 innings.
1964 – The Federal Trade Commission announced that starting in 1965, cigarette manufactures would be required to include warnings on their packaging about the harmful effects of smoking.
1968 – “Resurrection City,” a shantytown constructed as part of the Poor People’s March on Washington D.C., was closed down by authorities.
1970 – The U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly to repeal the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.
1970 – The movie “Myra Breckinridge” premiered.
1971 – The National Basketball Association modified its four-year eligibility rule to allow for collegiate hardship cases.
1982 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that no president could be sued for damages connected with actions taken while serving as President of the United States.
1985 – Natalia Solzhenitsyn the wife of exiled, Soviet author Alexander Solzhenitsyn, became a U.S. citizen.
1986 – The Empire State Building was designated a National Historic Landmark.
1997 – The U.S. Air Force released a report titled “The Roswell Report, Case Closed” that dismissed the claims that an alien spacecraft had crashed in Roswell, NM, in 1947.
1998 – AT&T Corp. struck a deal to buy cable TV giant Tele-Communications Inc. for $31.7 billion.
1998 – Walt Disney World Resort admitted its 600-millionth guest.
2002 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that juries, not judges, must make the decision to give a convicted killer the death penalty.
2002 – A painting from Monet’s Waterlilies series sold for $20.2 million.
2003 – In Paris, France, manuscripts by novelist Georges Simenon brought in $325,579. The original manuscript of “La Mort de Belle” raised $81,705.
2010 – Apple released the iPhone 4.