History Today

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on June 25th. More American women than men earned Ph.D. degrees last year, but they probably didn’t know they were following in the footsteps of Elena Cornaro Piscopia. She was a Venetian woman who became the first woman ever to be awarded a doctorate degree on this day in 1678. Surprising fact? More women than men are also pursuing undergraduate degrees. In the U.S.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on June 24th. What happened at Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947? Nothing. At least that’s what the U.S. Air Force said in the 231-page report they released on this day in 1997. The story goes back to July 1947, when a New Mexico rancher found a strange material scattered over his land. He turned the material over to the sheriff, who passed it on to the air force.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on June 23rd. Just thinking about it is enough to make most people queasy--on this day in 2013, aerialist Nik Wallenda made history when he became the first person to walk a high wire across the Little Colorado River Gorge near Grand Canyon National Park. Wallenda wasn’t wearing a safety harness as he made the quarter-mile trip on a 2-inch-thick steel cable some 1,500 feet above the gorge.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on June 22nd.

It can be difficult to admit when you’re wrong, and today’s story is no exception: On this day in 1633, Galileo, one of the fathers of modern science, was forced by the Catholic Church to recant his belief that the Earth moves around the Sun under threat of torture.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on June 21st.

Fifty six years ago today, civil rights workers Matthew Schwerner, James Chaney, and Andrew Goodman were murdered by Ku Klux Klan members near Meridian, Mississippi, in what became known as the Mississippi Burning murders.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on June 20th. If you’ve ever been afraid to go into the water, you might blame JAWS, the iconic film that hit theaters on this day in 1975. The story of a great white shark that terrorizes a New England resort town became an instant blockbuster and the highest-grossing film in movie history until Star Wars premiered two years later. The film was a breakthrough for its then-27 year-old self-taught director Steven Spielberg.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on June 19th. Today is Juneteenth--the anniversary of the day in 1865 when Union soldiers finally arrived in Galveston, Texas, with the news that the Civil War had ended and slavery in the U.S. had been abolished. The enforced freeing of the estimated 250,000 enslaved people in the state came a full two and a half years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on June 18th. Today, Canada is not only a U.S. neighbor, but one of its closest allies. But back on this day in 1812, British-held Canada became the enemy when the War of 1812 began. Within months, American forces launched an unsuccessful three-point invasion of Canada. The British burned Washington, D.C. but the Americans were able to turn the tide with a naval victory on New York’s Lake Champlain.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on June 17th. With the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island currently closed to visitors due to COVID-19, we look back to this day in 1885, when Lady Liberty arrived in New York Harbor via ship from France. The statue, a gift from the French people to celebrate 100 years of friendship between the two nations, arrived in 350 pieces packed into 200 crates.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on June 16th. Forty women from more than 11 countries have visited space since this day in 1963, when Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman ever to travel into space. After 48 orbits and 71 hours, she returned to earth, having spent more time in space than all U.S. astronauts combined to that date.