History of the Week: Franz Ferdinand, Korean War, Custer, Monmouth, Orwell, Townshend Act, Julian Apostate, Henry VIII &More
This week is the anniversary of the birth of George Orwell, who warned so eloquently in his books about the Marxist erasure of history. It is essential that we not allow Marxists to rewrite history. Below are some of the important births, deaths, and events that occurred this past week in history.
June 23
79 - Vespasian, Roman emperor who built the Colosseum and founded the Flavian dynasty, dies. His famous last words, referring to the postmortem deification of emperors, were, “Vae, puto deus fio”, often translated as “Alas, I think I’m becoming a god.”
930 - Reported date on which the Althing (or Alþingi) is first convened in Iceland; the world’s oldest parliament.
1534 - Oda Nobunaga, the daimyo and innovative military leader who unified Japan, is born.
1763 - Joséphine de Beauharnais, first wife and empress of Napoleon, is born.
1775 - “General Washington leaves Philadelphia for Boston on June 23, 1775, the same day of a newspaper report from a Boston hospital of soldiers being shot with old nails.
‘General Washington and General Lee set off from Philadelphia to take command of the American army at Massachusetts Bay’… One of the surgeons attending the military hospital at Boston, has written home, that the provincials in the late engagement, ‘had either exhausted their ball, or were determined that every wound should prove fatal. Their muskets were charged with old nails and angular pieces of iron, and from most of the men being wounded in the legs, I am inclined to believe it was their design, not wishing to kill the men, to leave them as burdens on us, to exhaust the provisions, as well as to intimidate the rest of the soldiery.’”
1948 - Clarence Thomas, influential constitutionalist U.S. Supreme Court Justice, is born.
2016 - The UK votes to leave the globalist European Union, “Brexit,” a major victory for Nigel Farage and the British people.
June 24
1398 - Hongwu, Chinese emperor who founded the Ming dynasty, dies.
1497 - Venetian John Cabot, “bearing letters patent from Henry VII” and seeking a western sea passage to Asia, lands on what is now the Canadian coast. “From this, the first official English voyage of exploration in the Western Ocean, derived Britain’s subsequent claims in the New World and the beginnings of her overseas empire.”
1509 - Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon are crowned monarchs of England at Westminster Abbey.
1519 - The infamous Renaissance Italian noblewoman Lucrezia Borgia dies.
1812 - Napoleon’s Grande Armée invades Russia in what would prove to be a disastrous campaign.
1908 - Grover Cleveland, who served as 22nd and 24th US president, dies.
1948 - The Soviets blockade West Berlin in an ultimately unsuccessful Cold War standoff with America.
2022 - Anti-constitutional Roe v. Wade is overturned by the US Supreme Court, ending federal protections for abortion. Between the original Roe decision and its overturn, more than 63 million unborn babies were aborted in the US.
June 25
841 - The bloody Battle at Fontenay, part of the civil war between Charlemagne’s grandsons, happens.
1139 - The Battle of Ourique is a victory for Portuguese Prince Afonso Henriques over the Muslim Almoravid Moors.
1876 - The Battle of Little Bighorn occurs, also famously known as “Custer’s Last Stand” since Gen. Custer and his men were massacred during the battle by the victorious Indians. “268 7th cavalry soldiers, civilians, and Indian scouts will be killed along with an estimated 60-100 Lakota and Cheyenne. Major Reno and Captain Benteen's forces, along with the pack train, will remain under siege through that evening into the following day.”
1903 - English writer George Orwell, famous for his dystopian novels 1984 and Animal Farm, is born.
1950 - Communist North Korean forces invade the republic of South Korea, launching the Korean War that soon involved Americans too, in support of South Korea.
1976 - Talented and iconic songwriter Johnny Mercer dies. His hits include “Laura,” “Moon River,” and “Ac-cent-tchu-ate the Positive.”
2009 - Pop music star Michael Jackson dies.
June 26
363 - Emperor Julian the Apostate dies after being speared during his failed invasion of the Persian Empire. He was a Christian who apostatized, tried to revive paganism, and martyred faithful Christians. The attempt to revive Roman imperial paganism died with him.
1541 - Francisco Pizarro, the Spanish founder of Lima and conqueror of the Incan Empire, dies.
1794 - The Battle of Fleurus “was the climax of the Flanders Campaign of 1792-95 and was one of the most decisive battles in the War of the First Coalition (1792-1797). A French victory, Fleurus ensured French ascendency for the rest of the war, leading to France's conquest of Belgium and to the destruction of the Dutch Republic.”
1917 - The first U.S. troops arrive in France during World War I.
1925 - Charlie Chaplin’s iconic silent film “The Gold Rush” premieres.
June 27
1458 - Alfonso V of Aragon “the Magnanimous,” key Renaissance patron of the arts and scholarship and king of both Aragon and Naples, dies.
1743 - The Battle of Dettingen, between the French and allied Hanoverian, Austrian, and British troops (the latter won). It marked the last time a reigning British monarch—George II—personally led soldiers into battle.
1858 - The Treaties of Tianjin ending first part of the second Opium War between the British and Chinese are signed.
1872 - Black American poet Paul Laurence Dunbar is born.
1950 - U.S. President Truman, responding to a UN plea for aid to the South Koreans against Communist North Korean invasion, orders U.S. Navy and Air Force military intervention in the Korean War.
2001 - Oscar-winning American actor Jack Lemmon dies.
June 28
1491 - King Henry VIII of England is born. He would eventually have six wives—some of them he divorced, two he killed, one predeceased him, and one outlived him—in his quest for a male heir. He would also institute a persecution of Catholics faithful to the Church and opposed to Henry’s adulterous marriages, costing the lives of more than 400 Catholics. The victims of this bloody tyrant, including thousands who participated in uprisings against his reign, were as many as 57,000.
1519 - Charles of Spain becomes Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.
1776 - During the American Revolution: ‘Colonel WILLIAM MOULTRIE was the real “Hero of Charleston” for defending Fort Sullivan in Charleston, South Carolina from the onslaught by the British forces on June 28, 1776. Moultrie was under the command of General Charles Lee, who did not believe the fort, built of palmetto logs would stand up to the British artillery. General Charles Lee had actually recommended evacuating Fort Sullivan. Well, it turns out the fort that William Moultrie believed would hold up, did!’
1778 - The Battle of Monmouth occurs during the American Revolution. It included a serious tactical mistake and retreat on Gen. Charles Lee’s part, sparking a furious rebuke from Gen. George Washington. Washington did arrive in time to rally his troops again and fight the British, who then escaped under cover of darkness. Read my full piece for more details on the battle and Washington’s “superb” leadership (as Lafayette described it).
1836 - Death of Founding Father James Madison. “[History] James Madison (1751-1836) was a Founding Father of the United States and the fourth American president, serving in office from 1809 to 1817. An advocate for a strong federal government, the Virginia-born Madison composed the first drafts of the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights and earned the nickname ‘Father of the Constitution.’”
1838 - Young Queen Victoria is crowned monarch of Britain.
1914 - The assassination that sparked WWI. The “heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian empire, fifty-year old Archduke Franz Ferdinand, was assassinated [with his wife] in Sarajevo by a 19-year-old Bosnian-Serb nationalist. The assassination began an at first slow-moving diplomatic crisis which would result a month later, July 28th, in Austria-Hungary declaring war on Serbia.” Soon multiple countries were involved in the conflict. Franz Ferdinand’s tragic last words to his dying wife were, “Sophie, Sophie! Don’t die! Live for our children!”
1919 - World War I ends as the Treaty of Versailles is signed. Unfortunately, some of its more shortsighted provisions ended up causing intense German resentment and sparking the second World War.
June 29
1613 - Shakespeare’s Globe Theater burns down in London.
1767 - The Townshend Revenue Act is passed, levying more objectionable taxes on American colonists.
1852 - The great American politician Henry Clay dies. Clay was a lawyer, Kentucky senator, speaker of the House of Representatives, and Secretary of State for President John Quincy Adams.
1944 - American forces conquer Nazis at Cherbourg during WWII.
1945 - “Carpathian Ruthenia is annexed by the Soviet Union.”
1946 - The British in what is now Israel “began a two week dragnet searching for Jews suspected of anti-British activities and incriminating documents” in the “Black Sabbath” incident.
2003 - Oscar-winning actress Katharine Hepburn dies.
June 30
1294 - Reportedly the date on which Jews are expelled from Berne, Switzerland.
1520 - “La Noche Triste,” the “Night of Sorrow,” occurs. “Hernán Cortés, his army of Spanish conquistadors, and their native allies were driven out of the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan.” Francisco López de Gómara estimated 450 Spaniards and 4,000 of their native allies were killed. Aztec Emperor Montezuma II also died.
1934 - During the “Night of the Long Knives” purge, the Nazi SS and Gestapo kill and arrest hundreds.
1938 - Superman first appears in DC comics.
1985 - American swimmer Michael Phelps, athlete with the record of most medals in Olympic history, including 23 gold medals, is born.
Did I miss any important events? Let me know in the comments.