12 June 2024 (MIA)

 

1665 – England installs a municipal government in New York City (the former Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam).

 

1798 – Irish Rebellion of 1798: Battle of Ballynahinch.

 

1860 – The State Bank of the Russian Empire is established.

 

1889 – Eighty people are killed in the Armagh rail disaster near Armagh in what is now Northern Ireland.

 

1898 – Philippine Declaration of Independence: General Emilio Aguinaldo declares the Philippines’ independence from Spain.

 

1899 – New Richmond tornado: The eighth deadliest tornado in U.S. history kills 117 people and injures around 200.

 

1935 – A ceasefire is negotiated between Bolivia and Paraguay, ending the Chaco War

 

1940 – World War II: Thirteen thousand British and French troops surrender to Major General Erwin Rommel at Saint-Valery-en-Caux.

 

1943 – Holocaust: Germany liquidates the Jewish Ghetto in Brzeżany, Poland (now Berezhany, Ukraine). Around 1,180 Jews are led to the city’s old Jewish graveyard and shot.

 

1944 – American paratroopers of the 101st Airborne Division secure the town of Carentan.

 

1954 – Pope Pius XII canonises Dominic Savio, who was 14 years old at the time of his death, as a saint, making him the youngest unmartyred saint in the Roman Catholic Church.

 

1964 – Anti-apartheid activist and ANC leader Nelson Mandela is sentenced to life in prison for sabotage in South Africa.

 

1967 – Venera program: Venera 4 is launched (it will become the first space probe to enter another planet’s atmosphere and successfully return data).

 

1987 – The Central African Republic’s former Emperor Jean-Bédel Bokassa is sentenced to death for crimes he had committed during his 13-year rule.

 

1987 – Cold War: At the Brandenburg Gate U.S. President Ronald Reagan publicly challenges Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall.

 

1990 – Russia Day: The parliament of the Russian Federation formally declares its sovereignty.

 

1991 – Russians elect Boris Yeltsin as the president of the republic.

 

1991 – 1991 Kokkadichcholai massacre: The Sri Lankan Army massacres 152 minority Tamil civilians in the village of Kokkadichcholai near the eastern province town of Batticaloa.

 

1993 – An election takes place in Nigeria which and is later annulled by the military Government led by Ibrahim Babangida.

 

1994 – Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman are murdered outside her home in Los Angeles, California. O.J. Simpson is later acquitted of the killings, but is held liable in wrongful death civil suit.

 

1997 – Queen Elizabeth II reopens the Globe Theatre in London.

 

1999 – Kosovo War: Operation Joint Guardian begins when a NATO-led United Nations peacekeeping force (KFor) enters the province of Kosovo in Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

 

2001 – The government of Macedonia reaches a decision to normalize the relations with the People’s Republic of China. On 18 June 2001, Macedonia and China establish diplomatic ties. Macedonia and Taiwan annul their diplomatic relations on the same day.

 

2005 – The Vale of Glamorgan Line reopened to passengers between Barry and Bridgend via Rhoose and Llantwit Major after 41 years of being closed.

 

2009 – A disputed presidential election in Iran leads to wide ranging protests in Iran and around the world.

 

2012 – The chemical compound NOTT-202, which is capable of selectively absorbing carbon dioxide, is created.

 

2012 – World Health Organization concludes that diesel exhaust causes cancer.

 

2015 – Zimbabwe discards its own currency, offering an exchange of $1 for 35 quadrillion Zimbabwean dollars.

 

2017 – Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny sentenced to 30 days administrative arrest for organizing rallies.

 

2018 – Singapore Summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump - first time a North Korean leader and an incumbent US President have ever met.