What Happened On
Birth Control Ban Repealed
June 7, 1965
The U.S. Supreme Court rules Connecticut's law banning the use of contraceptives is unconstitutional. The case involved a Connecticut "Comstock law" that prohibited the use of any drug, medicinal article, or instrument to prevent conception.
The Rolling Stones TV Debut
June 7, 1963
The Rolling Stones make their TV debut on the BBC program Thank Your Lucky Stars.
First U.S. Citizen Hanged for Treason Against the U.S.
June 7, 1862
William Bruce Mumford is hanged for treason against the U.S. He had been convicted of removing and destroying the Union flag at the New Orleans Mint during the Civil War. In April, Union forces raised the Union flag over the mint. A group of men, including Mumford, removed the flag. Mumford carried it to the mayor at city hall, with the flag being destroyed in the process. For this he was tried and convicted of treason and hanged. Confederate Governor of Louisiana Thomas Overton Moore issued a statement declaring Mumford a hero.
Later on Union Army Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler, who had ordered Mumford's execution, assisted Mumford's wife and helped her find a job in Washington.
Youngest Female Pilot to Cross the Atlantic
June 7, 1994
12-year-old Vicki Van Meter arrives in Scotland. She had started Sunday from Maine, and followed Amelia Earhart's historic route.
Also, when she was 11, she became the youngest pilot to fly east to west across the continental United States of America, and the youngest female pilot to cross in either direction.
After battling depression, she committed suicide at the age of 26.
Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt with King George VI and Queen Elizabeth
Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt with King George VI and Queen Elizabeth
First British Monarch to Visit the U.S.
June 7, 1939
American Revolution
June 7, 1776
Richard Henry Lee proclaims "These United Colonies are and of right ought to be free and independent States."
Photo Credit: André Karwath aka Aka
Photo Credit: André Karwath aka Aka
Pennsylvania Abolishes Slavery
June 7, 1712
Slavery is abolished in the Pennsylvania Colony.
Birthdays
Mike Pence
Born June 7, 1959
American politician. 48th U.S. Vice President (2017-21), Governor of Indiana (2013-17).
Photo Credit: Joel Bremer
Photo Credit: Joel Bremer
Prince (Prince Rogers Nelson)
Born June 7, 1958 d. 2016
American Oscar-Grammy-winning Rock and Roll Hall of Fame singer. Film: Purple Rain (1984, Oscar for Best Song Score). On his 35th birthday he announced that he was changing his name to a combined form of the male and female symbols. Although originally neglecting to specify a pronunciation, two months later he settled on Victor.
Ken Osmond
Born June 7, 1943 d. 2020
American actor. Ken Osmond is best known for playing Eddie Haskell on TV's Leave It to Beaver (1957-63) and The New Leave It to Beaver (1983-89).
After Leave It to Beaver and a stint in the Army, Osmond joined the Los Angeles Police Department in 1970, where he worked as a motorcycle officer. In 1980, Osmond was shot three times while in a foot chase with a suspected car thief. His bulletproof vest stopped two bullets and the other ricocheted off his belt buckle. He was put on disability and retired in 1988.
The car theft suspect was sentenced to death for another murder.
Tom Jones (Thomas Jones Woodward)
Born June 7, 1940
Welsh singer. As a child, he spent two years bedridden with tuberculosis. Cassandra Peterson (Elvira Mistress of the Dark) claims she lost her virginity to him. Music: It's Not Unusual (1965, #1).
Dean Martin (Dino Paul Crocetti)
Born June 7, 1917 d. 1995
American singer, actor. Partner of Jerry Lewis. He boxed professionally under the name "Kid Crochet." Martin and Lewis made their television debut on the first episode of The Toast of the Town (1948, later renamed The Ed Sullivan Show).
First American-Trained Flying Ace of WWI
Douglas Campbell
Born June 7, 1896 d. 1990
American aviator, WWI flying ace. He was the first American flying in an American unit to achieve the status of ace when he downed his fifth enemy aircraft (May 31, 1918). He and Lt. Alan F. Winslow scored the first victories by fighter aircraft of an American-trained flying unit in the war (April 14, 1918).
Coandă's 1910 Jet Aircraft
Coandă's 1910 Jet Aircraft
First Jet Pilot
Henri Marie Coandă
Born June 7, 1886 d. 1972
Romanian inventor. He built and piloted the first jet-powered aircraft (1910) which crashed on its only run. While watching the crashed jet burn, he noticed that burning gases hugged the sides of the aircraft. This effect, which he researched, became known as the Coandă effect.
Photo Credit: Stevan Kragujević
Photo Credit: Stevan Kragujević
Muammar Gaddafi
Born June 7, 1942 d. 2011
Libyan revolutionary, political leader. Libyan Leader (1969-2011). While in the military, he founded a revolutionary cell which deposed the Western-backed Senussi monarchy of Idris in a 1969 coup. During the 2011 Arab Spring, protests against widespread corruption and unemployment broke out in eastern Libya, descending into civil war. NATO intervened militarily on the side of the anti-Gaddafist National Transitional Council (NTC) and the government was overthrown. Gaddafi retreated to Sirte, where he was captured and killed by NTC militants.
First African-American Writer Awarded a Pulitzer Prize
Gwendolyn Brooks
Born June 7, 1917 d. 2000
American poet, author. She was the first African-American writer awarded a Pulitzer Prize (1950). She served as Poet Laureate to the Library of Congress (1985-86). Writings: Annie Allen (1950, Pulitzer for Poetry).
Jessica Tandy
Born June 7, 1909 d. 1994
English Oscar-Tony-Emmy winning actress. At age 80, she became the oldest person to receive an Oscar (Driving Miss Daisy). Stage: Streetcar Named Desire (1948, Blanche Dubois). Film: The Birds (1965) and Cocoon (1985).
Paul Gauguin
Born June 7, 1848 d. 1903
French post-impressionist painter and sculpture, known for his broad flat tones, bold colors, and use of distortion. In 1888 during a fit of dementia, Vincent van Gogh attacked Gauguin with a knife. After Gauguin left, Van Gogh used the knife to cut off part of his own ear.
Mother of American Kindergartens
Susan Elizabeth Blow
Born June 7, 1843 d. 1916
American educator. "Mother of American Kindergartens," she established the first American public kindergarten (1873). Since poorer children usually only got about three years of schooling before going to work at age 10, she felt the need to start school earlier. She solved this problem with kindergarten.
Sir James Young Simpson
Born June 7, 1811 d. 1870
Scottish obstetrician. He developed the use of anesthesia.
The word anesthesia is from the Greek for "without sensation".
Deaths
Christopher Lee
Died June 7, 2015 b. 1922
English actor. Film: The monster in numerous horror movies - including Frankenstein and Dracula - and as James Bond's nemesis Francisco Scaramanga in The Man with the Golden Gun (1974). He was also James Bond creator Ian Fleming's cousin.
Alan Mathison Turing
Died June 7, 1954 b. 1912
British mathematician, computer expert, invented the Turing Test (1937), which is used to determine if a machine's ability to exhibit intelligent behavior is equivalent to that of a human. He also cracked Germany's "unbreakable" war code Enigma.
In 1952 he was prosecuted for homosexuality by the British government and forced to undergo chemical castration in order to avoid prison. He died from eating a cyanide-laced apple. Turing was given a royal pardon in 2013.
Jean Harlow (Harlean Carpenter)
Died June 7, 1937 b. 1911
American actress. Hollywood's original blond bombshell. Film: Platinum Blonde (1931), Bombshell (1933), and Riffraff (1936).
Jim McKay
Died June 7, 2008 b. 1921
American Emmy-winning sportscaster. TV: Wide World of Sports (1961-1998).
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
Died June 7, 2006 b. 1966
Jordanian-born leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq. He was killed when U.S. forces bombed his safehouse.
Bill France, Sr. (William Henry Getty France)
Died June 7, 1992 b. 1909
American stock-car racing pioneer. France founded NASCAR (1948) and built Daytona International Speedway (1959) and the Talladega Superspeedway (1969).
The Great Impostor
Ferdinand Waldo Demara, Jr.
Died June 7, 1982 b. 1921
American impostor. He lied and forged his way into jobs as a surgeon; professor of applied psychology; Trappist monk; and prison guidance counselor; all of which he performed admirably, although he didn't even possess a high-school diploma. He was the basis for the film The Great Impostor (1961).
Henry Miller
Died June 7, 1980 b. 1891
American novelist. Writings: Tropic of Cancer (1931) and Tropic of Capricorn (1939).
E.M. Forster (Edward Morgan Forster)
Died June 7, 1970 b. 1879
English author. Writings: Where Angels Fear to Tread (1905), The Longest Journey (1907), A Room with a View (1908), Howard's End (1910), and A Passage to India (1924).
Dorothy Parker
Died June 7, 1967 b. 1893
American author, humorist. She is the author of the couplet "Men seldom make passes at girls who wear glasses".
Quote: "Beauty is only skin deep, but ugly goes clean to the bone".
Gobbledygook
Maury Maverick (Fontaine Maury Maverick Sr.)
Died June 7, 1954 b. 1895
American politician, U.S. congressman (Texas, 1935-39), mayor of San Antonio (1939-41). He coined the word "Gobbledygook" (1944) referring to obscure and euphemistic bureaucratic language.
Cyrus H. K. Curtis
Died June 7, 1933 b. 1850
American publisher. Founder of Ladies' Home Journal (1883).
Edwin Thomas Booth
Died June 7, 1893 b. 1833
American Shakespearean actor. Older brother of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln's assassin John Wilkes Booth.
Richard March Hoe
Died June 7, 1886 b. 1812
American inventor. He created the rotary press (1846), which enabled high-speed printing.
Silent-Night-Chapel in Oberndorf bei Salzburg, Austria, where the song was first performed
Photo Credit: Gakuro
Silent-Night-Chapel in Oberndorf bei Salzburg, Austria, where the song was first performedPhoto Credit: Gakuro
Silent Night, Holy Night
Franz Xaver Gruber
Died June 7, 1863 b. 1787
Austrian church organist. He wrote the melody to Silent Night, Holy Night (1818).
The lyrics were written by Father Joseph Mohr. Mohr asked Gruber to compose the melody and guitar accompaniment for the Christmas Eve Mass since a flood had destroyed their organ.
"Silent night, holy night,
All is calm, all is bright
Round yon virgin mother and child.
Holy infant, so tender and mild,
Sleep in heavenly peace,
Sleep in heavenly peace."
First U.S. Citizen hanged for Treason Against the U.S.
William Bruce Mumford
Died June 7, 1862 b. 1819
American gambler. He was the first U.S. citizen hanged for treason against the U.S. He was convicted of removing and destroying the Union flag at the New Orleans Mint during the Civil War. After Union forces raised the Union flag over the mint, a group of men, including Mumford, removed the flag. Mumford carried it to the mayor at city hall, with the flag being destroyed in the process. For this he was tried and convicted of treason and hanged. Confederate Governor of Louisiana Thomas Overton Moore issued a statement declaring Mumford a hero.
Later on Union Army Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler, who had ordered Mumford's execution, assisted Mumford's wife and helped her find a job in Washington.
Robert I
Died June 7, 1329 b. 1274
King of Scotland (1306-29).
Vigilius
Died June 7, 555 b. ????
Italian religious leader, 59th Pope (537-555).