July 6th is:

National Dollar Day *

National Fried Chicken Day

International Kissing Day
________________________________________________________________

MORE! Jan Hus, Frida Kahlo and the Dalai Lama, click

________________________________________________________________

WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Belarus – First Day of Kupalle
(summer fire festival)

Comoros Islands – Independence Day

Czech Republic – Jan Hus Day *

Kazakstan – Day of the Capital

Lithuania –
King Mindaugas’ Coronation Day *

Malawi – Independence Day

Peru – Teacher’s Day

Spain – Pamplona: Fiesta de San Fermín (running of the bulls) 

Sweden – National Day

Zambia – Heroes Day
________________________________________________________________

On This Day in HISTORY

1189 – Richard the Lionheart becomes King Richard I of England

1253 – Mindaugas, first Grand Duke of Lithuania, is crowned as the first (and only) King of a unified Lithuania – King Mindaugas’ Coronation Day * an official holiday since 1991

1348 – When popular opinion blames the Jews for the Black Plague in Europe, Pope Clement VI issues the first of two papal bulls which condemn violence against the Jews. The pope says those who blame the plague on Jews have been seduced by the Devil’s lies, and urges clergy to protect the Jews as he has done

1411 – Ming Dynasty Admiral Zheng He returns to Nanjing after the third treasure voyage and presents the Sinhalese king, captured during the Ming–Kotte War, to the Yongle Emperor, the third Ming ruler of China

1415 – Jan Hus, Czech priest, Bohemian Reformation seminal theorist and predecessor to Protestantism, is burned at the stake for heresy; commemorated as Jan Hus Day *
His execution sets off the Hussite Wars, in which his followers defeat five consecutive papal crusades (1420-1431)

1483 – Richard III is crowned King of England

1484 – Portuguese sea captain Diogo Cão reaches the mouth of the Congo River

1535 – Sir Thomas More is executed for treason against King Henry VIII of England

1560 – The Treaty of Edinburgh is drawn up between the Commissioners of Queen Elizabeth I of England with the assent of the Scottish Lords of the Congregation, and the French representatives of King Francis II of France (husband of Mary Queen of Scots) to formally conclude the Siege of Leith and replace the Auld Alliance with France with a new Anglo-Scottish accord, while maintaining the peace between England and France as agreed by the Treaty of Cateau-Cambresis

1573 – The Siege of La Rochelle (1572–1573) ends, a massive military assault on the Huguenot-held city of La Rochelle by French Catholic troops during the fourth phase of the French Wars of Religion

1630 – Thirty Years’ War: Four thousand Swedish troops under Gustavus Adolphus land in Pomerania, Germany, to support and protect German Protestants

1699 – Pirate Captain William Kidd is arrested in Boston MA

1775 – The Second Continental Congress issues a “Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking up Arms,” in which the colonists promise to lay down their arms when their grievances have been addressed and their liberties secured, but also indicate that the colonies may obtain foreign aid against Britain.

1776 – The American Declaration of Independence is announced on front page of the Pennsylvania Evening Gazette

1785 – National Dollar Day * – U.S. Congress designates “dollar” and decimal coinage as U.S. currency

1798 – The U.S., on the verge of war with France, and the Federalist-controlled Congress passes the Alien Enemies Act, one of four acts increasing press regulations and restrictions against aliens. The Alien Enemies Act is later used by the Roosevelt administration during WWII as the basis for incarcerating Japanese Americans

1840 – German playwright Christian Friedrich Hebbel’s misogynistic play Judith, a reinterpretation of the biblical story to reflect the 19^th century view of a “woman’s place”

1848 – The Mexican-American war ends with the Treaty of Guadaloupe Hidalgo

1853 – Opening day of the Colored National Convention is held for three days in Rochester NY; Frederick Douglass is the representative for the state of New York

1853 – William Wells Brown’s Clotel is the first novel published by an African American

1865 – The first issue of The Nation magazine is published

1885 – Louis Pasteur successfully tests his anti-rabies vaccine on Joseph Meister, a boy bitten by a rabid dog

1892 – Filipino Nationalist and Novelist José Rizal forms La Liga Filpina, an activist  group for reforms, in Manila on July 3; on July 6, Rizal is arrested and then deported

1892 – Dadabhai Naoroji is elected as first Indian Member of Parliament in Britain

Dr. Dadabhai Naoroji, by V.R. Rao

1893 – Pinkerton agents, armed with Winchester rifles, fight 3800 steelworkers in Homestead Strike, leaving 10 dead, and two dozen wounded from both sides

1898 – The U.S. Senate agrees to annex Hawaii

1907 – Frida Kahlo born, Mexican surrealist painter, best-known for her self-portraits, considered emblematic of national and indigenous tradition

1908 – Robert Peary’s North Pole expedition sails from New York Harbor

1910 – Dorothy Kirsten born, American opera singer

1917 – T.E. Lawrence and Auda ibu Tayi lead Arab forces to capture Aqaba

1923 – The Central Executive Committee accepts the Treaty of Union, signed in December of 1922, and the Russian Empire becomes the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

1932 – First class U.S. postage goes up to 3 cents

1935 – Tenzin Gyatso, future 14th Dalai Lama, is born

1942 – Anne Frank and her family go into hiding in the “Secret Annexe” above her father’s office in an Amsterdam warehouse

1945 – Nicaragua becomes the first nation to ratify the United Nations Charter

1947 – The AK-47 goes into production in the Soviet Union

1957 – Chief Justice Earl Warren delivers the principle address at the dedication ceremonies for the Harry S. Truman Library

1964 – The Beatles’ film, A Hard Day’s Night, premieres in London

1964 – Malawi, formerly Nyasaland, declares its independence from the UK

1970 – California passes first “no fault” divorce law

1971 – President Nixon authorizes a “special investigations unit, dubbed the “Plumbers,” to root out and seal leaks to the media; their first target is Daniel Ellsberg – they
burglarize the office of Ellsberg’s psychiatrist, looking for information the White House can use to smear Ellsberg’s character and undermine his credibility

1983 – U.S. Supreme Court rules retirement plans can’t pay women less

1993 – U.S. Postal Service releases 29-cent stamps honoring four Broadway musicals:
My Fair Lady, Porgy and Bess, Show Boat and Oklahoma! 

1994 – The movie Forrest Gump, starring Tom Hanks in the title role, is released

2016 – The UK’s Iraqi War Inquiry, the Chilcot Report, is released. The report concludes that Prime Minister Tony Blair deliberately overstated the threat posed by Saddam Hussein; committed British troops before all peaceful options for disarmament had been exhausted; pledged his unqualified backing to U.S. President George W. Bush in July 2002, eight months before the Iraq invasion; that the process Blair’s cabinet used for determining the war was legal was “perfunctory,” the grounds were “unclear” and no formal record was made of the decision; British intelligence agencies produced “flawed information” about alleged Iraqi weapons of mass destruction; and the British military was seriously “ill-equipped” and the planning “wholly inadequate” for the invasion; and Blair never identified which ministers were to be responsible for  postwar planning, contributing to strategic failure and safety risks for personnel before withdrawal

____________________________________________________________