June 19

What happened that day?

• 2012: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange requested asylum in London's Ecuadorian Embassy for fear of extradition to the US after publication of previously classified documents including footage of civilian killings by the US army.
• 2009: War in North-West Pakistan: The Pakistani Armed Forces open Operation Rah-e-Nijat against the Taliban and other Islamist rebels in the South Waziristan area of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.
• 2009: Mass riots involving over 10,000 people and 10,000 police officers break out in Shishou, China, over the dubious circumstances surrounding the death of a local chef.
• 2007: The al-Khilani Mosque bombing in Baghdad leaves 78 people dead and another 218 injured.
• 1991: The Soviet occupation of Hungary ends.
• 1990: The Communist Party of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic is founded in Moscow.
• 1990: The current international law defending indigenous peoples, Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989, is ratified for the first time by Norway.
• 1988: Pope John Paul II canonizes 117 Vietnamese Martyrs.
• 1987: Basque separatist group ETA commits one of its most violent attacks, in which a bomb is set off in a supermarket, Hipercor, killing 21 and injuring 45.
• 1985: Members of the Revolutionary Party of Central American Workers, dressed as Salvadoran soldiers, attack the Zona Rosa area of San Salvador.
• 1982: In one of the first militant attacks by Hezbollah, David S. Dodge, president of the American University of Beirut, is kidnapped.
• 1978: Garfield, holder of the Guinness World Record for the world's most widely syndicated comic strip, makes its debut.
• 1965: Nguyễn Cao Kỳ becomes Prime Minister of South Vietnam at the head of a military junta; General Nguyễn Văn Thiệu becomes the figurehead chief of state.
• 1964: The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is approved after surviving an 83-day filibuster in the United States Senate.
• 1961: Kuwait declares independence from the United Kingdom.
• 1953: Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are executed at Sing Sing, in New York.
• 1949: The first ever NASCAR race was held at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
• 1944: World War II: First day of the Battle of the Philippine Sea.
• 1943: The Philadelphia Eagles and Pittsburgh Steelers in the NFL merge for one season due to player shortages caused by World War II.
• 1934: The Communications Act of 1934 establishes the United States' Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
• 1913: Natives Land Act, 1913 in South Africa implemented.
• 1910: The first Father's Day is celebrated in Spokane, Washington.
• 1903: Benito Mussolini, then a radical Socialist, arrested by Bern police for advocating a violent general strike.
• 1875: The Herzegovinian rebellion against the Ottoman Empire begins.
• 1867: Maximilian I of the Second Mexican Empire is executed by a firing squad in Querétaro, Querétaro.
• 1865: Over two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, slaves in Galveston, [Texas](https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas), United States, are finally informed of their freedom. The anniversary is still officially celebrated in Texas and 41 other contiguous states as Juneteenth.
• 1862: The U.S. Congress prohibits slavery in United States territories, nullifying Dred Scott v. Sandford.
• 1850: Princess Louise of the Netherlands marries Crown Prince Karl of Sweden-Norway.
• 1846: The first officially recorded, organized baseball game is played under Alexander Cartwright's rules on Hoboken, New Jersey's Elysian Fields with the New York Base Ball Club defeating the Knickerbockers 23-1. Cartwright umpired.
• 1821: Decisive defeat of the Filiki Eteria by the Ottomans at Drăgășani (in Wallachia).
• 1816: Battle of Seven Oaks between North West Company and Hudson's Bay Company, near Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
• 1800: War of the Second Coalition Battle of Höchstädt results in a French victory over Austria.
• 1586: English colonists leave Roanoke Island, after failing to establish England's first permanent settlement in North America.
• 1306: The Earl of Pembroke's army defeats Bruce's Scottish army at the Battle of Methven.
• 1269: King Louis IX of France orders all Jews found in public without an identifying yellow badge to be fined ten livres of silver.
• 1179: The Norwegian Battle of Kalvskinnet outside Nidaros. Earl Erling Skakke is killed, and the battle changes the tide of the civil wars.
• 325: The original Nicene Creed was presented at the First Council of Nicaea.