Once Upon A Time – June 20 – 1840 – American Inventor Samuel Morse Patents His Telegraph

451 Battle of the Catalaunian Plains: Roman and Visigoths forces defeat Attila the Hun in north east France, halting Hun invasion of Roman Gaul (exact date disputed)

1789 French Revolution: The Third Estate of the French Estates-General swears the Tennis Court Oath at the Palace of Versailles, swearing not to disband until a new constitution is formed

1840 American inventor Samuel Morse patents his telegraph

1895 1st female PhD from an American University, earned by Caroline Willard Baldwin (in Science) at Cornell University

2020 Highest-ever temperature recorded in the Arctic circle, 38C (100F) in Verkhoyansk, Siberia

Historical Events Today Events in 2023

Today in Film & TV

1975 “Jaws”, based on the book by Peter Benchley, directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Roy Scheider is released

Today in Music

1969 200,000 attend Newport ’69, then largest-ever pop concert in Northridge, California. Jimi Hendrix gets $120,000 to appear.

Today in Sport

1987 1st Rugby World Cup Final, Eden Park, Auckland: New Zealand fly-half Grant Fox lands 4 penalties, a conversion and drop goal as the All Blacks beat France, 29-9

MORE FACTS…

1756 Black Hole of Calcutta: 146 British soldiers, Anglo-Indian soldiers and Indian civilians are imprisoned in a small dungeon in Calcutta, India where most die from suffocation and heat exhaustion

1819 The SS Savannah reaches Cork in Ireland after a 29 day and 11 hour voyage from Savannah, Georgia to become the 1st steamship to cross the Atlantic or any other ocean

Famous Weddings

1894 Basketball inventor James Naismith (32) weds Maude Evelyn Sherman (23) in Springfield, Massachusetts

1929 Author William Faulkner (31) weds Estelle Oldham at College Hill Presbyterian Church outside Oxford, Mississippi

1938 British actor Alec Guinness (24) weds British actress and artist Merula Sylvia Salaman (23) in Surrey, England, until his death in 2000