This Day In History: July 2, 1566 Michel de Nostradame was born on December 14, 1503 in Saint-Remy-de-Provence, France. His family’s roots were Jewish, but they converted to Catholicism to avoid the terrible persecution inflicted on the Jews during the Inquisition. His grandfather saw potential in the boy and taught him Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, as well as mathematics, and […]

This Day In History: July 1, 1961 “I was supposed to be a boy,” she often said. And yes, her birth must have been somewhat of a disappointment to an aristocratic family with two daughters who had suffered the death of baby boy the year before. Unlike her older sisters, her christening was a relatively subdued affair, and she boasted […]

This Day In History: June 30, 1956 “Gone With the Wind” may never have been written if author Margaret Mitchell hadn’t suffered an accident that forced her off her feet. Mitchell suffered a serious ankle injury that led to arthritis, which ended her career as a reporter for the Atlanta Journal – as well as her hectic social life. This […]

This Day In History: June 29, 1914 Grigori Rasputin was born in Siberia around 1869. He was a healer and prophet to those who swore by his powers, but was known as the “mad monk” by those who believed him to be a con artist. He arrived in St. Petersburg in 1906 and was introduced to the Czar and Czarina, […]

This Day In History: June 26, 1945 On June 26, 1945, delegates from 50 nations joined in San Francisco, California to sign the United Nations Charter in the hopes of sparing “succeeding generations from the scourge of war.” The precursor to the United Nations, the League of Nations, was conceived under the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 “to promote international […]

This Day In History: June 25, 1533 Mary Tudor was considered one of the most attractive princesses in Europe in her time. This, coupled with her high station, made her a very hot commodity on the royal marriage market. Her first fiancé was the future Holy Roman Emperor Charles, nephew of her sister-in-law Catherine of Aragon. That deal fell through […]

This Day In History: June 24, 1916 In the days before women had the right to vote, one of the most powerful players in Hollywood was a diminutive blonde with corkscrew curls. Mary Pickford began her career appearing in “flickers”, short films shown in Nickelodeons where the actors were merely considered hired help. They weren’t given any billing at all […]

This Day In History: June 23, 1894 On June 23, 1894, Alfred Charles Kinsey, one of the most influential and controversial figures of the 20th century, was born in Hoboken, New Jersey. He is widely recognized as one of the first people to approach human sexuality, in all its forms, from a scientific angle. The son of a religious zealot, […]

This Day In History: June 22, 1847 Doughnuts are one of those culinary delights that most people love and that seem to have been around forever. Forever may be pushing it, but we do have evidence that the ancient Greeks and Romans would fry up strips of pastry dough and proceed to glaze them with a coating of honey (yum) […]

This Day In History: June 19, 1975 The son of Sicilian immigrants, Sam Giancana, also known as “The Cigar”, was born as Momo Salvatore Giancana on June 15, 1908 in Chicago, Illinois. As a teenager, he led a gang that did small jobs for the infamous Chicago Mafia headed by Al Capone. Sam soon was promoted to wheelman, or driver, […]

This Day In History: June 18, 1873 The verdict of Susan B. Anthony’s trial on June 18, 1873 was a foregone conclusion. When the attorneys for both sides had finished their arguments, the judge read from a piece of paper he had in his pocket the whole time. What was the crime that the judge didn’t believe was worth even […]

This Day In History: June 17, 1462 You may know him as a terrifying blood sucking vampire, but the real “Dracula” was a prince named Vlad Dracula, Son of the Dragon, also known as Vlad Tepes, (Vlad the Impaler). Bram Stoker’s literary creation will give you a shudder, but the exploits of Vlad the Impaler, Prince of Wallachia, are enough […]

This Day In History: June 16, 1943 He was a middle-aged living legend with three failed marriages behind him. She was the barely-legal daughter of a world famous playwright. No-one thought it would last, but they had one of the most enduring relationships of any couple subjected to the scrutiny of the public eye. Oona O’Neill’s parents divorced when she […]

This Day In History: June 15, 1877 Henry Ossian Flipper was born on March 21, 1856 and, grew up as a slave in Thomasville, Georgia. He was a very intelligent youngster. Another slave secretly taught him to read, putting them both at great peril. After the Civil War ended, he attended schools run by the American Missionary Association and began […]

This Day In History: June 12, 1897 Just after 5 pm on the evening of June 12, 1897, ominous rumbling was heard coming from the ground in northern India near Shillong. Then the rumbling ended, and approximately three minutes passed before the shock reached the surface. The earth shook with explosive violence for almost two minutes. Geologists believe that the […]

This Day In History: June 11, 1509 On June 11, 1509 the new king, Henry VIII, took as his bride Catherine of Aragon, who had briefly been married to his older brother Arthur, Prince of Wales, several years earlier. Henry waited long to marry his princess, and could have no idea how long he would wait – and how hard […]

This Day In History: June 9, 1953 Summer had made an early appearance in central New England. The weather was unseasonably warm, with temperatures hovering near 90 degrees, but on June 8, the temperature dropped over 15 degrees in Worcester, MA. This was due to an unusually cold air mass and cold front arriving from the west. This weather system […]