Browse Historical Events by Month: What Happened in June?

President James Madison signs into law a resolution passed by Congress declaring war with Great Britain, marking the beginning of the War of 1812.The War of 1812 ended December 24, 1814 when the two nations met in Belgium and signed the Treaty of Ghent. ending the war and restoring the previously recognized boundaries between the United States and British territory in North America. The Senate unanimously ratified the Treaty of Ghent on February 16, 1815. More

Napoleon Bonaparte's Grand Army invades Russia with an estimated 500,000 to 600,000 troops. The invasion was a major turning point in Napoleon's career. The devastating losses suffered by his army in the face of Russian resistance and the harsh Russian winter led to Napoleon's downfall. 

The Congress of Vienna ends after 18 moths of work having made decisions designed  to reshape the political map of Europe and the establishment of a new political and legal order after more than two decades of turmoil and war following the French Revolution. Among the changes were France's return to its 1789 borders, the creation of the Kingdom of Poland under Russian rule, expansion of the Austrian Empire, creation of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Prussia gaining new territories as well as the establishment of a framework for future international diplomacy. More

Napoleon Bonaparte is defeated at the Battle of Waterloo near Waterloo, Belgium bringing about Napoleon second abdication and the end of the Napoleonic Wars. His French army was defeated by the armies of the Seventh Coalition which included the United Kingdom, Prussia, Russia, Austria, Sweden, the Netherlands, and several German states. More

Napoleon abdicates as French emperor for the second time after his defeat at the Battle of Waterloo, bringing an end to France’s domination of Europe. He was exiled to the remote island of Saint Helena, in the southern Atlantic Ocean, where he lived out the rest of his life. He died on May 5, 1821 at the age of 52.

The French colonization of Algeria begins as 34,000 French soldiers land at Sidi Ferruch, some 27 kilometers west of Algiers. This landing, part of a larger military expedition, aimed to overthrow the Regency of Algiers which was captured after a three-week campaign, and the dey (local ruler) fled into exile. Although Algeria was not fully conquered and pacified until 1903. It is estimated that by 1875, approximately 825,000 indigenous Algerians were killed. Various scholars describe the French conquest as genocide. French rule lasted until the end of the Algerian War, an armed conflict between France and the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN) from 1954 to 1962, which led to Algeria winning its independence from France on July 5, 1962. More

Arkansas was admitted to the U.S and becomes the 25th State. More

Queen Victoria ascends to the British throne at the age of 18, following the death of her uncle, King William IV. This event marked the beginning of her long and impactful reign, which lasted until her death in 1901. While she became queen in June 1837, according to English Tradition and Heritage, her formal coronation took place later, on June 28, 1838, . More

The US Patent Office grants Samuel F. B. Morse U.S. Patent No. 1,647A for his electric telegraph. This invention, which utilized a single wire was a significant development which later led to the creation of the Morse Code and became known as the Morse telegraph.
Although the first known patent for a multiwire electric telegraph was granted to William F. Cooke and Charles Wheatstone in England in 1837, that system was a multiwire system and despite the earlier filing and other contemporaneous inventions, the US Supreme Court upheld Morse's patent claims in 1854 declaring him the "first and original inventor" of the electromagnetic telegraphs described in his patents.

Sir George Williams founded the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) in London. He, along with a group of eleven other young men, established the first YMCA in the living quarters of Hitchcock & Rogers, a drapers shop in St Paul’s Churchyard. In August 1855, 99 young delegates from nine countries held the first World meeting in Paris affirming the YMCA's mission and purpose, and created the Central International Committee. More

The capture of Retired Mexican General Vallejo at his home in Sonoma by ragtag group of about 30 armed Americans, marks the start of the short lived, California Republic or Bear Flag Republic, an unrecognized breakaway from Mexico, that for 25 days militarily controlled an area in and around what is now Sonoma County in California, north of San Francisco. Three weeks later, on July 5, 1846, the Republic's military of 100 to 200 men was subsumed into the California Battalion commanded by Captain John C. Frémont, who had encouraged the revolt. The battalion officially became the U.S. Army’s California Battalion, and went on to fight — this time officially, in the battle for California. More

The Oregon Treaty is signed in Washington, D.C. by Representatives of Great Britain and the United States, establishing the U.S.-Canadian border at the 49th parallel and settling a long-standing dispute with Britain over who controlled the Oregon territory. The United States gained formal control over the future states of Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana; and the British retained Vancouver Island and navigation rights to part of the Columbia River. Tribes were not consulted as the 49th Parallel becomes the boundary. so many Native people on either side of the line wake up in a different country, living under different laws than those they knew the night before. More

Denmark transitions into a constitutional monarchy as King Frederik VII signs the first constitution which had been approved by the Constitutional Assembly on May 25. This event, known as Constitution Day (Grundlovsdag), marked the end of Denmark's absolute monarchy and the establishment of a parliament (Rigsdagen).

500 members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) depart from Iowa City, Iowa, traveling westward to Salt Lake City, Utah where in 1847, Brigham Young, the secular and religious leader of the group, had established the center of a new Utah sanctuary for the Latter-day Saints. They embarked on their more than 1,000-mile journey, carrying their belongings in two-wheeled handcarts, with a maximum load of of 500 pounds. Each family usually had one cart, and the father and mother took turns pulling while any children old enough helped by pushing.   Expand +

Abraham Lincoln delivers his "House Divided Speech" while accepting the Illinois Republican Party's nomination for US Senate. In this speech, he paraphrase a passage from the New Testament: “a house divided against itself cannot stand.” to describe the United States' deep division over the issue of slavery. Lincoln believed that the nation could not long endure with the fundamental contradiction of being half slave and half free. He argued that the country would eventually have to become "all one thing, or all the other," either fully embracing or fully rejecting slavery. His use of this powerful biblical quotation, articulated the moral and political crisis facing the nation and contributed to his rising national prominence, although he lost the Senate race to Stephen Douglas. More

West Virginia is admitted into the Union as the 35th State. It was created during the Civil War when western counties of Virginia, which opposed secession from the Union, formed their own State and it was formalized with West Virginia's admission to the Union in 1863. The statehood was a direct result of the political and social divisions within Virginia regarding secession.

Arlington officially becomes a national cemetery by order of Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. The original cemetery was 200 acres, and as of early 2020, has grown to 639 acres. Arlington became a segregated cemetery, just like all national cemeteries at the time, and remained segregated by race and rank until 1948, when President Harry S. Truman desegregated the military. Approximately 400,000 veterans and their eligible dependents are buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Service members from every one of America’s major wars, from the Revolutionary War to today's conflicts, are interred at ANC. More

The Battle of Petersburg, also known as the Siege of Petersburg, begins. It was a series of battles and trench warfare that took place during the American Civil War in and around Petersburg, Virginia, lasting 292 days from June 1864 to April 1865. It was a crucial campaign in the American Civil War, as Petersburg was a major supply hub for the Confederate capital of Richmond and the Confederate forces. The siege ultimately led to the fall of both cities as the Union forces broke through Confederate lines, leading to the evacuation of Petersburg and Richmond on April 2, 1865 and effectively ending the war, as Lee surrendered a week later at Appomattox Court House. Both sides suffered significant losses during the Petersburg campaign with an estimated 70,000 casualties. More

The USS Kearsarge sinks the CSS Alabama during the American Civil War. The battle took place in international waters off the coast of France, although close enough to be visible from shore. The Alabama was commanded by Capt. Raphael Semmes (later Rear Adm.) and the USS Kearsarge by Cpt. John A. Winslow (later promoted to Commodore)

The CSS Alabama Confederate commerce raider had been in a two-year campaign that ravaged Union shipping destroying many ships, raising maritime insurance rates and causing alarm an havoc all along the Atlantic coast of the United States. It had been built in the Birkenhead shipyards in Liverpool, England (ostensibly for the Turkish navy). She went to sea on what was advertised as her trial run on July 1862, and never returned. Instead, she made her way to the Portuguese Azores, where she took on a battery of guns, an international crew and a handful of Confederate naval officers. After the war was over, the U.S. filed claims against Great Britain for allowing the construction of Alabama in her yards. An international court awarded the government $15.5 million in damages. More

Colorado Territory Governor, John Evans issues a proclamation commanding all “Friendly” Native Americans of the Cheyenne and Arapaho to go to Fort Lyon to receive supplies and to find safety. Unfortunately, this was in direct conflict with the standing order at all Forts within the Territory of Colorado that all members of the Military should shoot and kill any Native American that approached a Fort and with a second proclamation issued the following day by Evans inviting white settlers to indiscriminately “kill and destroy all…hostile Indians. These duplicitous political maneuverings led to the November 29 Sand Creek Massacre, when over the course of eight hours the American troops killed around 230 Cheyenne and Arapaho people composed mostly of women, children, and the elderly who had been directed by the American Military to camp there. More