What Happened in June?

The first Book of Common Prayer is published during the reign of King Edward VI of England. It reflected the England's split from the Roman Catholic Church under the previous monarch Henry VIII and the English Reformation following the break with Rome. It was put together by a religious committee headed by Thomas Cranmer the Archbishop of Canterbury. It was the first time a book of service was written in English. It has been extensively revised a number of times, the last in 1662. It has remained in use as the official liturgical book of the Church of England and other Anglican churches. More

England declares war on France during the Italian War of 1551–1559.

English Privateer, Martin Frobisher leaves Plymouth on June 3, 1578 on his third voyage to Frobisher Bay, Canada. The expedition consisted of 400 men aboard 15 ships.  It was, in search of ore believed to contain gold which had been found in a previous trip while searching for the Northwest Passage.  Expand +

Sir Francis Drake is believed to have landed on the coast of California in or near Drakes Bay on the Point Reyes Peninsula, Marin County, California. Drake claimed the land for England, naming it Nova Albion (New Albion). At the time, Drake was searching for a harbor to repair his ship, the Golden Hind which had developed a leak during his circumnavigation trip. More

After a mutiny by the crew of Henry Hudson's ship Discovery on June 22, 1611, Hudson and his son are set adrift along with seven loyal crew members in a small boat. They were never seen again. Expand +

The original Globe Theatre burns down. The theater, located on the south bank of the River Thames in London a landmark debut venue for most of William Shakespeare's plays. It  was built in 1599 by the playing company to which Shakespeare belonged. The Globe was known for its open-air, circular design and its ability to hold around 3,000 spectators. The fire occurred during a performance of All is True (known today as Henry VIII). It was rebuilt but later closed  and demolished in 1644.

The Petition of Right is formally accepted by England's King Charles I, on June 7, 1628 limiting his power. He agreed not to tax without consent, imprison without cause, or quarter soldiers in homes. Charles later ignored the petition, escalating tensions and contributing to the English Civil War.

Galileo Galilei is convicted of heresy on June 22, 1633, by the Roman Catholic Church's Holy Office (the Inquisition), and is forced to publicly recant his scientific position that the Earth orbits the Sun, his book was banned, and he was sentenced to imprisonment, but it was immediately commuted to permanent house arrest at his villa near Florence where he spent his remaining years. Expand +

The Myles Standish Burial Ground (or Old Burying Ground) in Duxbury, Massachusetts, was established around 1638. It is the oldest continuously maintained cemetery in the United States, according to the American Cemetery Association. It is the final resting place for many Pilgrims, including ,John Alden, the Mayflower's first recorded burial and his wife Priscilla Alden and Myles Standish Expand +

The Puritan-led English Parliament during Oliver Cromwell's republican Commonwealth, passed an ordinance which declared the celebration of Christmas to be a punishable offence. Although many people continued to celebrate Christmas in private, Christmas effectively ceased to be celebrated in the great majority of churches overtime. Expand +

Louis XIV, also known as Louis the Great (Louis le Grand) is crowned King of France at the age of 16, on June 7, 1654, under the regency of his mother, Queen Anne. He went on to consolidate a system of absolute monarchy in France that endured until the French Revolution.

The colonial territory of New Jersey was established on June 24, 1664, when King Charles II granted the land to his brother, the Duke of York, who gave it to his friends, Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret. who became the Lords Proprietors of the new colony.

England, King Charles II's Privy Council began implementing strict measures starting on June 5, 1665, after deaths during the Plague in London started to rise significantly.  Expand +

The Royal Greenwich Observatory was established by King Charles II on June 22, 1675, by a royal warrant. The primary purpose for creating the observatory was to create a scientific institution to determine longitude at sea to improve the safety and efficiency of sea navigation. Expand +

The battle at Öland takes place on June 1, 1676, in the Baltic Sea, off the east coast of Öland during the Scanian War,. The battle resulted in the defeat of the Swedish navy by the allied Danish-Dutch forces. More

Jamaica's Port Royal is consumed by an earthquake estimated to be a 7.4 magnitude, on June 7, 1692, causing two thirds of the town to sink into the sea and destroying every building or other substantial  structure in the Island, A series of fires and hurricanes followed. The town was never restored to its former British Naval base glory and remains a small fishing village today.  Two thousand people died immediately and an additional 3000 died of injuries and disease shortly after. More

Bridget Bishop is hanged on Proctor's Ledge at Gallows Hill during the Salem Witch Trials in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. She was accused of witchcraft and found guilty by the Court of Oyer and Terminer (to Hear and to Decide). A total of 19 more individuals lost their life; five women on July 19, one woman and four men on  Expand +

Royal astronomer Edmond Halley publishes his groundbreaking paper "Synopsis of the Astronomy of Comets", on June 8, 1705 about the periodicity of comets appearance on earth. He correctly predicted that this periodic comet would return in 1758. Expand +

The first Freemasons' Grand Lodge of London and Westminster is founded in London on June 24, 1717, after a meeting of the four existing London lodges . The event marked the establishing of modern Freemasonry,  shifting to a modern, structured fraternity focused on moral, philosophical, and charitable ideals.

Voltaire's French version of "Philosophical Letters", secretly published early in 1734, is condemned by the Sorbonne in March and the Parlement de Paris, ordered all copies to be confiscated and publicly burned on June 10, 1734. Expand +