June 10

Historic Events

2025

Eleven people are killed, including the perpetrator, and eleven others are injured, in a mass shooting at a secondary school in Graz, Austria. ›

2024

A plane crash in Malawi leaves 10 people dead, including the country's Vice President Saulos Chilima. ›

2018

The Opportunity rover sends its last message back to Earth. The mission was finally declared over on February 13, 2019. ›

2009

Eighty-eight year-old James Wenneker von Brunn opens fire inside the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and fatally shoots Museum Special Police Officer Stephen Tyrone Johns. Other security guards returned fire, wounding von Brunn, who was apprehended. ›

2008

Sudan Airways Flight 109 crashes at Khartoum International Airport, killing 30 people. ›

2003

The Spirit rover is launched, beginning NASA's Mars Exploration Rover mission. ›

2002

The first direct electronic communication experiment between the nervous systems of two humans is carried out by Kevin Warwick in the United Kingdom. ›

2001

Pope John Paul II canonizes Lebanon's first female saint, Saint Rafqa. ›

1999

Kosovo War: NATO suspends its airstrikes after Slobodan Milošević agrees to withdraw Serbian forces from Kosovo. ›

1997

Before fleeing his northern stronghold, Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot orders the killing of his defense chief Son Sen and 11 of Sen's family members. ›

1996

Peace talks begin in Northern Ireland without the participation of Sinn Féin. ›

1994

China conducts a nuclear test for DF-31 warhead at Area C (Beishan), Lop Nur, its prominence being due to the Cox Report. ›

1991

Eleven-year-old Jaycee Lee Dugard is kidnapped in South Lake Tahoe, California; she would remain a captive until 2009. ›

1990

British Airways Flight 5390 lands safely at Southampton Airport after a blowout in the cockpit causes the captain to be partially sucked from the cockpit. There are no fatalities. ›

1987

June Democratic Struggle: The June Democratic Struggle starts in South Korea, and people protest against the government. ›

1982

Lebanon War: The Syrian Arab Army defeats the Israeli Defense Forces in the Battle of Sultan Yacoub. ›

1980

The African National Congress in South Africa publishes a call to fight from their imprisoned leader Nelson Mandela. ›

1977

James Earl Ray escapes from Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary in Petros, Tennessee. He is recaptured three days later. ›

1967

The Six-Day War ends: Israel and Syria agree to a cease-fire. ›

1964

United States Senate breaks a 75-day filibuster against the Civil Rights Act of 1964, leading to the bill's passage. ›

1963

The Equal Pay Act of 1963, aimed at abolishing wage disparity based on sex, is signed into law by John F. Kennedy as part of his New Frontier Program. ›

1960

Trans Australia Airlines Flight 538 crashes near Mackay Airport in Mackay, Queensland, Australia, killing 29. ›

1957

John Diefenbaker leads the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada to a stunning upset in the 1957 Canadian federal election, ending 22 years of Liberal Party government. ›

1947

Saab produces its first automobile. ›

1945

World War II: Australian Imperial Forces land in Brunei Bay to liberate Brunei. ›

1944

World War II: Six hundred forty-three men, women and children are massacred at Oradour-sur-Glane, France. ›

1944

World War II: In Distomo, Boeotia, Greece, 228 men, women and children are massacred by German troops. ›

1944

In baseball, 15-year-old Joe Nuxhall of the Cincinnati Reds becomes the youngest player ever in a major-league game. ›

1942

World War II: The Lidice massacre is perpetrated as a reprisal for the assassination of Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich. ›

1940

World War II: Fascist Italy declares war on France and the United Kingdom, beginning an invasion of southern France. ›

1940

World War II: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt denounces Italy's actions in his "Stab in the Back" speech at the graduation ceremonies of the University of Virginia. ›

1940

World War II: Military resistance to the German occupation of Norway ends. ›

1935

Dr. Robert Smith takes his last drink, and Alcoholics Anonymous is founded in Akron, Ohio, United States, by him and Bill Wilson. ›

1935

Chaco War ends: A truce is called between Bolivia and Paraguay who had been fighting since 1932. ›

1924

Fascists kidnap and kill Italian Socialist leader Giacomo Matteotti in Rome. ›

1916

The Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire is declared by Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca. ›

1898

Spanish–American War: In the Battle of Guantánamo Bay, U.S. Marines begin the American invasion of Spanish-held Cuba. ›

1886

Mount Tarawera in New Zealand erupts, killing 153 people and burying the famous Pink and White Terraces. Eruptions continue for three months creating a large, 17 km (11 mi) long fissure across the mountain peak. ›

1878

League of Prizren is established, to oppose the decisions of the Congress of Berlin and the Treaty of San Stefano, as a consequence of which the Albanian lands in the Balkans were being partitioned and given to the neighbor states of Serbia, Montenegro, Bulgaria, and Greece. ›

1873

Russian forces under General von Kaufmann capture the city of Khiva from the Khanate of Khiva. ›

1871

Sinmiyangyo: Captain McLane Tilton leads 109 US Marines in a naval attack on Han River forts on Kanghwa Island, Korea. ›

1868

Mihailo Obrenović III, Prince of Serbia is assassinated. ›

1864

American Civil War: Battle of Brice's Crossroads: Confederate troops under Nathan Bedford Forrest defeat a much larger Union force led by General Samuel D. Sturgis in Mississippi. ›

1863

During the French intervention in Mexico, Mexico City is captured by French troops. ›

1861

American Civil War: Battle of Big Bethel: Confederate troops under John B. Magruder defeat a much larger Union force led by General Ebenezer W. Pierce in Virginia. ›

1854

The United States Naval Academy graduates its first class of students. ›

1838

Myall Creek massacre: Twenty-eight Aboriginal Australians are murdered. ›

1829

The first Boat Race between the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge takes place on the Thames in London. ›

1805

First Barbary War: Yusuf Karamanli signs a treaty ending the hostilities between Tripolitania and the United States. ›

1793

The Jardin des Plantes museum opens in Paris. A year later, it becomes the first public zoo. ›

1793

French Revolution: Following the arrests of Girondin leaders, the Jacobins gain control of the Committee of Public Safety installing the revolutionary dictatorship. ›

1786

A landslide dam on the Dadu River created by an earthquake ten days earlier collapses, killing 100,000 in the Sichuan province of China. ›

1782

King Buddha Yodfa Chulaloke (Rama I) of Siam (modern day Thailand) is crowned. ›

1719

Jacobite risings: Battle of Glen Shiel. ›

1692

Salem witch trials: Bridget Bishop is hanged at Gallows Hill near Salem, Massachusetts, for "certaine Detestable Arts called Witchcraft and Sorceries". ›

1624

Signing of the Treaty of Compiègne between France and the Netherlands. ›

1619

Thirty Years' War: Battle of Záblatí, a turning point in the Bohemian Revolt. ›

1596

Willem Barents and Jacob van Heemskerk discover Bear Island. ›

1539

Council of Trent: Pope Paul III sends out letters to his bishops, delaying the Council due to war and the difficulty bishops had traveling to Venice. ›

1523

Copenhagen is surrounded by the army of Frederick I of Denmark, as the city will not recognise him as the successor of Christian II of Denmark. ›

1422

Ottoman Sultan Murad II besieges Constantinople, but is ultimately unsuccessful. ›

1358

Battle of Mello: The peasant forces of the Jacquerie are crushed by the army of the French nobility. ›

1329

The Battle of Pelekanon is the last attempt of the Byzantine Empire to retain its cities in Asia Minor. ›

1225

Pope Honorius III issues the bull Vineae Domini custodes in which he approves the mission of Dominican friars to Morocco. ›

1190

Third Crusade: Frederick I Barbarossa drowns in the river Saleph while leading an army to Jerusalem. ›

671

Emperor Tenji of Japan introduces a water clock (clepsydra) called Rokoku. The instrument, which measures time and indicates hours, is placed in the capital of Ōtsu. ›