June 9

68 – Emperor Nero commits suicide, prompting the Roman civil war known as the Year of the Four Emperors; Galba, Otho, Vitellius, and Vespasian.

721 – Duke Odo of Aquitaine defeats the army of Al-Samh al-Khawlaniin in the Battle of Toulouse, breaking a 3 month long siege and killing over 3000 moors, halting for awhile the further spread of the moslem invasion from Spain into Europe and giving Charles Martel, farther north, time to build an army.

1534 – Jacques Cartier is the first European to describe and map the Saint Lawrence River.

1732 – James Oglethorpe is granted a royal charter for a colony that becomes the colony and future state of Georgia.

1772 – Chasing the packet ship Hannah –later to be hired by General Washington as the first ship of the Continental Navy – the British customs schooner HMS Gaspee, enforcing British import and export taxes, runs aground in shallow water on the northwestern side of Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island. She is then attacked by members of The Sons of Liberty, and after a short fight, boarded and burned.

1862 –Stonewall Jackson concludes his successful Shenandoah Valley Campaign with a victory in the Battle of Port Republic. The tactics used during the campaign are now studied by militaries around the world

1915 – William Jennings Bryan resigns as Woodrow Wilson’s Secretary of State over a disagreement regarding the United States’ handling of the sinking of the RMS Lusitania after Wilson sent Germany a note of protest while still a neutral power.

1944 – 99 civilians are hanged from lampposts and balconies by German troops in Tulle, France, in reprisal for attacks by the French Resistance during World War II.

1953 – The Flint–Worcester tornado outbreak from the midwest to northern states in kills 94 people in Michigan and Massachusetts.

1959 – The first nuclear powered ballistic missile submarine, SSBN-598, USS George Washington is launched at Electric Boat Division, Groton, Connecticut.

1967 – Israel captures the Golan Heights from Syria during the Six-Day War.

1972 – Severe rainfall causes the Canyon Lake dam in the Black Hills of South Dakota to burst, creating a flood that kills 238 people, mostly In Rapid City, and causes $160 million in damage.

1973 – Winning the Belmont Stakes at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York, while setting the current track record of 2:24 for the distance, Secretariat with jockey Ron Turcotte aboard secures the U.S. Triple Crown, the first horse to do so since 1948.

1978 – The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints opens its priesthood to “all worthy men”, ending a 148 year old policy of excluding black men.

1999 – President Clinton, previously frustrated with Serbian intransigence and changing the rules of engagement to include the political leadership, news media and the intellectual underpinning of his enemy’s war effort -accidentally filing suit under the ‘Law of Unintended Consequences’ – causes the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (at the time, Serbia and Montenegro) to end military operations in Kosovo and sign a peace treaty with NATO.