Today in History June 17

362		Emperor Julian issues an edict banning Christians from teaching in Syria.
1579		Sir Francis Drake claims San Francisco Bay for England.
1775		The British take Bunker Hill outside of Boston, after a costly battle.
1799		Napoleon Bonaparte incorporates Italy into his empire.
1848		Austrian General Alfred Windisch-Gratz crushes a Czech uprising in Prague.
1854		The Red Turban revolt breaks out in Guangdong, China.
1856		The Republican Party opens its first national convention in Philadelphia.
1861		President Abraham Lincoln witnesses Dr. Thaddeus Lowe demonstrate the use of ahot-air balloon.
1863		On the way to Gettysburg, Union and Confederate forces skirmish at Point of Rocks, Maryland.
1872		George M. Hoover begins selling whiskey in Dodge City, Kansas–a town which had previously been “dry.”
1876		General George Crook‘s command is attacked and bested on the Rosebud River by 1,500 Sioux and Cheyenne under the leadership of Crazy Horse.
1912		The German Zeppelin SZ 111 burns in its hangar in Friedrichshafen.
1913		U.S. Marines set sail from San Diego to protect American interests in Mexico.
1917		The Russian Duma meets in secret session in Petrograd and votes for an immediate Russian offensive against the German Army.
1924		The Fascist militia marches into Rome.
1926		Spain threatens to quit the League of Nations if Germany is allowed to join.
1930		The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Bill becomes law, placing the highest tariff on imports to the United States.
1931		British authorities in China arrest Indochinese Communist leader Ho Chi Minh.
1932		The U.S. Senate defeats the Bonus Bill as 10,000 veterans mass around the Capitol.
1940		The Soviet Union occupies Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.
1942		Yank a weekly magazine for the U.S. armed services, begins publication.
1944		French troops land on the island of Elba in the Mediterranean.
1950		Surgeon Richard Lawler performs the first kidney transplant operation in Chicago.
1953		Soviet tanks fight thousands of Berlin workers rioting against the East German government.
1963		The U.S. Supreme Court bans the required reading of the Lord’s prayer and Bible in public schools.
1965		27 B-52s hit Viet Cong outposts, but lose two planes in South Vietnam.
1970		North Vietnamese troops cut the last operating rail line in Cambodia.
1972		Five men are arrested for burglarizing Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergatecomplex in Washington, D.C.
1994		Millions of Americans watch former football player O.J. Simpson–facing murder charges–drive his Ford Bronco through Los Angeles, followed by police.
Born on June 17
1239		Edward I (Longshanks), King of England (1272-1307).
1703		John Wesley, English evangelist and theologian, founder of the Methodist movement.
1742		William Hooper, signer of the Declaration of Independence.
1871		James Weldon Johnson, African-American poet and novelist (The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man).
1880		Carl Van Vechten, writer.
1882		Igor Stravinsky, Russian-born U.S. composer (The Rite of Spring, The Firebird).
1914		John Hersey, novelist and journalist (Men of Bataan, Hiroshima).
1942		Rod Padgett, poet.