Here’s a look at things that have happened on this date in history.
In 1775, George Washington was commissioned by the Continental Congress as commander in chief of the Continental Army.
PHILADELPHIA — JULY 1: A sculpture of George Washington is seen on display in Signers Hall, where visitors can walk among delegates of the Constitutional Convention, during a preview of the National Constitution Center July 1, 2003 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The National Constitution Center will be the only museum in the U.S. dedicated to honoring and explaining the U.S. Constitution. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor will receive the Philadelphia Liberty Medal at the NCC’s grand opening on July 4, 2003.
(Photo by William Thomas Cain/Getty Images)
Photo by William Thomas Cain/Getty Images
In 1865, Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, with news that the Civil War was over, and that all remaining slaves in Texas were free — an event celebrated to this day as “Juneteenth.”
In this photo, a group of men wade into the ocean as they push a small raft loaded with offerings to their ancestors out to sea Sunday, June 19, 2005 on Virginia Key, Miami’s former “black only” beach. The ceremony is part of the Juneteenth celebration, an unofficial black holiday that marks the day on June 19, 1865 when slaves in Texas learned that Abraham Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation two years earlier.
(AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee
In 1934, the Federal Communications Commission was created; it replaced the Federal Radio Commission.
FILE – This June 19, 2015, file photo, shows the Federal Communications Commission building in Washington.
(AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File
In 1953, Julius Rosenberg, 35, and his wife, Ethel, 37, convicted of conspiring to pass U.S. atomic secrets to the Soviet Union, were executed at Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, New York.
In this 1951 file photo, Mr. and Mrs. Julius Rosenberg, center, were charged by the U.S. government to commit espionage by transmitting national secrets to Soviet Russia. The CIA and National Security Agency released 49 messages between Moscow and its KGB operatives in New York and Washington that were intercepted in the mid-1940s and painstakingly decoded by cryptology experts at the Army Signal Intelligence Service, a forerunner of the NSA. The materials “may lay to rest a major Cold War controversy. … Were the Rosenbergs guilty?” NSA historian-in-residence David Kahn told reporters Tuesday, July 11, 1995 for a ceremonial release of the papers at CIA headquarters.
(AP Photo/File)
AP Photo/File
In 1964, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was approved by the U.S. Senate, 73-27, after surviving a lengthy filibuster.
Here, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson reaches to shake hands with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. after presenting the civil rights leader with one of the 72 pens used to sign the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in Washington, D.C., on July 2, 1964. Surrounding the president, from left, are, Rep. Roland Libonati, D-Ill., Rep. Peter Rodino, D-N.J., Rev. King, Emanuel Celler, D-N.Y., and behind Celler is Whitney Young, executive director of the National Urban League.
(AP Photo)
AP Photo
In 1952, the U.S. Army Special Forces, the elite unit of fighters known as the Green Berets, was established at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
(Logan Mock-Bunting/Getty Images)
Logan Mock-Bunting/Getty Images
In 2006, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned North Korea it would face consequences if it test-fired a missile thought to be powerful enough to reach the West Coast of the United States.
FILE – In this March 15, 2014 file photo, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice gestures while speaking at the California Republican Party 2014 Spring Convention in Burlingame, Calif. University of Minnesota faculty and student activists are pressuring the school to rescind its invitation to Rice to speak at the Twin Cities campus April 17 as part of the Humphrey School of Public Affairs’ lecture series. Math professor William Messing has introduced a resolution to be considered by the University Senate next week which asks that the Rice speech be canceled because of her role in the wartime policies of the Bush administration.
(AP Photo/Ben Margot, File)
Today is Wednesday, June 19, the 170th day of 2019.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On June 19, 1865, Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, with news that the Civil War was over, and that all remaining slaves in Texas were free — an event celebrated to this day as “Juneteenth.”
On this date:
In 1775, George Washington was commissioned by the Continental Congress as commander in chief of the Continental Army.
In 1868, “Tales from the Vienna Woods,” a waltz by Johann Strauss “the Younger,” was first publicly performed by Strauss’ orchestra.
In 1917, during World War I, King George V ordered the British royal family to dispense with German titles and surnames; the family took the name “Windsor.”
In 1934, the Federal Communications Commission was created; it replaced the Federal Radio Commission.
In 1938, four dozen people were killed when a railroad bridge in Montana collapsed, sending a train known as the Olympian hurtling into Custer Creek.
In 1944, during World War II, the two-day Battle of the Philippine Sea began, resulting in a decisive victory for the Americans over the Japanese.
In 1952, the U.S. Army Special Forces, the elite unit of fighters known as the Green Berets, was established at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. The celebrity-panel game show “I’ve Got A Secret” debuted on CBS-TV.
In 1953, Julius Rosenberg, 35, and his wife, Ethel, 37, convicted of conspiring to pass U.S. atomic secrets to the Soviet Union, were executed at Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, New York.
In 1964, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was approved by the U.S. Senate, 73-27, after surviving a lengthy filibuster.
In 1987, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Louisiana law requiring any public school teaching the theory of evolution to teach creation science as well.
In 2006, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned North Korea it would face consequences if it test-fired a missile thought to be powerful enough to reach the West Coast of the United States.
In 2017, Otto Warmbier a 22-year-old American college student died in a Cincinnati hospital following his release by North Korea in a coma after more than a year in captivity.
Ten years ago: New York Times reporter David S. Rohde and Afghan reporter Tahir Ludin escaped from militant captors after more than seven months in captivity in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Texas billionaire R. Allen Stanford was indicted and jailed on charges his international banking empire was really just a Ponzi scheme built on lies, bluster and bribery. (Stanford was sentenced to 110 years in prison after being convicted of bilking investors in a $7.2 billion scheme that involved the sale of fraudulent certificates of deposits.)
Five years ago: President Barack Obama announced he was dispatching 300 U.S. military advisers to Iraq to help quell a rising insurgency. Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California won election as House majority leader as Republicans shuffled their leadership in the wake of Rep. Eric Cantor’s primary defeat in Virginia. Gerry Goffin, 75, a prolific and multi-dimensional lyricist who with his then-wife and songwriter partner Carole King wrote such hits as “Will You Love Me Tomorrow,” “(You Make Me Feel Like) a Natural Woman,” “Up On The Roof,” and “The Loco-Motion,” died in Los Angeles.
One year ago: The United States said it was pulling out of the United Nations’ Human Rights Council, a day after the U.N. human rights chief denounced the Trump administration for separating migrant children from their parents; U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley cited long-standing U.S. complaints that the council was biased against Israel. Koko, a western lowland gorilla who was taught sign language at an early age as a scientific test subject and eventually learned more than 1,000 words, died at the Gorilla Foundation’s preserve in California’s Santa Cruz mountains at the age of 46. New York mayor Bill de Blasio said as of Sept. 1, police would start issuing summonses to people caught smoking marijuana in public rather than arresting them.
