On This Day In History - 16th June

On This Day In History - 16th June

 

16th June 363, Emperor Julian marched back up the Tigris and burned his feet. Oops, I mean fleet. Yep, fleet. His fleet of ships. Why would anyone burn his own feet. Come to think of it, why the heck did he burn his fleet?

 

It was all an elaborate plan to persuade his generals and army to fight the Persians instead of retreating. As it turns out, it was a bad idea. They had to retreat and suffered great losses. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

 

The lesson here is - don't burn certain things. 1. Ships. 2. Bridges. 3. My dinner.

 

16th June 1779, Spain declares war on the United Kingdom of Great Britain. Will they never learn? It was all about a tiny rock on the southern tip of Spain at the entrance to the Mediterranean sea called Gibraltar.

 

Britain had it, much to the annoyance of Spain, and Spain wanted it back. With the help of France and in the midst of the American War of Independence, they tried to take it.

 

The Great Siege of Gibraltar lasted for over three years and seven months, and is the longest siege endured by Britain in its entire history. With a garrison of a little over 5,000 men, Britain held out and won the siege, with France and Spain admitting defeat.

 

The British casualties were relatively light. Only 333 were killed in the fighting, however, as food and provisions ran low, another 536 died from disease.

 

On the other side, over 6,000 were killed, wounded, captured, or missing. The Spanish lost 9 ships, and even had a Ship of the Line captured by a British force.

 

16th June 1858, Abraham Lincoln, who shouldn't have gone to watch a play, delivered his powerful House Divided speech in Springfield, Illinois. America will become either all-slave, or all-free.

 

As it turns out, all-free is a much better choice.

 

16th June 1891, John Abbott became Canada's third Prime Minister. He was also Canada's first native born Canadian.

 

He isn't famed for much, other than saying he hated politics. He also hated notoriety, public meetings, public speeches and One Direction. Seems being a Canadian Prime Minister was his calling then.

 

16th June 1944, George Junius Stinney, Jr. at the age of 14, became the youngest person to be executed in the United States of America during the 20th century. A little disturbing that said during the 20th century. There were younger.

 

Since Stinney was executed is guilt has come into question. His conviction was vacated in 2014, 70 years after his death.

 

16th June 1959, George Reeves was shot to death in the upstairs bedroom of his mansion. There is a lot of controversy over George Reeves' death. Mainly because he was Superman, and it was widely believed bullets couldn't hurt Superman.

 

It's also unknown whether it was a suicide, or a murder, or even if he was the victim of an accidental shooting. If only Lois Lane were real, she'd get to the bottom of this mystery.