This Day In History: June 22, 1847 Doughnuts are one of those culinary delights that most people love and that seem to have been around forever. Forever may be pushing it, but we do have evidence that the ancient Greeks and Romans would fry up strips of pastry dough and proceed to glaze them with a coating of honey (yum) […]

This Day In History: June 19, 1975 The son of Sicilian immigrants, Sam Giancana, also known as “The Cigar”, was born as Momo Salvatore Giancana on June 15, 1908 in Chicago, Illinois. As a teenager, he led a gang that did small jobs for the infamous Chicago Mafia headed by Al Capone. Sam soon was promoted to wheelman, or driver, […]

This Day In History: June 18, 1873 The verdict of Susan B. Anthony’s trial on June 18, 1873 was a foregone conclusion. When the attorneys for both sides had finished their arguments, the judge read from a piece of paper he had in his pocket the whole time. What was the crime that the judge didn’t believe was worth even […]

This Day In History: June 17, 1462 You may know him as a terrifying blood sucking vampire, but the real “Dracula” was a prince named Vlad Dracula, Son of the Dragon, also known as Vlad Tepes, (Vlad the Impaler). Bram Stoker’s literary creation will give you a shudder, but the exploits of Vlad the Impaler, Prince of Wallachia, are enough […]

This Day In History: June 16, 1943 He was a middle-aged living legend with three failed marriages behind him. She was the barely-legal daughter of a world famous playwright. No-one thought it would last, but they had one of the most enduring relationships of any couple subjected to the scrutiny of the public eye. Oona O’Neill’s parents divorced when she […]

This Day In History: June 15, 1877 Henry Ossian Flipper was born on March 21, 1856 and, grew up as a slave in Thomasville, Georgia. He was a very intelligent youngster. Another slave secretly taught him to read, putting them both at great peril. After the Civil War ended, he attended schools run by the American Missionary Association and began […]

This Day In History: June 12, 1897 Just after 5 pm on the evening of June 12, 1897, ominous rumbling was heard coming from the ground in northern India near Shillong. Then the rumbling ended, and approximately three minutes passed before the shock reached the surface. The earth shook with explosive violence for almost two minutes. Geologists believe that the […]

This Day In History: June 11, 1509 On June 11, 1509 the new king, Henry VIII, took as his bride Catherine of Aragon, who had briefly been married to his older brother Arthur, Prince of Wales, several years earlier. Henry waited long to marry his princess, and could have no idea how long he would wait – and how hard […]

This Day In History: June 9, 1953 Summer had made an early appearance in central New England. The weather was unseasonably warm, with temperatures hovering near 90 degrees, but on June 8, the temperature dropped over 15 degrees in Worcester, MA. This was due to an unusually cold air mass and cold front arriving from the west. This weather system […]

This Day In History: June 8, 1949 On June 8, 1949, hugely popular screen idols, including Edward G. Robinson, John Garfield and Frederic March, were called out as Commies by the US Government. They based their conclusion on accusations by “confidential informants” coupled with some imaginative analysis. The first breadcrumb on the trail to Tinseltown was the Communist Party in […]

This Day In History: June 5, 1963 John Dennis Profumo was appointed Secretary of War by British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan in 1960. He had a good job with room for advancement, was married to retired actress Valerie Hobson, and together they were at the center of the fledgling Swinging ‘60s in-crowd. Life was good. One night at Lord “Bill” […]

This Day In History: June 4, 1798 “As well as good looks he possesses the rare gift of befriending women. He has the knack of addressing them as if they were his equals, and undressing them as if they were his superiors.” – Casanova biographer Judith Summers Giovanni Giacomo Casanova, whose name became forever synonymous with a smooth talking playboy, […]

This Day In History: June 3, 1780 Born on September 9, 1711, Thomas Hutchinson was the fifth generation of his family to live in New England. He was the great-great grandson of the infamous Anne Hutchinson, who had been expelled from the city of Boston for her radical religious views. Aside from his outspoken great-great grandma, his family had done […]

This Day In History: June 2, 1863 On June 2, 1863, three Union gunboats set sail up the Combahee River from Beaufort, South Carolina. The ships were able to avoid any confrontation with Confederate forces thanks to intelligence provided by a trusted Union spy known as “Moses.” The master of espionage “Moses” was none other than Harriet Tubman, the hero […]

This Day In History: June 1, 1967 ‘Sgt. Pepper is the one. It was a peak. Paul and I were definitely working together.” – John Lennon After years of touring and relentless media attention, the Beatles felt frustrated creatively. They were tired of wearing matching suits in front of throngs of screaming girls. None of them came to hear the […]

This Day In History: May 29, 1851 Sojourner Truth, abolitionist, orator, and women’s rights activist, delivered a ground-breaking speech on May 29, 1851, one of the first and most memorable of the fledgling suffragist movement. An emancipated slave, Sojourner believed the wrongs committed against both blacks and women by the US were “inextricably intertwined.” She never learned to read or […]

This Day In History: May 28, 1961 “Only when the last prisoner of conscience has been freed, when the last torture chamber has been closed, when the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights is a reality for the world’s people, will our work be done.” Peter Benenson – Founder of Amnesty International On May 28, 1961, The London Observer published […]