June 21 - This Day in History

1307 – Kulug Khan is enthroned as Khagan of the Mongols and Wuzong of the Yaun.

1582 – Sengoku period: Oda Nobunaga, the most powerful of the Japanese daimyos, is forced to commit suicide by his own general Akechi Mitsuhide.  Nobunaga is regarded as the first "Great Unifier" of Japan. Nobunaga was head of the very powerful Oda clan and launched a war against other daimyō to unify Japan in the 1560s. Nobunaga emerged as the most powerful daimyō, overthrowing the nominally ruling shogun Ashikaga Yoshiaki and dissolving the Ashikaga Shogunate in 1573. He conquered most of Honshu island by 1580 and defeated the Ikko-ikid rebels in the 1580s. Nobunaga's rule was noted for innovative military tactics, fostering of free trade, reforms of Japan's civil government, and the start of the Momoyama historical period, but also for the brutal suppression of those who refused to cooperate or yield to his demands. Nobunaga was killed in the Honno-ji incident in 1582, when his retainer Mitsuhide ambushed him in Kyoto and forced him to commit seppuku. Nobunaga was succeeded by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who along with Tokugawa Ieyasu completed his war of unification shortly afterward.  Nobunaga was an influential figure in Japanese history and is regarded as one of the three great unifiers of Japan

1734 – In Montreal in New France, a slave known by the French name pf Marie-Joseph Angelique is put to death, having been convicted of setting the fire that destroyed much of the city.

1788 – New Hampshire becomes the ninth state to ratify the Constitution.

1798 – Irish Rebellion of 1798 – The British Army defeats Irish rebels at the Battle of Vinegar Hill. Probably with the British having been beaten in North American they were really ticked off and determined not to lose twice in a row.

1813 – Peninsular War – Wellington defeats Joseph Bonaparte at the Battle of Vitoria.

1864 – Civil War – The Battle of Jerusalem Plank Road begins.  Hadn’t heard of this one?  The battle was near Petersburg. Virginia. It was the first of a series of battles during the Siege of Petersburg aimed at extending the Union siege lines to the west and cutting the rail lines supplying Petersburg. Two infantry corps of the Union Army of the Potomac attempted to sever the railroad, but were attacked and driven off by the Confederate Army Third Corps, principally the division of Brig. Gen. William Mahone. The inconclusive battle left the Weldon Railroad temporarily in Confederate hands, but the Union Army began to extend its fortifications to the west, starting to increase the pressure of the siege.

1898 – The United States captures Guam from Spain.  The few warning shots fired by the U.S. naval vessels are misinterpreted as salutes by the Spanish garrison, which was unaware that the two nations were at war.  

1900 – Boxer Rebellion – China formally declares war on the United States, Britain, Germany, France and Japan.  

1919 – World War I – Admiral Ludwig von Reuter scuttles the German fleet at Scapa Flow, Orkney.  The nine sailors killed are the last casualties of the war.          

1940 – World War II – Italy begins and unsuccessful invasion of France.  

1942 – WWII – (a) Tobruk falls to Italian and German forces; 33,000 Allied troops are taken prisoner.  (b) A Japanese submarine surfaces near the Columbia River in Oregon, firing 17 shells at Fort Stevens in one of only day a handful of attacks by Japan against the American mainland.

1945 – WWII – The Battle of Okinawa ends when the organized resistance of Imperial Japanese Army forces collapses in the Mabuni area on the southern tip of the main island.

1963 – Cardinal Giovanni Battista Montini is elected as Pope Paul VI.

1964 – Back on the other side of the Atlantic three civil rights workers, Andrew Goodman, James Chaney and Michael Schwerner, are murdered in Neshoba County, Mississippi, by members of the Ku Klux Klan.   All three, from New York, were associated with the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) and its member organization, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). They had been working with the Freedom Summer campaign by attempting to register African Americans in Mississippi to vote. Since 1890 and through the turn of the century, southern states had systematically disenfranchised most black voters by discrimination in voter registration and voting. The three men had traveled from Meridian to the community of Longdale to talk with congregation members at a black church that had been burned; the church had been a center of community organization. The trio was arrested following a traffic stop for speeding outside Philadelphia, Mississippi, escorted to the local jail, and held for a number of hours. As the three left town in their car, they were followed by law enforcement and others. Before leaving Neshoba County, their car was pulled over. The three were abducted, driven to another location, and shot dead at close range. The bodies of the three men were taken to an earthen dam where they were buried. The disappearance of the three men was initially investigated as a missing persons case. The civil rights workers' burnt-out car was found near a swamp three days after their disappearance. An extensive search of the area was conducted by the FBI, local and state authorities, and four hundred United States Navy sailors. Their bodies were not discovered until seven weeks later, when the team received a tip. During the investigation it emerged that members of the local White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, the Neshoba County Sheriff's Office, and the Philadelphia Police Department were involved in the incident.  Forty-one years after the murders took place, one perpetrator, Edgar Ray Killen, was charged by the state of Mississippi for his part in the crimes. In 2005 he was convicted of three counts of manslaughter and was given a 60-year sentence. On June 20, 2016, federal and state authorities officially closed the case, ending the possibility of further prosecution. Killen died in prison in January 2018.

1989 – The Supreme Court rules in Texas v. Johnson, that American flag-burning is a form of political protest protected by the First Amendment.  This case reminds me - - in 1991 at the request of Rukh – what was essentially Ukraine’s independence movement -- we (the U.S.-Ukraine Foundation) worked with Indiana University (because we were very new and needed additional resources and expertise in government contracting) to secure government funds to bring to the United States the first republic-specific delegation from the Soviet Union. The requested program was “The American System of Governance”.  Rukh didn’t necessarily want to adopt our system, but they knew they had never been told the truth and wanted to try to understand how our system worked. The delegation was made up of 13 members of the Ukrainian Rada (parliament), two Communist officials – both of whom would later lead the parliament – and 11 others including the two leaders of Rukh (Mikhailo Horyn and Ivan Drach) and other prominent Rukh members.  The conference was a two-week affair, the first week in Indiana studying state and local government with exceptional participation of Indiana officials.  The second week – after a weekend in Chicago – explored our federal government with what I still believe were absolutely fabulous meetings with Members of Congress and Executive Branch officials.  But what Texas v. Johnson reminds me of is a session in the Supreme Court.  Justice O’Connor hosted the delegation for lunch at the Court and spent time with them discussing the role of the Court and answering questions.  This was followed by Ken Starr who, as Solicitor General, had argued Texas v. Johnson on behalf of the United States.  I was sitting next to Ken watching the Ukrainians as Ken basically presented to the Ukrainians the argument, he had made to the Court against allowing flag burning.  It was a passionate presentation about the role of the flag, its symbolism to the country, what it meant to our veterans, etc.  As I watched the Ukrainians they were “into” his argument, and you could feel their “right on!” attitude as Ken made the case and they were thinking about their long-outlawed Blue and Yellow flag of Ukraine had once again begun appearing in public. But then, Ken paused and said, the Court had ruled against him and found that what the Stars and Stripes stood for was more important than the flag itself. I watched how the immensely disappointed the delegation was and then how they started to sort out the significance of what the Court had said.  A number of them talked privately with Ken after the formal discussion working their way through the important message about the United States which had been presented.  One of so many extraordinary moments from that two-week program. And really just the beginning of so many creative and unique democracy-building program the U.S.-Ukraine Foundation designed and conducted all across Ukraine before Putin began his war in 2014.  (I must add that while we have had exceptional people involved with the Foundation, it has been Nadia who has designed all of our in-country programs. And I note that the only time the Foundation has ever been mentioned by the Department of State’s Inspector General it was in a report stating that USAID had understated the Foundation’s successes. She has been at it now for almost 33 years beginning in the unique efforts undertaken when Ukraine was still in the Soviet Union.)

2005 – referencing back to the 1964 entry above – Edgar Ray Killen, who had previously been unsuccessfully tried for the murders of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Mickey Schwerner, is convicted of manslaughter – the case had been reopened in 2004

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