On This Day: 7 June

Pope John VIII recognises the Duchy of Croatia as an independent state under Duke Branimir		879
At the culmination of the First Crusade, the Crusaders begin the Siege of Jerusalem		1099
Robert I (the Bruce), King of Scotland, dies and is succeeded by David II		1329
Spain and Portugal sign the Treaty of Tordesillas, demarcating their possessions in South America		1494
Henry VIII meets Francis I of France on the Field of the Cloth of Gold		1520
Sir Thomas Gresham lays the foundation stone of the first Royal Exchange		1566
Addled Parliament dissolved, having made no enactment		1614
The Petition of Right, setting out specific liberties of the subject that the king is prohibited from infringing, receives Royal Assent		1628
Louis XIV is crowned King of France		1654
1,600 lives are lost and 3,000 are seriously injured, in just three minutes, as Port Royal, Jamaica, is hit by a catastrophic earthquake		1692
Philadelphia bans the importing of slaves		1712
The British Museum Act receives royal assent		1753
The Gordon Riots reach their peak in London		1780
The Great Reform Bill receives royal assent		1832
Asian cholera reaches Quebec, brought by Irish immigrants, and costs about 6,000 lives in Lower Canada		1832
In an orchestrated test case, Homer Plessy, a French–speaking Creole, is arrested for refusing to leave his seat in the "whites–only" car of a train from New Orleans to Covington, in the US state of Louisiana. In the ensuing court case, the judge ruled that the treatment of blacks as "separate but equal" was legal; it remained valid until 1954, when it was overturned by the Supreme Court		1892
Norway's parliament dissolves its union with Sweden. The vote was confirmed by a national plebiscite on 13 August that year		1905
The Cunard liner, the RMS Lusitania, is launched at Clydebank		1906
Allied forces detonate a series of mines underneath German trenches at Messines Ridge, resulting in the deaths of 10,000 German troops		1917
The cities of San Salvador and Santa Tecla, El Salvador, are destroyed by an earthquake		1917
British soldiers fire into an unruly Nationalist crowd in Valletta, the capital of Malta, resulting in four deaths		1919
The Parliament of Northern Ireland sits for the first time		1921
Margaret Bondfield is appointed Minister of Labour – the first female Cabinet minister		1929
The Lateran Treaty is ratified, establishing the Vatican City		1929
Stanley Baldwin becomes Prime Minister		1935
China's Nationalist government breaks the dykes of the Yellow River near Huayuankou, in an attempt to slow the advance of the Japanese army. Although several thousand Japanese troops were drowned in the resulting flood, 12 million Chinese were affected, and almost 900,000 civilian lives were lost		1938
George VI and Queen Elizabeth arrive in the USA for a state visit – the first by a ruling British sovereign		1939
King Haakon VII, Crown Prince Olav and the Norwegian government leave Tromsø and go into exile in London. They return exactly five years later		1940
The Battle of Midway ends in a US victory; at the same time, Japanese troops begin to occupy the islands of Attu and Kiska, in the Aleutian Islands (off Alaska)		1942
On the day following the D–Day landings, members of the SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend massacre 23 Canadian prisoners of war at the Abbey d'Ardenne in Calvados, near Caen		1944
The steamer Danae, carrying 350 Jews and 250 partisans from Crete, is sunk off the shore of Santorini; there are no survivors		1944
Britten's Peter Grimes first performed, in London		1945
The BBC resumes its television service, which has been off air for seven years because of the Second World War.		1946
Edvard Beneš resigns as President of Czechoslovakia rather than signing the Ninth–of–May Constitution, making his nation a Communist state		1948
The Archers first broadcast		1950
The Organisation Armée Secrète (OAS) sets fire to the library building of the University of Algiers, destroying about 500,000 books		1962
A decision of the US Supreme Court prohibits states from criminalizing the use of contraception by married couples		1965
Sony introduces the first home video tape recorder in Japan		1965
In the Six–Day War, Israeli soldiers enter Jerusalem		1967
The short–lived "supergroup" Blind Faith performs its first live gig, to 100,000 fans in Hyde Park		1969
The Who perform Tommy at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York		1970
Gordon Banks makes a miraculous save from Pele's header, but Jeff Astle misses a relatively easy chance, as England lose 1–0 to Brazil in a World Cup finals first round game		1970
India seals its border with Bangladesh, to keep out cholera–stricken refugees		1971
Willy Brandt becomes the first West German leader to visit Israel		1973
Over a million people line the streets of London, and half a billion watch on television, as Britain begins to celebrate the Queen's Silver Jubilee		1977
Israel shocks the world by destroying a nuclear reactor near Baghdad, for fear it would be used to make nuclear weapons		1981
Elvis Presley's Memphis mansion, Gracelands, is opened to the public by his former wife Priscilla		1982
Jerry Lee Lewis marries fifth wife Shawn Michelle Stevens		1983
President de Klerk lifts the state of emergency in South Africa		1990
France, West Germany and Italy lift a ban on British beef–on–the–bone, after reaching a deal in Brussels		1990
Four Britons die in a rafting accident in Austria		1999
Tony Blair is heckled and slow hand–clapped during a speech to 10,000 members of the Women's Institute at Wembley, which they say is too long and too overtly political		2000
Labour returned to power by another landslide, but with the lowest turnout since 1918		2001
Abu Musab al–Zarqawi, said to be the leader of Al–Qaeda in Iraq, is killed by a US air strike		2006
Oxford University's last single sex college, St. Hilda's, decides to admit men at all levels		2006

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On This Day: 7 June