On This Day: 15 June

Assyrians record a solar eclipse that is later used to fix the chronology of Mesopotamian history			763 BC
Crusaders, under Godfrey and Robert of Flanders, take Jerusalem			1099
King John puts his seal to the Magna Carta at Runnymede			1215
The city of Bilbao is founded by Diego López V de Haro, head of one of Castile's most powerful families			1300
After the Peasants' Revolt, Wat Tyler is beheaded at Smithfield			1381
Turks defeat the Serbs at Kosovo, Serbia			1389
Christopher Columbus, on his fourth voyage, lands on the island of Martinique			1502
Battle of Carberry Hill: Mary Queen of Scots' forces defeated by rebels			1567
Harrow School founded			1571
Margaret Jones is hanged in Boston – the first of thirteen women and two men to be executed for witchcraft in the Massachusetts Bay Colony			1648
Commodore Anson arrives at Spithead after circumnavigating the world in Centurion			1744
Benjamin Franklin flies a kite in a thunderstorm, to prove that lightning is electricity (traditional date; the exact date is unknown)			1752
Delaware votes to suspend government under the British Crown and separate officially from Pennsylvania			1776
French Protestant militia massacre 300 Roman Catholics			1790
Britain, Russia and Prussia form a new alliance against Napoleon			1813
The first stone of the new London Bridge is laid by the Duke of York			1825
US chemist and engineer Charles Goodyear receives a patent for vulcanisation, a process to strengthen rubber			1844
The Oregon Treaty (between Britain and the USA) establishes the 49^th Parallel as the border between Canada and the USA, from the Rocky Mountains to the Strait of Juan de Fuca on the Pacific coast			1846
Thomas Butler, with two Maori guides and their wives, completes 'The Great Journey' in New Zealand			1848
Stamp duty on newspapers is abolished in Britain			1855
Christians are massacred at Jeddah			1858
200 acres around Arlington Mansion (formerly owned by Confederate General Robert E. Lee) are officially set aside as a military cemetery by US Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton			1864
English photographer Eadweard Muybridge (born Edward Muggeridge; he also spent time in the United States) takes a series of photographs to prove that all four feet of a horse leave the ground simultaneously when it runs; his study would become the basis of motion pictures			1878
Carlisle D. Graham, of England, survives his second trip over Niagara Falls in a barrel			1886
27,000 die as the Sanriku tidal wave hits northern Japan			1886
Friedrich (Frederick) III dies after 99 days as Emperor of Germany, making this the Year of the Three Emperors; he is succeeded by his eldest son, Wilhelm II ('Kaiser Bill')			1888
The loss of over 22,000 lives makes a tsunami that strikes the Sanriku coast of the Japanese island of Honshu, the deadliest in Japan's history			1896
Serbian Assembly elects Prince Peter Karageorgovich as King			1903
An estimated 1,021 of the 1,342 people on board lose their lives when the paddle steamer General Slocum catches fire in the East River, in New York harbour			1904
Battle of Givenchy			1915
Boy Scouts of America first incorporated			1916
John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown make landfall in a bog near Clifden in Connemara (County Galway), completing the first non–stop transatlantic flight in less than 16 hours			1919
Dame Nellie Melba broadcasts publicly from Marconi's works at Chelmsford			1920
The Flying Scotsman beats an aeroplane in a race from London to Edinburgh			1928
China and Tibet end a three–year war			1933
Hitler and Mussolini meet for the first time, in Venice			1934
First flight of the Vickers Wellington bomber			1936
A German expedition loses sixteen members in an avalanche on Nanga Parbat. It is the worst single disaster to occur on an 8000m peak			1937
French submarine Phénix sinks off Indochina; 63 die			1939
Operation Battleaxe, the British offensive in the Western Desert, repulsed by Rommel			1941
The Lake District becomes a National Park			1951
McCarthy Committee declares Robert Oppenheimer a security risk because of his opposition to the development of a hydrogen bomb			1954
Admiral of the Fleet, Lord Mountbatten of Burma, opens the first 'hovershow' – inteded to promote export sales of hovercraft – at Browndown, near Gosport, Hampshire			1966
Georges Pompidou becomes president of France			1969
Charles Manson goes on trial for the Sharon Tate murders			1970
Red Army Faction co–founder Ulrike Meinhof is captured by police in Langenhagen, near Hanover (Lower Saxony)			1972
The body of maths student Kevin Gately, aged 21, is found by a St John's Ambulance crew, after Marxists clash with police at London's Red Lion Square during a National Front march protesting against the government's amnesty for illegal immigrants			1974
The Democratic Centre Party wins Spain's first general election for over 40 years			1977
King Hussein of Jordan marries Lisa Halaby – a third–generation American with Syrian roots – who takes the name Queen Noor			1978
Major–General Jeremy Moore accepts the surrender of all Argentine forces in the Falklands			1982
South Africa's first mixed marriage takes place			1985
Rembrandt's painting Danaë, on display at the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, is attacked by Bronius Maigys, a Lithuanian (later judged insane) who throws sulphuric acid on the canvas and cuts it twice with a knife			1985
Ronald Reagan is appointed an honorary Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath			1989
In the Philippines, over 800 lives are lost in the eruption of Mount Pinatubo – the second largest volcanic eruption of the 20th century			1991
The US Supreme Court rules that it is permissible for the United States to forcibly extradite suspects in foreign countries and bring them to the United States for trial, without approval from those other countries			1992
Israel and the Vatican City establish full diplomatic relations			1994
An IRA bomb devastates Manchester city centre; over 200 people are injured, but none of them fatally			1996
Pol Pot and three hundred of his remaining supporters are trapped in the jungles of northern Cambodia, by Khmer Rouge rivals led by Ta Mok			1997
EU agriculture ministers agree to ban the keeping of hens in battery cages from 2012, and the installation of new cages from 2003			1999
The major contingent of the British military task force, sent six weeks earlier to help restore order, leaves Sierra Leone			2000
C&A announces that it is closing all of its 109 stores in Britain			2000
Swedish police shoot two demonstrators at the summit of EU leaders in Gothenburg			2001
Four soldiers from the Battalion the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers are charged with abusing Iraqi prisoners			2004
Francisco Arce Montes, a Spanish "serial abuser and murderer", is convicted of the murder of Cornish schoolgirl Caroline Dickinson at a youth hostel in Brittany in 1996			2004
Bill Gates announces that he is to step back from his role in Microsoft after July 2008, to concentrate on his charitable foundation (although he will remain as Chairman)			2006
Nik Wallenda – a seventh–generation member of The Flying Wallendas family – becomes the first person to successfully walk a tightrope strung directly over Niagara Falls			2012

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On This Day: 15 June