#OnThisDay 1692… 5 women were executed for witchcraft in #Salem Massachusetts. In all, fourteen women and five men were executed, and 6 people died either in jail or from torture by the fundamentalist, theocratic government. The #WitchTrials continue to serve as a warning against #theocracy

#OnThisDay 1545. The #MaryRose sank during the Battle of the Solent. Of her 500 crew, only around 30-40 were saved. She served for more than 30 years in the Navy of English King Henry VIII. She was raised from the seabed on October 11, 1982, and is now on display in Portsmouth, England.

#OnThisDay 1245: The First #CouncilOfLyon presided over by #Pope Innocent IV, made a series of pronouncements including deposing Holy Roman Emperor Fredrick II Hohenstaufen in support of a #Crusade against him. Thus his subjects were no longer obligated to obey him and could overthrow and kill him.

#OnThisDay 1794… People across the America protested unfair policies and governmental #corruption that favored the wealthy and were a burden on the lower and middle classes, including a tax on whiskey. The people eventually took up arms in what would become known as the #WhiskeyRebellion.

#OnThisDay 1945 The U.S. successfully tested the world’s first #nuclear weapon. Developer Robert #Oppenheimer said: “I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad Gita: 'Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.' I suppose we all thought that, one way or another.”

#OnThisDay 1863 The New York City #DraftRiots occurred. The rioters were working-class white men who feared free black men would take their jobs & who resented the fact that wealthier men were able to avoid the draft (as they could afford to pay an expensive ‘commutation fee’ to hire a substitute).

#OnThisDay 1892 The #Homestead #SteelStrike came to an end when the Governor of Pennsylvania sent in the state militia to take control of the Carnegie Steel Mill. The Governor had been elected with Carnegie's backing and felt he had to protect Carnegie interests.

#OnThisDay 1690, Forces loyal to William of Orange - the Protestant Dutch ruler named King of England in 1689 during the so-called 'Glorious Revolution'- achieved victory over the Catholic forces loyal to the deposed King James II at the #BattleOfTheBoyne.

#OnThisDay 1302 After years of protest and unrest, the people of #Flanders rose up in rebellion against their corrupt, illegitimate, and overconfident rulers, the French. The result was a rout of the French nobles, who suffered heavy losses at the hands of the determined Flemish. #Guldensporenslag

#OnThisDay 1925 The #ScopesTrial began. High school teacher John T. Scopes was accused of violating Tennessee's Butler Act, which made it unlawful to teach human evolution in public school. He was found guilty and fined $100.

#OnThisDay 1947 The U.S. Army Air Force public information officer in #Roswell, New Mexico issued a press release stating that they had recovered a crashed "flying disc." The U.S.A.A.F. retracted the claim later the same day. The series of events eventually became known as the #RoswellUFO Incident.

#OnThisDay 1892 The #BattleOfHomestead occurred when striking steel workers defeated a private army of #Pinkerton agents. When workers went on strike for better wages and working conditions, the company sent in more than 300 Pinkertons armed with rifles to break the strike by force.

#OnThisDay 1415 #JanHus was executed by the Roman Catholic Church. He was a key predecessor to Protestantism. He was excommunicated for his views but was asked to appear before a Church council, under a promise of safe conduct. When he did, he was arrested and burned at the stake for heresy.

#OnThisDay 1284 SOMETHING happened in the town of #Hamelin, Germany. The plague? A series of abductions? Perhaps there is some connection to the Children’s Crusade? No one knows for sure. In 1384, a single, cryptic entry in the town’s chronicle states: “It is 100 years since our children left.”

#OnThisDay 1876 A combined camp of Lakota Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes was attacked at a place called Greasy Grass. The majority of the blame for what occurred at the Little Bighorn river usually goes to the man in command of the 7th Cavalry regiment, Lt. Colonel George Armstrong Custer.

The Wheel of the Year turns... The Season of the Sun reaches its height. A Joyous Midsummer Solstice, to all who celebrate it! May the light & warmth of the Sun & the Summer Season be with you! And may the brightness burn away the shadows of darkness and ignorance.

#OnThisDay 1943 The #DetroitRaceRiot of 1943 occurred. The rioted ended when President Roosevelt invoked the #InsurrectionAct and sent in federal troops. 9 white people and 8 black people were killed by rioters. Police killed an additional 17 black people, but no white people were killed by police.

#OnThisDay 1767 After a bloody rampage that lasted 3 years, the #GévaudanBeast of France was finally killed. More than 200 people were attacked by the beast, and 113 were killed -mostly women and children- with many being partially eaten. The man who finally killed it did so using a silver bullet.

#OnThisDay 1865... Enslaved people in Texas were officially informed of their freedom: “The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free.” This day has come to be known as #Juneteenth.

#OnThisDay 1930 The #SmootHawley #Tariff Act was signed into law by President Hoover. It raised tariffs an average of 20% & deepened the Great Depression, leading to global trade plummeting. They were the 3rd highest levels in U.S. history, after the Trump Tax Tariffs & the Tariff of Abominations.

#OnThisDay 1215… At #Runnymede, a document was signed that would change history. It was drafted by the Archbishop of Canterbury in an attempt to make peace between the unpopular King John and his rebel Barons. It came to be called #MagnaCarta Libertatum; the Great Charter of the Liberties.

#OnThisDay 1837… The #BroadStreetRiot occurred in Boston between Irish Catholic & native-born Protestant private firefighting companies. Since there were no police, a volunteer cavalry troop was called in to quell the riot. As a result, Boston established both a police & fire department.

#OnThisDay 1692: #BridgetBishop was executed by religious leaders in rural Massachusetts. Her crimes included not being sufficiently religious, drinking, and staying up late to party. She was the first of 20 people who were killed by Christian religious authorities in the #SalemWitchTrials.

#OnThisDay 1944 #D-Day. Allied troops landed on the beaches of #Normandy, France. More than 4000 soldiers lost their lives that day, including more than 2000 Americans. Let us remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice in order to stop a fascist dictator.

#OnThisDay, in 1832… The anti-monarchist insurrection known as the #JuneRebellion took place in Paris. Led by the working class, it was the result of food shortages and disease, made worse by a huge increase in the cost of living. Although doomed, it gained fame as the basis for #LesMisérables

#OnThisDay 1919… The U.S. Congress approved the #19thAmendment, which guarantees women the right to #vote, and sent it to the States for ratification. The Amendment was ratified on August 8th, 1920, making the U.S. the 27th country to allow women to vote.

#OnThisDay 1939 The MS #St.Louis, with 900 Jewish refugees seeking asylum from the Nazi regime arrived in Florida. Due to #anti-immigrant sentiment and #antisemitism it was forced to return to Europe. More than 200 of the passengers eventually ended up in concentration camps and were killed.

Sometime in June 1816…. A group of friends were kept inside by the incessant rain and inspired by the dark weather to read & write scary stories. They included #JohnPolidori & #MaryShelly. Shelley wrote #Frankenstein, and Polidori wrote The #Vampyre, the progenitor of the Romantic vampire genre.

#OnThisDay 1675 The worst #WitchTrials occurred in #Torsåker, #Sweden, a community of only 700 people. 71 people were executed, mostly women. They were accused at the instigation of their local Lutheran minister & tortured into confessing. He then tortured witnesses as well, just to make sure.

#OnThisDay 1310: #MargueritePorete, French #Beguine, mystic, and the author of “The Mirror of Simple Souls,” was burned at the stake for heresy. The Beguines- lay women who cared for the poor and sick, but functioned outside the #CatholicChurch- had angered the Inquisition and the King of France.

Between 150 to 300 people were killed & more than 800 injured. Homes, businesses and schools in a 40 square block area were burned down. 10,000 Black people were left homeless, and property damage amounted to more than more than $35 Million.

#OnThisDay, 1921: The #TulsaRaceMassacre, one of the worst acts of racial violence in American history, occurred. Mobs of white residents, some of whom had been appointed as 'deputies' and even been armed by city officials, violently attacked black residents and destroyed homes and businesses.

Today is #Vesak, also known as #BuddhaDay. It marks the birth -and sometimes the enlightenment and death- of the historical #Buddha, #Siddhartha Gautama, who was born more than 2,600 years ago. Some Buddhists believe that all 3 events in the Buddha's life happened on the same day.

#OnThisDay 1937: The Chicago #MemorialDayMassacre occurred when members of the #ChicagoPolice shot and killed ten unarmed demonstrators. It took place during the #LittleSteelStrike when several steel companies refused to sign contracts with the CIO giving workers standard pay & an 8-hour work-day.

#OnThisDay 1431: After saving France, at the age of 19, #JoanOfArc was put on trial by a corrupt and politically motivated religious court. She was found guilty of heresy, refusing to submit to the Church, and of the heinous crime of dressing in men’s clothing. She was then burned at the stake.

#OnThisDay 1381: Upset with excessive taxes, oppressive governmental policies, and rampant socio-economic inequality, the people of England rose up in protest, burning court records and opening the local jails, setting free those who had been unjustly imprisoned. It is called the #PeasantsRevolt

#OnThisDay 1453: #Ottoman armies captured the city of #Constantinople, bringing an end to what is called the Byzantine Empire, but what was in fact the #RomanEmpire. While the Western half of the Roman Empire fell in 476, the Roman Empire had actually lasted until 1453, a period of 1500 years.

#OnThisDay 1692: The #SalemWitchTrials began. More than 200 people were accused of witchcraft & 25 people died. Several of the accusers later admitted they lied. Commonly attributed to “mass hysteria,” the real causes were #ReligiousExtremism, #Theocracy, and a breakdown of the #DueProcess of law.

#OnThisDay 1937: The Battle of the Overpass occurred. An attack by #Ford Motor Company against the United Auto Workers #UAW in Dearborn, Michigan. they were attacked by local police and Ford's private, quasi-military, security force called the “Ford Service Department.”

#OnThisDay 1907: The Finnish Parliament met as a unicameral assembly for the first time & Finnish women became the first women in Europe to represent their people in a national assembly, ten years before the first woman was elected to Congress in the U.S.

#OnThisDay 1618... Tired of their corrupt & rapacious theocratic government enforcing its conservative religious ideologies & restricting their freedoms & liberties, the people of Bohemia threw a group of government officers out of a third story window. This was the Third #Defenestration of Prague.

#OnThisDay 1377... Pope Gregory XI issued a papal bull against John #Wycliffe, declaring his criticisms of the #Church for its greed and worldliness to be both erroneous and dangerous. After his death due to natural causes, he was posthumously declared a heretic, and his books burned.

#OnThisDay 1856 Senator Brooks of S. Carolina brutally beat fellow Senator #Sumner from Massachusetts with a cane on the floor of the U.S. Senate in response to a speech Sumner gave criticizing slavery and calling for it’s end. Sumner was beaten so badly that it took him 3 years to fully recover.

#OnThisDay 1856: A pro-slavery mob attacked and ransacked #Lawrence, Kansas. The incident fueled the irregular conflict in Kansas Territory that later became known as #BleedingKansas. Several flags were flown by the mob including flags declaring "Southern Rights" and "Supremacy of the White Race"

#OnThisDay 1796 #OnaJudge, an enslaved woman owned by the family of President #GeorgeWashington, fled the Washington’s household in Philadelphia. The Washingtons intended to give her as a wedding present to their granddaughter and continued to try and capture her for years but never succeeded.

#OnThisDay 325 C.E. Roman Emperor #Constantine called the first ecumenical council of the Christian Church in the city of #Nicaea. It's purpose was to obtain a consensus among leading members of the Church on issues such as the divinity of Jesus Christ and His relationship to God the Father.

#OnThisDay 1525 The Battle of #Frankenhausen took place. It was an important battle in the German #PeasantsRevolt and the final act of the war in Thuringia. Soldiers of the Princes of Thuringia decisively defeated the peasants under their spiritual leader Reformation preacher #ThomasMüntzer.

#OnThisDay 1850… #NativeAmericans of the #PomoNation who had been enslaved by European settlers rebelled. In reprisal, a U.S. Army regiment slaughtered 200 in a nearby Pomo village on Bo-no-po-ti Island (now called #BloodyIsland) on Clear Lake. Most of those slaughtered were women & children

#OnThisDay 1878 The last #WitchcraftTrial in the U.S. -the #Ipswich #Witchcraft Trial- began in Salem, Massachusetts. Both the accuser (Lucretia Brown) & the accused (Daniel Spofford) were followers of Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of the Christian Science Church. The case was dismissed.

#OnThisDay 1985... The #PhiladelphiaPolice department dropped #bombs onto a house occupied by black activists of the #MOVE collective. Police decided to end a standoff by dropping bombs on the house & allowing the fire to burn uncontrolled. 6 adults and 5 children were killed & 61 homes burned.