June 1 – Some important events on this day.
4000 BC 👉🏼 Approximate domestication of the horse in the Eurasian steppes near Dereivka, central Ukraine. But this is just a hypothesis.
1215 👉🏼 Beijing, under control of Jurchen ruler Emperor Xuanzong of Jin, is captured by the Mongols under Genghis Khan, ending the Battle of Beijing
1495 👉🏼 First written record of Scotch Whisky appears in Exchequer Rolls of Scotland, Friar John Cor is the distiller
1676 👉🏼 Battle of Öland: allied Danish-Dutch forces defeat the Swedish navy in the Baltic Sea, during the Scanian War (1675–79).
By 1676 Sweden reigned supreme in the southern Baltic and in northern Europe. It had recently captured the territory of Scania in 1658 after centuries of Danish control, and Denmark had been eyeing opportunities to recapture it ever since.
When the war over Scania began in 1675 the stage was set for a battle off the coast of Öland as Sweden desperately needed to get reinforcements to its positions in northern Germany and Denmark wanted to land troops on Swedish soil.
At the beginning of the battle the Swedish ship Kronan was sunk. The vessel was carrying Lorentz Krutz, the Admiral of the Realm and commander of the Swedish navy, as well as 800 other men and high-ranking admirals. As the Kronan sank the Danish and Dutch navies surrounded the ship of the second-in-command and sank it as well. In the total confusion the Swedish navies retreated.
From here the Danes had total naval superiority during the conflict and were able to invade Scania shortly after. Despite stunning naval success, the Danes were unable to recapture the territories in the war.
1813 👉🏼 Captain John Lawrence utters Navy motto “Don’t give up the ship”
1879 👉🏼 Napoleon Eugene, the last dynastic Bonaparte, is killed serving with British forces in the Anglo-Zulu War. He is buried in Farnborough, Hampshire.
In 1867 the British Empire successfully managed to impart a federation-style political system on its Canadian territory, and it believed a similar setup might work well in its African colonies. To that end, the British High Commissioner, Sir Henry Bartle Frere, was sent to begin preparations for this act.
On December 11, 1878 he issued an ultimatum to the Zulu Kingdom to submit or face war. They refused and Britain declared war on 11 January, suffering a heavy loss in the opening battle of the war at Isandlwana. The war was notable for several battles, including the defense of an area known as Rorke’s Drift when a small force of around 140 British Army soldiers defended their post against 3,000-4,000 Zulu combatants. This was dramatized in the 1964 film Zulu.
Eventually the British defeated the Zulu and annexed their territory. The last head of the French royal House of Bonaparte, Napoléon, was also killed in the war, shocking Europe who saw him as the last hope to restore the Bonaparte dynasty on the throne.
1922 👉🏼 Over 50,000 Fascists gather for a meeting in Bologna where Mussolini warns that he will lead a full-scale revolt against a government favoring ‘anti-Fascist reaction’
1935 👉🏼 First test drive in Britain.
Parliament decided that anyone driving a car had to prove they could do it safely and the first compulsory driving test was introduced on this day. ✔️READ THE ARTICLE!
1962 👉🏼 SS officer Adolf Eichmann, one of the primary organizers of the Holocaust, is executed in Israel after being found guilty of war crimes
1964 👉🏼 Kenya becomes a republic with Jomo Kenyatta as its 1st President
1974 👉🏼 The Heimlich maneuver for rescuing choking victims is published in the journal Emergency Medicine
1980 👉🏼 CNN launches
1998 👉🏼 European Central Bank is founded in Brussels to define and execute the European Union’s monetary policy
