#TodayInHistory – June 7

June 7 – Some important events on this day.

1340 👉🏼 Rotterdam Netherlands founded 🇳🇱
1420 👉🏼 Troops of the Republic of Venice capture Udine, ending the independence of the Patriarchate of Aquileia.

1494 👉🏼Treaty of Tordesillas: Spain and Portugal divide the new world along a meridian 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde islands, off the west coast of Africa.
The treaty signed at Tordesillas in Spain on this day between Spain and Portugal divided up newly discovered lands between the two sea-faring powers along a meridian 370 leagues backed up by Papal bulls.
This line stretched pole to pole west of the Verde Islands. Spain was to take all lands to the west, including Christopher Columbus’ new discoveries, and Portugal to the east, including the coast of Africa. It later enabled Portugal to claim the coast of Brazil. Other European nations never accepted the treaty or its terms.

1628 👉🏼 English King Charles I ratifies the Petition of Rights
1654 👉🏼 Louis XIV crowned King of France 🇫🇷

1665 👉🏼 Great Plague of London: Samuel Pepys writes in his diary of houses marked with a red cross in London’s Drury Lane, meaning somebody inside is infected with the plague and must be locked in for 40 days or until death.
Historically, in 1665 and 1666, the last great outbreak of bubonic plague to hit England swept through the capital, London. The outbreak was much smaller in scale than the Black Death of the 14th century, but was still notable for having killed as many as 100,000 people, about a quarter of the city’s population, in eighteen months.
By July 1665 the plague was spreading rapidly in London. Many fled, including the King Charles II, if they were wealthy enough to afford it. Parliament was moved to Oxford University from Westminster Palace. Many of the city’s businesses closed. Diarist Samuel Pepys wrote much about life in the city during the plague, and of empty streets.
By September, as many as 7,000 people a week were dying, and many were thrown into mass graves. The true toll was likely to be much higher, since the deaths of poor were not recorded.
The University of Cambridge closed down during the outbreak, forcing a young Isaac Newton to continue his studies from home – during this time he expanded significantly on his new idea about the laws of gravity, among other things.
By November the outbreak started to taper off, and the King returned in February the next year when it was considered to be safe enough. Disaster would strike London again in 1666, with much of it being destroyed in the Great Fire of London that September.

1692 👉🏼 Earthquake in Porte Royale, Jamaica, kills 3,000
1753 👉🏼 British Museum founded by an Act of Parliament with royal assent from King George II (opens in 1759)

1761 👉🏼 Scottish civil engineer John Rennie was born on this day. He was responsible for three important landmarks in central London: Waterloo Bridge, Southwark Bridge and London Bridge which, in an astonishing deal, was sold to an American tycoon in 1968.
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1798 👉🏼 Thomas Malthus publishes the first edition of his influential ‘Essay on the Principle of Population’ (date of the unsigned preface)
1929 👉🏼 Vatican City becomes a sovereign state 🇻🇦

1937 👉🏼 Time magazine publishes the second of the only two known photos taken of the United States Supreme Court in session.
The United States Supreme Court is perhaps the only major institution of the US government that refuses to allow its proceedings to be photographed or videotaped. While audio recordings of oral arguments in the court are made, only two photos of the Supreme Court in session have ever been made.
This was the second, made in 1937 by an unknown woman described by Time magazine (which published the photo) as “an enterprising amateur, a young woman who concealed her small camera in her handbag, cutting a hole through which the lens peeped, resembling an ornament. She practiced shooting from the hip, without using the camera’s finder which was inside the purse.”

1962 👉🏼 Switzerland welcomes first drive-through bank. The banking institution Credit Suisse, then known as Schweizerische Kreditanstalt (SKA), opens the first drive-through bank at St. Peter-Strasse 17, near Paradeplatz in downtown Zurich. 🇨🇭
1965 👉🏼 The Supreme Court of the United States decides on Griswold v. Connecticut, effectively legalizing the use of contraception by married couples
1972 👉🏼 Musical “Grease” opens at Broadhurst Theater NYC for 3,388 performances 🎶
1975 👉🏼 Sony introduces the Betamax videocassette recorder for sale to the public
1977 👉🏼 During the Queen’s Jubilee, the Sex Pistols attempt to perform on a boat on the River Thames, but are forced to stop by the police 🚔
2017 👉🏼 Police warn bald men against attacks in Mozambique after 5 men murdered for the gold believed in their heads.