#TodayInHistory – June 19

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June 19 – Some important events on this day.

1306 👉🏼 The Earl of Pembroke’s army defeats Robert the Bruce’s Scottish army at the Battle of Methven
1829 👉🏼 Sir Robert Peel introduces the Metropolitan Police Act 1829 into Parliament to establish a unified police force for London
1846 👉🏼 First offically recognised baseball game (played by Cartwright Rules) – NY Nines 23 defeat Knickerbockers 1 at Hoboken, New Jersey
1862 👉🏼 Slavery outlawed in US territories
1865 👉🏼 Union General Granger declares slaves are free in Texas, now the date the end of slavery is celebrated across the US as Juneteenth
1910 👉🏼 Father’s Day celebrated for 1st time (Spokane, Washington)
1917 👉🏼 The British Royal Family, which has had strong German ties since George I, renounces its German names and titles and adopts the name of Windsor
1933 👉🏼 Austrian government-Dollfuss bans nazi-organizations
1944 👉🏼 World War II: First day of the 2 day Battle of the Philippine Sea, US naval forces defeat Japanese fleet
1954 👉🏼 Tasmanian Devil debuts in “Devil May Hare” by Warner Bros

1991 👉🏼 Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar surrenders to police.
Pablo Escobar was the most powerful drug lord in history. At the height of his power in the 1980s, he was one of the most wealthy men alive, and his Medellin Cartel at one point controlled the importation of 80% of all cocaine to the United States. This made him extraordinarily rich: he was worth around $30 billion by the early 1990s (around $58 billion in 2018 money) and earned around $70 million a day.
This also made him extraordinarily dangerous. Escobar was responsible for an enormous number of deaths, massacres and narcoterrorist attacks as he maintained his grip on the cartel. In one instance, Escobar ordered the bombing of an aircraft which was supposed to be carrying César Gaviria, a presidential candidate opposed to the cartels. The plane was not carrying Gaviria and all 107 aboard died.
Eventually he surrendered to the Colombian authorities in 1991. But he did so on his own terms: he was allowed to design and build his own prison, La Catedral, which included a football pitch, giant doll house, bar, jacuzzi and waterfall. Escobar lived unrestricted in the luxurious mansion, and when reports emerged that he was still running the cartel business (including having people murdered on the grounds of the jail), the Colombian government attempted to move him to a normal prison facility. He discovered the plan in advance and escaped.
He spent the rest of his life on the run until he was shot and killed by police on 2 December 1993 in his hometown.