Unix Timestamp: 1213660800
Tuesday, June 17. 2008, 12:00:00 AM UTC

The "New York Times" reports about allegations of severe child abuse within the "Tranquility Bay" correctional facility for unruly children, run by the Utah-based World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools.

A centennial earthquake (6.5 on Richter scale) hits Iceland on its national day.

NFL star O.J. Simpson and his friend Al Cowlings flee from police in his white Ford Bronco. The low-speed chase ends at Simpson's Brentwood, Los Angeles, California mansion, where he surrenders.

Two German relief workers held since 1989, Thomas Kemptner and Heinrich Struebig, are released. They were the last Western hostages in Lebanon

Teddy Seymour is officially designated the first black man to sail around the world, when he completes his solo sailing circumnavigation in Frederiksted, St. Croix, of the United States Virgin Islands.

Edwards v. Aguillard: The Supreme Court of the United States rules that a Louisiana law requiring that creation science be taught in public schools whenever evolution is taught is unconstitutional.

With the death of the last individual, the Dusky Seaside Sparrow becomes extinct.

John Hendricks launches the Discovery Channel in the United States.

The National Basketball Association and the American Basketball Association agree on the ABA-NBA merger.

General elections are held in Italy.

Czechoslovakia beats West Germany 5–3 on penalties to win Euro 76, when the game had ended 2–2 after extra time.

Hundreds of Western tourists are moved from Beirut and taken to safety in Syria by the U.S. military, following the murder of the U.S. ambassador.

After a 23 game match, Boris Spassky defeats Tigran Petrosian to become the World Chess Chion in Moscow.

The People's Republic of China announces a successful hydrogen bomb test.

The People's Republic of China announces a successful hydrogen bomb test.

An Air France personnel strike begins.

"Abington School District v. Schempp": The U.S. Supreme Court rules that state-mandated Bible reading in public schools is unconstitutional.

A CIA-engineered military coup occurs in Guatemala.

Workers Uprising: In East Germany, the Soviet Union orders a division of troops into East Berlin to quell a rebellion.

A Douglas DC-6 carrying United Air Lines Flight 624 crashes near Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania, killing all 43 people on board.

Iceland declares full independence from Denmark.

In the last "public" guillotining in France, murderer Eugen Weidmann is decapitated by the guillotine.

Union Station massacre: In Kansas City, Missouri, Pretty Boy Floyd kills an FBI agent, 3 local police, and the person they intended to rescue, captured bank robber Frank Nash.

U.S. President Herbert Hoover signs the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act into law.

Aviator Amelia Earhart starts her attempt to become the first woman to successfully cross the Atlantic Ocean (she succeeds the next day). Wilmer Stultz was the pilot.

Winnipeg General Strike: Royal Northwest Mounted Police fire a volley of bullets into a crowd of unemployed war veterans, killing two of them.

Admiral Ludwig von Reuter scuttles the German fleet in Scapa Flow, Scotland. Nine German sailors are killed.

British Police Sergeant Thomas Green killed during the Epsom Riot by Canadian troops

Norwich City Football Club is formed.

Gold is found in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia.

The Statue of Liberty arrives in New York Harbor.

American Indian Wars ndash Battle of White Bird Canyon: The Nez Perce defeat the U.S. Cavalry at White Bird Canyon in the Idaho Territory.

American Indian Wars ndash Battle of the Rosebud: 1,500 Sioux and Cheyenne led by Crazy Horse beat back General George Crook's forces at Rosebud Creek in Montana Territory.

American Civil War ndash The Battle of Aldie in the Gettysburg Caign ends inconclusively.

The only recorded Simoom ever in North America hit Goleta, California and Santa Barbara, CA.

The Atlantic North Carolina Railroad opens, operating 95 miles from Goldsboro, North Carolina to New Bern, North Carolina.//www.historync.org/railroads.htm CommunicationSolutions/ISI, Railroads — prior to the Civil War, "North Carolina Business History", 2006, accessed 1 Feb 2010

The Austrian army bombards Prague and crushes a working class revolt.

In France, representatives of the Third Estate at the Estates-General declare themselves the National Assembly.

English captains Thomas Gilbert and John Marshall, returning from Botany Bay, become the first Europeans to encounter the Gilbert Islands in the Pacific Ocean.

Lt. Jose Joaquin Moraga leads a band of colonists from Monterey Presidio, landing on June 29 and constructing the Mission Dolores of the new Presidio of San Francisco.

American Revolution: Two months into the colonial siege of Boston, British open fire on Breed's Hill on Charles Town Peninsula. After 3 charges, the British take the hill in the misnamed Battle of Bunker Hill.

French troops take Philippsburg, but the Duke of Berwick is killed.

French explorers Father Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet reach the headwaters of the Mississippi River and descend to Arkansas.

Anglo-Spanish War (1625): A Spanish expedition led by Fadrique de Toledo wipes out the English colony on Nevis.

Huguenot rebellions: Alès surrenders after an intense siege. As a result, the leader of the Huguenot Rebellions, the Duke of Rohan, surrenders.

Barents discovers Spitsbergen.

Sir Francis Drake, during his circumnavigation of the world, lands in what is now California, which he claims for Queen Elizabeth I. With an English claim here and in Newfoundland, it becomes the basis for English colonial charters which will claim all land from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from sea to sea. Drake's claim is called Nova Albion ("New England"), and subsequent maps will show all lands north of New Spain and New Mexico under this name.

Matsunaga Hisahide assassinates the 13th Ashikaga shogun, Ashikaga Yoshiteru.

The Protestant Reformation begins in Sweden.

The Narváez expedition to conquer Florida set sail from Spain.

Cornish rebels under Michael An Gof are soundly defeated by Henry VII at the Battle of Deptford Bridge near London.ref name=CBH

Vlad III Dracula attempts to assassinate Mehmed II in The Night Attack, forcing Mehmed to retreat from Wallachia.

Stephen Langton is consecrated as Archbishop of Canterbury by Pope Innocent III.

Geoffrey of Anjou marries Matilda, daughter of Henry I of England.

at the Battle of Cutanda, the Aragonese troops of Alfonso I crush the Almoravid army.Gilbert Meynier (2010) "L'Algérie cœur du Maghreb classique. De l'ouverture islamo-arabe au repli (658-1518)". Paris: La Découverte pp.86.

Harthacanute lands at Sandwich and reclaims the English Throne.

Baldwin II of Flanders has Fulk the Venerable, bishop of Reims, assassinated.Heinrich Joseph Wetzer //books.google.fr/books?id=WBMPAAAAIAAJpg=PA64 "Dictionnaire encyclopédique de la théologie catholique" Gaume frères et J. Duprey, 1864

Constantius II announces the restoration of Athanasius as Patriarch of Alexandria.

Paul I becomes Patriarch of Constantinople.