Today is Sunday, June 11th, so what happened today in history? There were a number of firsts. King Henry VIII married Catherine of Aragon, the first of his six wives, in 1509. In one of its first acts to establish an independent country in North America the Continental Congress appointed Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston to the Committee of Five to draft a declaration of independence in 1776. In 1892 the Limelight Department, one of the world’s first film studios, is established in Melbourne, Australia. Inventor Edwin Armstrong gave the first public demonstration of FM broadcasting in the US in Alpine, New Jersey in 1932. And in 2010 the first African FIFA World Cup kicked off in South Africa.
English poet, playwright, and critic Ben Jonson was born in 1572. German composer Richard Straus who, among other things, composed the long-played opening theme for the Olympic Games was born in 1864. And aqua-lung inventing French biologist, author, and voice for the aquatic environment Jacques Cousteau was born in 1910.
This date brought us two standout football names and three actors. Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi was born in 1913, and a man who hoisted the trophy named for Lombardi (NFL world title) a few times – Joe Montana, was born in 1958. This was also the birthdate for actors Gene Wilder (1933), Hugh Laurie (1959), and Peter Dinklage (1969).
This was the farewell date for the founder of the Boy Scouts of America, Daniel Carter Beard (1941), iconic westerns star John Wayne (1979), Star Trek’s intrepid Bones – DeForest Kelley (1999), and American journalist and author David Brinkley (2003).
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