On June 17, 1579, explorer Francis Drake landed on the California coast.
In 1703 John Wesley, the Anglican priest who founded the Methodist movement, was born in Epworth, England.
In 1775 the British defeated American revolutionaries in the Battle of Bunker Hill near Boston. (The battle, which actually occurred on Breed’s Hill, was a costly victory for the British, who suffered heavy losses while dislodging the rebels.)
In 1856 the Republican Party opened its first national convention, in Philadelphia.
In 1882 composer Igor Stravinsky was born outside St. Petersburg, Russia.
In 1885 the Statue of Liberty, a gift from France, arrived in New York City aboard the French ship Isere.
In 1898 graphic artist M.C. Escher was born in Leeuwarden, Netherlands.
In 1928 Amelia Earhart took off from Newfoundland as a passenger on a flight piloted by Wilmer Stultz to become the first woman to cross the Atlantic in a plane.
In 1958 punk musician and spoken-word artist Jello Biafra was born Eric Boucher in Boulder, Colo.
In 1963 the Supreme Court struck down rules requiring the recitation of the Lord’s Prayer or reading of biblical verses in public schools.
In 1972 the downfall of the Nixon administration began with the arrest of five burglars at the Democratic national headquarters in Washington’s Watergate complex.
In 1994 Los Angeles police charged O.J. Simpson with murder in the deaths of former wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. (Simpson later was acquitted in a criminal trial, but held liable in a civil trial.)
In 2005 former Tyco CEO Dennis Kozlowski and a second executive, Mark Swartz, were convicted of looting their company of more than $600 million.
