June 7
1494 The Treaty of Tordesillas is signed, under which Spain and Portugal agree to divide the New World between themselves. The above map shows the division between Spain and Portugal lands in the newly discovered Americas, in Africa, and in the East. The Papal dividing line was set up by Pope Alexander VI in 1493 at the request of Spain’s rulers to protect their claims from the Portuguese. On this day in the following year Spain and Portugal agree in the Treaty of Tordesillas to move the dividing line about 800 miles west. This treaty gives South America a bilingual European heritage. Today Portuguese is the language of Brazil, while Spanish is spoken in most of the rest of the continent.
1566 Sir Thomas Gresham lays the foundation stone of the First Royal Exchange in London.
1614 The Addled Parliament: After failing to pass a single Bill since it first sat on April 5, King James I dissolves parliament after two months of nonstop arguing.
1654 Louis the XIV is crowned King of France in Rheims.
1769 Frontiersman Daniel Boone first begins to explore the present-day Bluegrass State.
1776 US Revolution: Richard Henry Lee of Virginia proposes to the Continental Congress that a resolution calling for a Declaration of Independence be initiated.
1837 Birth: Alois Schicklgruber, Adolf Hitler's father. His mother is an unmarried, 42 year old 'hotel servant' in the Wooded Quarter of the village of Strones; Maria Anna Schicklgruber. The space for 'Father' on the birth form is left blank. He will be known as Alois Schicklgruber for the next 40 years. See 1876, below.
1848 Birth: Eugene Henri Paul Gauguin, French postimpressionist painter, born in Paris.
1860 The 'dime novel' makes its first appearance when a New York publisher issues Malaeska, the Indian Wife of the White Hunter, written by Mrs. Ann Stevens.
1861 The upwardly mobile Alois Schicklgruber becomes a Revenue Clerk.
1864 US Civil War: Abraham Lincoln is nominated for another term as president at his party's convention in Baltimore.
1876 The parish priest of the now verfallen Doellersheim hamlet strikes out the name Shicklgruber from the birth registry, inserts the phrase 'within wedlock' to replace 'out of wedlock', and fills in the (until then) empty space for 'Father' with 'Johann Georg Hitler.' The end result of all this shady chicanery (even if Georg really was Alois's father, the 'within wedlock' line is obvious Bavarian bologna) is that Alois Shicklgruber now legally assumes the name Alois Hitler. "...What's in a name? Adolf Hitler would describe this name change as the best thing his old man ever did. He once opined to August Kubizek (his best friend) that Schicklgruber was "...so uncouth, so boorish, apart from being so clumsy and unpractical... (Adolf) found 'Hiedler'...too soft; but 'Hitler' sounded nice and was easy to remember."It's been said so often that it has become a cliche, but it is obvious that the faintly comical 'Heil Schicklgruber' would certainly not have had much appeal to the masses. Was Johann Georg Hiedler really Adolf Hitler's grandfather, as Hitler himself believed? It is problematic that Georg never acknowledged the fact. The strongest second choice would be Georg's brother Nepomuk, the man who so readily took in the young Alois. Proof of paternity is lacking for both, however. We will probably never know..."
1905 After Norway refuses to recognize the Swedish king and declares its independence, Sweden and Norway agree to end their union with the Treaty of Separation, which will go into effect the following October.
1906 The famous Cunard passenger liner Lusitania is launched in Glasgow.
1917 WW1: After a 17-day general bombardment, British mines, packed with over a million pounds of high explosives tears a huge gap in the German lines on Messines Ridge. General Sir Herbert Plumer's Second Army successfully occupied Messines. This clear-cut victory bolsters British morale.
1924 Volkishness: June 7-8 An ONT (Order of New Templars) Whitsun meeting is held at Werfenstein castle. It is attended by Johann Walthari Wölfl, the new Prior of Werfenstein, Lanz von Liebenfels' two brothers, Herwik and Friedolin, and twelve other members. Celebrations began at midnight with the consecration of fire and water. Under Wölfl's leadership, the Austrian ONT has flourished and the membership of some 50-60 brothers frequently contribute money, books, and ceremonial objects for the ornamentation of the priory. Whitsun meetings will also be held in 1925 and 1926. (Roots)
1929 The sovereign state of Vatican City, extinct since 1870, comes into existence as copies of the Lateran Treaty are exchanged in Rome.
1933 In Rome, the four Big Powers, France Britain, Italy and Germany sign the Quadripartite Pact of Guarantee proposed by Mussolini, a reinvigoration of the Locarno Pact. All parliaments will ratify this new pact except for France, which rejects it and therefore prevents it from coming into force.
1933 The Central Fund for German Jewry is established by Va'ad Leumi, with Henrietta Szold as chairwoman.
1934 Ernst Roehm agrees to furlough the SA for one month, beginning July 1.
1935 German representatives assure the International Olympic committee that "Aryans" and "non-Aryans" will be treated equally during the upcoming Olympic games.
1935 Stanley Baldwin, the Conservative leader, replaces Ramsey MacDonald as Prime Minister of Great Britain.
1936 Church and State: Cardinal Faulhaber, in a sermon, declares "A lunatic abroad has had an attack of madness -- does this justify wholesale suspicion of German Catholics? We feel offended on account of this questioning of our loyalty to the state. We will today give an answer, a Christian answer: Catholic men, we will now pray together, a paternoster for the life of the Fuehrer. This our answer." (AB Munich; Lewy)
1938 Latvia and Estonia sign nonaggression treaties with Germany.
1939 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth arrive at Niagara Falls, New York, from Canada on the first visit to the United States by a reigning British monarch.
1940 WW2: French fighter planes bomb Berlin.
1940 WW2: The King of Norway leaves Tromso aboard the British cruiser Devonshire and is taken to England.
1941 Church and State: Martin Bormann informs the Gauleiters that the influence of the churches will have to be curtailed as much as possible, for National Socialism and Christianity are irreconcilable. (Lewy)
1941
1942 WW2: Japanese soldiers occupy the American islands of Attu and Kiska, in the Aleutian Islands off Alaska, as the Axis power continues to expand its defensive perimeter. Having been defeated at the battle of Midway - stopped by the United States from even landing on the Midway Islands - the Japanese nevertheless prove successful in their invasion of the Aleutians, which had been American territory since purchased from Russia in 1867. Killing 25 American troops upon landing in Attu, the Japanese proceed to relocate and intern the inhabitants, as well as those at Kiska. America will finally invade and recapture the Aleutians one year later, killing most of the 2,300 Japanese troops defending it in three weeks of fighting.
1943 Holocaust: Professor Clauberg, a gynecologist from Königsberg, writes to Himmler that the method which he has been developing in Auschwitz for large-scale sterilization of women is "as good as ready." "I can now see the answer to the question you put to me almost a year ago about how long it would take to sterilize 1000 women in this way. An appropriately trained doctor could most probably sterilize several hundred, although perhaps not 1000, in a day." (Science)
1944 WW2: From Supreme Commander in the West Fieldmarshal von Rundstedt's report to Berlin on the Invasion of Normandy, now in its second day: "...Four facts which must be emphasized: (1) The enemy's complete mastery in the air. (2) The skillful and large-scale employment of enemy parachute and airborne troops, (3) The flexible and well-directed support of the land troops by ships' artillery of strong English naval units ranging from battleship to gunboat. (4) The rehearsal of the enemy invasion units for their task; most precise knowledge of the coast, of its obstacles and defense establishments, swift building up of superiority in numbers and material on the bridgehead after just a few days. Opposed to this stands the quality of the German soldier, his steadfastness and his unqualified will to fight to the fast with army, navy and air force. All three branches of the service have given their best and will continue to give it. II -- The Enemy Landing Procedure in Broad Outlines: (a) The enemy had hoped to be able to surprise us. He did not succeed. The beginning of landings from the air on the Western Bay of the Seine and in the Cotentin was on June 6, 1944, at about 0100, under conditions of cloudy, overcast weather with a rather strong wind, intermittent showers and rough sea up to four degrees; at the same time at various sectors of the front strong enemy air formations delivered bombing attacks in the rear area. The enemy thereby wished to bring about an air raid alarm and make us take cover in order to be able to drop his parachute troops with as little risk of observation as possible. In several places parachutists turned out to be dummies (with boxes containing explosives). Purpose: Splitting up of local reserves and withdrawal from the decisive spot, involving loss of time for the defender. Airborne troops in many transport gliders of various sizes cut loose, in accordance with a precisely worked out plan, over the sea or at widely separated points over land, and on the whole they found their designated landing spots accurately. Nevertheless, these landings from the air were no surprise, since our own command and troops had counted on them for weeks and were prepared. Thus the enemy parachute and airborne troops suffered heavy--and in parts even extremely bloody--losses, and were in. most, places annihilated in the course of the battle. They did not succeed in breaking up the coastal defense from the rear. Only in the American bridgehead north of Carentan--by our own attack on three sides--were the enemy airborne troops compressed in the direction of the coastal defense after tough fighting for days, and thus they could link up with their own land forces which had already broken in and in this way were able to get reinforcement and relief..."
1944 WW2: SS-Panzerdivision Das Reich receives orders to immediately proceed to Normandy.
1946 Nuremberg War Crimes Trials: General Alfred Jodl responds to tough questioning by the Deputy Chief Prosecutor for the USSR. "...the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy and the Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force - with due respect to both of these gentlemen - saw the problem as a whole only from the point of view of naval or air strategy, and they saw no danger whatsoever in the Russian Navy or the Russian Air Force. What was taking place on land, of course, was of less interest to them. That explains why the strongest opposition came from the Luftwaffe and the Navy; and only the Army, in this case, was much more inclined to see the tremendous danger with which it was confronted. But in spite of this, every one of us, I myself included, warned the Fuehrer most urgently against this experiment, which should have been undertaken only if there really was no other way out. I will not take it upon myself to judge whether there might perhaps have been a political possibility which was not exhausted; I cannot judge that. COL. POKROVSKY: Very well. I am satisfied with your reply, and particularly with the fact that you have condescended to define the breaking of this treaty and the attack on the Soviet Union by the word "experiment." I want you to look at the document... THE PRESIDENT: I think you should not make comments of that sort. You must ask questions and not make comments. COL. POKROVSKY: My remark, My Lord, is connected with my next question..."
1946 Television resumes in Britain, for the first time since the begining of WW2, as announcer Leslie Mitchell begins the broadcast with: "As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted."
1948 President Edvard Benes of Czechoslovakia resigns, rather than sign a new constitution which legalizes the country as a communist state.
1961 British census figures are released putting the British population at 52,675,094.
1967 Israel captures the Wailing Wall.
1973 Willy Brandt visits Israel; the first visit by a West German leader to the country.
1973 Skylab astronauts fix solar panels which had broken on takeoff.
1979 Rock icon Chuck Berry is charged by the IRS with tax evasion on the same day he plays for the President at the White House.
1981 Israeli military planes destroy a nuclear power plant in Iraq, a facility the Israelis charge could have been used to make nuclear weapons.
1982 On the second day of its invasion of Lebanon, Israel mounts major air attacks against Beirut, Tyre and Sidon.
1982 President Reagan meets with Pope John Paul II and Queen Elizabeth II.
1988 Bangladesh, the world's third largest Muslim nation, makes Islam its state religion as riot police go on alert to prevent protests against the law.
1989 For one second on this day, the time is 01:23:45, 6-7-89.
1990 The Warsaw Pact formally abandons its role as guardian of Kremlin power in eastern Europe and commits itself to radical democratic change.
1994 President Clinton addresses the French National Assembly, challenging his generation of Allied leaders to strive for greater European unity or face "the grim alternative" of violence like that rending Bosnia.
1995 President Clinton vetoes his first bill, a Republican plan to cut $16.4 billion in spending.
1995 Two buses cross into Serbia with 108 UN peacekeepers freed by the Bosnian Serbs.
1999 The FBI put terrorist mastermind Osama Bin Laden and antiabortion activist and accused doctor killer James Charles Kopp on the bureau's Ten Most Wanted list.
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