June Almanac
June 1 – In 1478, Pope Sixtus IV excommunicates Lorenzo de’Medici as part of an attempt to keep the City of Florence under the political control of the Church.
– In 1192, Enrico Dandolo is elected Doge of Venice at age 85. An instigator of the 4th Crusade to recapture the Holy Land from the Muslims, his forces begin by sacking Constantinople, a Christian city. Among the booty brought back to Venice were the bronze horses that adorn the Piazza San Marco today.
June 2 – In A.D. 455, Rome is sacked by the Vandals for two weeks.
– In 1946, the Italian people voted out the monarchy and established a republic. This date is a national holiday.
– Freedom fighter Giuseppe Garibaldi dies in self-imposed exile on the island of Caprera. He never forgave the government of Italy for trading off his birthplace of Nizza (Nice) to the French during the reunification of Italy.
June 3 – In 1928, Royal Italian Air Force pilots Arturo Ferrarin and Carlo del Prete capture the world’s closed circuit endurance and distance records, flying their Savoia-Marchetti S-64 monoplane non-stop for 58 hours, 53 minutes and 15 seconds.
– Pope John XXIII (nee`Angelo Roncallo) dies in 1963. He is made a saint in 2014
June 4 – Giovanni Casanova dies in 1798
June 5 – In 1625, the Dutch fortress of Breda falls to a Spanish army led by Italian Ambrogio Spinola. The surrender is immortalized in the Valesquez painting Surrender of Breda.
June 6 – Famed Italian aviator Italo Balbo is born in 1896. He helped found the Italian air force under Mussolini and capped his career with a flawless mass flight of seaplanes from Italy to the U.S. in 1933.
– Italian aviatrix Carina Negrone sets a new women’s altitude record of 39,511 feet in 1935.
June 7 – Pope Gregory XIII (Ugo Bencompagni) is born in 1502. Under his direction the Gregorian calendar that we use today was instituted in 1582. Many Protestant countries refused to use it for 150 years because it was a Catholic development.
– The state of Vatican City is established by treaty with Italy in 1929.
– The Four Power Pact is signed in 1933 in Rome. The Pact was Premier Benito Mussolini’s creation to join Italy, France, Great Britain and Germany in an entente to resolve their differences and to keep the peace of Europe for at least ten years. The Munich Agreement of 1938 was belated result of this pact.
– U.S. Representative Peter Rodino who chaired the House Judiciary Committee during the Watergate investigations was born in 1909.
June 8 – Astronomer Gian Domenico Cassini is born in 1625. He and his descendants made France preeminent in astronomy.
– Italian archeologist Giuseppe Fiorelli, who pioneered systematic excavations at Pompeii preserving much of the city, was born in 1823
June 9 – Giovanni of Piano Carpini returns to Kiev after visiting the Mongol Empire as the Pope’s emissary in 1247.
June 10 – Italy declares war on England and France in 1940
June 11 – Vince Lombardi, coach of the champion Green Bay Packers football team, is born in 1913, in Brooklyn. Under his leadership the team won five NFL titles and two Superbowls.
– Superbowl great Joe Montana is born in 1956.
– Scientist Evangelista Torricelli publishes his report of successful experiments to measure atmospheric pressure using the first barometer.
June 12 – Vocalist Vic Damone (Vito Farinola) is born in 1928
June 13 – Roman general Gnaeus Julius Agricola is born in A.D. 40, he completed the conquest of Britannia (Wales and northern England)
June 14 – Composer Henry Mancini dies in 1994 at age 70. Famous for Moon River, Pink Panther Theme and many other American standards.
June 15 – In 1918, the last major offensive of Austria-Hungary begins at the Piave River. Italian forces under General Armando Diaz successfully counter attack to victory seven days later.
June 16 – Basketball All-American Hank Luisetti is born in 1916 in San Francisco. He was the first player to score 50 points in a college game (1938), and introduced the one-handed shot.
June 17 – Civil War hero Louis De Cesnola wins a Medal of Honor in action at Aldie, VA, in 1863. He went on to become an American ambassador, and then director of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.
– Vocalist Dean Martin (Dino Crocetti) is born in Ohio in 1917.
June 18 – Angelo Secchi Astronomer, was born at Reggio in Emilia, Italy in 1818 He invented the spectrograph.
– Savoy General Alessandro La Marmora forms the elite Bersaglieri (“Sharpshooters”) in 1836. They would become the shock troops of the Italian Army.
June 19 – In 1938, Italy wins its second world soccer championship, defeating Hungary 4-2.
– In 1902, Italian labor laws raise minimum work age to 12 yrs old, & 15 yrs for heavy labor and limit the work day to 12 hours
– Bandleader Guy Lombardo is born in Canada in 1902. He symbolized New Year’s Eve celebrations.
June 20 – In A.D. 451, Roman General Flavius Aetius defeats Attila the Hun at the Battle of Catalaunian Plains in Gaul. However, the following year Attila invades Italy.
June 21 – In 1633, scientist Galileo Galilei is found guilty by Church authorities of solar-centrism (the idea that the earth revolves around the sun).
June 22 – In 1918, the Italian Army completes the rout of Austria-Hungary’s forces at the Piave River, ending Austria’s offensive capabilities.
– The mentor of Italian reunification, Giuseppe Mazzini, is born in Genoa in 1805.
June 23 – Scholar Giambattista Vico is born in Naples in 1668. He was a pioneer of anthropology and ethnology
June 24 – In 1859, the Imperial Austrian Army is defeated by French and Italian coalition forces at Solferino in Northern Italy. The horrific bloodshed on the battlefield prompts the founding of the International Red Cross.
– In 1497, Explorer Giovanni Caboto (John Cabot) reaches North America and plants the flags of Venice and England. He financed his own voyage under an English charter. Benjamin Franklin uses this fact in a 1775 essay to refute Parliament’s ownership of the colonies.
June 25 – In 1876, Italian-born trumpeter Giovanni Martini of the U.S. 7th Cavalry finds himself to be the sole survivor of the Battle of the Little Big Horn, having been dispatched by General Custer to deliver a message to Major Benteen shortly before the massacre.
June 26 – In 1963, President John F. Kennedy tells the citizens of Berlin, Germany: Ich bin ein Berliner. He borrows it from an original Latin affirmation of pride: Cives Romanus Sum (“I am a Roman citizen.”)
June 27 – In 1960, the East African territory of Italian Somaliland, the last remnant of Italy’s colonial empire, becomes an independent nation.
– Willie Mosconi, 15-time winner of the World Pocket Billiard Championship, is born in 1913.
– Amerigo Vespucci is the first to reach Brazil in 1499. He sails under the Portuguese flag.
June 28 – FBI founder Charles Joseph Bonaparte dies in 1921
June 29 – In 1933, Italian boxer Primo Carnera, the “Ambling Alp,” defeats American Jack Sharkey in six rounds to claim the World’s Heavyweight Championship.
June 30 – In 1933, General Italo Balbo’s squadron of Savoia Marchetti seaplanes departs from Orbatello, Italy to begin the first phase of its highly successful and historic transatlantic flight to the Chicago World’s Fair.
– Jacques Cassini is born in 1748. He completed the monumental Atlas Nationale of France, mapping the entire land mass.
– Leonardo da Vinci is commissioned to paint the Last Supper in 1497