Today:
1846: The first officially recorded, organized baseball game is played under Alexander Cartwright’s rules on Elysian Fields in Hoboken, New Jersey, with the New York Base Ball Club defeating the Knickerbockers 23-1.
1862: President Abraham Lincoln signs the Territorial Slavery Act, which prohibits slavery in all current and future United States territories.
1865: Union General Gordon Granger arrives in Galveston, Texas, and issues General Order No. 3, announcing the emancipation of enslaved people in Texas. This day is now celebrated as Juneteenth.
1867: Austrian Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian, installed as emperor of Mexico by French Emperor Napoleon III in 1864, is executed by firing squad on the orders of Benito Juarez, the president of the Mexican Republic.
1934: The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is established in the United States.
1944: The Battle of the Philippine Sea begins, a two-day naval and air battle in World War II that results in a decisive American victory over the Japanese fleet.
1953: Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are executed at Sing Sing Prison in New York for conspiring to pass U.S. atomic secrets to the Soviets.
1961: Kuwait declares independence from the United Kingdom.
1964: The U.S. Senate passes the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a landmark piece of legislation against discrimination.