TODAY IN HISTORY - JUNE 8TH

1789 – James Madison introduces twelve proposed amendments to the United States Constitution in Congress.

1809 – Thomas Paine, English-American theorist and author (b. 1737) dies.

1845 – Andrew Jackson, American general, judge, and politician, 7th President of the United States (b. 1767) dies.

1847 – Ida Saxton McKinley, American wife of William McKinley, 25th First Lady of the United States (d. 1907) is born.

1861 – American Civil War: Tennessee secedes from the Union.

1862 – American Civil War: Battle of Cross Keys: Confederate forces under General Stonewall Jackson save the Army of Northern Virginia from a Union assault on the James Peninsula led by General George B. McClellan.

1867 – Frank Lloyd Wright, American architect, designed the Price Tower and Fallingwater (d. 1959) is born.

1887 – Herman Hollerith applies for US patent #395,781 for the 'Art of Compiling Statistics', which was his punched card calculator.

1906 – Theodore Roosevelt signs the Antiquities Act into law, authorizing the President to restrict the use of certain parcels of public land with historical or conservation value.

1912 – Carl Laemmle incorporates Universal Pictures.

1925 – Barbara Bush, American wife of George H. W. Bush, 41st First Lady of the United States is born.

1933 – Joan Rivers, American comedian, actress, and television host (d. 2014) is born.

1948 – Milton Berle hosts the debut of Texaco Star Theater.

1949 – The celebrities Helen Keller, Dorothy Parker, Danny Kaye, Fredric March, John Garfield, Paul Muni and Edward G. Robinson are named in an FBI report as Communist Party members.

1949 – George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four is published.

1953 – The United States Supreme Court rules that restaurants in Washington, D.C., cannot refuse to serve black patrons.

1955 – Tim Berners-Lee, English-American computer scientist and engineer, invented the World Wide Web is born.

1959 – The USS Barbero and United States Postal Service attempt the delivery of mail via Missile Mail.

1966 – Topeka, Kansas, is devastated by a tornado that registers as an "F5" on the Fujita scale: The first to exceed US$100 million in damages. Sixteen people are killed, hundreds more injured, and thousands of homes damaged or destroyed.

1968 – Robert F. Kennedy's funeral takes place at the St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City.

1977 – Kanye West, American rapper, producer, director, and fashion designer (Child Rebel Soldier) is born.

1982 – Satchel Paige, American baseball player and coach (b. 1906) dies.

1995 – The downed U.S. Air Force pilot Captain Scott O'Grady is rescued by U.S. Marines in Bosnia.

2009 – Two American journalists are found guilty of illegally entering North Korea and sentenced to 12 years of penal labour.