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June 15
763 BC. Assyrians record a solar eclipse which is later used to fix many other events in Mesopotamian history.
1215. King John I puts his seal on Magna Carta.
1752. Ben Franklin proves that lightning is electricity.
1775. George Washington is appointed commander of the Continental Army.
1844. Charles Goodyear receives a patent for vulcanization, a process to strengthen rubber.
1846. The Oregon Treaty is signed by the US and the United Kingdom, fixing the 49th parallel as the boundary between the US and Canada west of the Rocky Mountains.
1864. Ulysses S. Grant and the Army of the Potomac reach the outskirts of Petersburg, Virginia. Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia, travelling on interior lines, has once again beaten Grant to his objective. Grant, who has already established his rabid tenacity, doesn't intend to leave, and both sides settle in for a siege.
Petersburg was a city just south of Richmond, and a main supply route into the city. Without Petersburg, Richmond, the Confederate Capital, could not survive. The siege was not a true siege, in which an objective is surrounded and all supplies are cut off. Rather, Petersburg was besieged, and the armies engaged in trench warfare. Eventually, over 30 miles of trenches were dug by the Union, which with superior resources and manpower, was constantly spreading the length of the line and causing Lee's troops to thin themselves out to avoid being outflanked. The siege would last for nine months, and the resulting Union victory was swiftly followed by the surrender of the entire Army of Northern Virginia.
1864. Arlington National Cemetary is established when the Union declares the 200 acres formerly owned by Robert E. Lee to be effectively forfeit, and starts burying the Union dead on the Confederate commander's former property. In 1882 the Supreme Court ruled that the act was illegal, and awarded the property to Lee's oldest surviving son, George Washington Custis Lee, who sold it back to the government for $150,000.
1882. Crown Prince Wilhelm becomes Kaiser Wilhelm II, the last Kaiser of Imperial Germany. Of course, Imperial Germany only lasted 47 years, so I guess it's not saying all that much.
1911. Tabulating Computing Recording Corporation is incorporated. It will later change its name to something you might find more recognizable: IBM.
1916. President Wilson signs a charter for the Boy Scouts of America, making them the only federally chartered youth organization.
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