June 10
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Featured Event
© Pictures Now/Alamy; Photo Illustration Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
On this day in 1752 Benjamin Franklin braved a thunderstorm to test a bold idea: that lightning was electricity. Flying a silk kite fitted with a metal wire and key, he successfully collected an electrical charge in a jar. Although he was not the first to prove lightning was electric, his audacious kite experiment was a defining moment in the study of electricity. [Read today’s edition of Today in History > >]
Featured Biography
Featured Biography
© 1939 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc.
I had to fight for the name. But mother finally agreed to let me change.
Born this day in 1922 was American motion-picture singer and actress Judy Garland, who is best known for her role as Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz (1939), for which she was honored with a special Academy Award.
Famous Birthdays
More on June 10
Courtesy of the National Hockey League
2016
Canadian ice hockey player Gordie Howe—who was one of the game’s best players, known for his extraordinary puck handling, wrist shots, and legendary toughness—died in Toledo, Ohio. [See where Gordie Howe ranks on our list of the 10 best hockey players of all time.]
© Barry Wetcher/HBO
2007
HBO aired the last episode of its landmark TV series The Sopranos, which centered on Mafia boss and family man Tony Soprano (played by James Gandolfini). [Test your knowledge of actors and acting.]
© Keystone—Hulton Archive/Getty Images
1977
James Earl Ray, the convicted killer of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., escaped from a prison in Tennessee; he was captured some 54 hours later. [How much do you know about Martin Luther King, Jr.?]
H. Roger-Viollet
1940
Italy, under the rule of Benito Mussolini, declared war against France and Great Britain, entering World War II. [Sort fact from fiction in our World War II quiz.]
Bryan Bedder/Getty Images Entertainment
1929
American biologist E.O. Wilson, who was recognized as the world’s leading authority on ants, was born. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about ants.]
Image: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1868
Serbian Prince Michael III was assassinated, derailing the Balkan League’s plans for a coordinated rebellion against the Ottomans and destroying the league. [How much do you know about European history?]
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1865
Tristan und Isolde, the earliest example of what Richard Wagner called “music drama,” was first performed, and it became the greatest German opera of the late 19th century. [Test your knowledge of opera.]
© AISA—Everett/Shutterstock.com
1819
Gustave Courbet, French painter and leader of the Realist movement, was born in Ornans. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about artists and painters.]
The New York Public Library Digital Collection
1772
Rhode Islanders in the American colonies boarded and sank the British revenue cutter Gaspee in Narragansett Bay. [Test your knowledge of early American history.]
© North Wind Picture Archives
1692
Being found guilty of “certaine Detestable Arts called Witchcraft and Sorceries,” Bridget Bishop became the first person to be hanged during the Salem witch trials in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. [Discover how rye bread may have caused the Salem witch trials.]
Photos.com/Getty Images
1190
Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I (Frederick Barbarossa) drowned while trying to cross the Saleph River on the Third Crusade to the Holy Land. [How much do you know about the Crusades?]