The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker’s Hill.

British General Thomas Gage landed his troops on the
Charlestown Peninsula overlooking Boston, Massachusetts,
and lead them against Breed’s Hill, a fortified American
position just below Bunker Hill, on June 17, 1775.

As the British advanced in columns against the Americans,
American Colonel William Prescott reportedly told his men,
“Don’t one of you fire until you see the whites of their eyes!”

The British won the so-called Battle of Bunker Hill, and Breed’s
Hill and the Charlestown Peninsula fell firmly under British
control.

Despite losing their strategic positions, the battle was a morale-
builder for the Americans, convincing them that patriotic
dedication could overcome superior British military might.

Colonel William Prescott

Bob Dylan (Robert Allen Zimmerman) turned 84 on May 24.

On June 16, 1963, aboard Vostok 6, Soviet Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman to travel into space. After
48 orbits and 71 hours, she returned to earth, having spent more
time in space than all U.S. astronauts combined to that date.

Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova was born to a peasant family
in Maslennikovo, Russia, in 1937. She began work at a textile
factory when she was 18, and at age 22 she made her first
parachute jump under the auspices of a local aviation club.

Her enthusiasm for skydiving brought her to the attention of the
Soviet space program, which sought to put a woman in space in
the early 1960s as a means of achieving another “space first”
before the United States.

    
Tereshkova, and Nikita Khrushchev at Lenin’s Mausoleum
on 22 June 1963.

Tereshkova (87) in 2024.

  
CAMILLE BOHANNON

More than 1,000 people taking a pleasure trip on New York City’s
East River were drowned or burned to death when a fire swept
through the riverboat-style steamer General Slocum. This was
one of the United States’ worst maritime disasters.

The General Slocum was built in 1890 and used mostly for taking
large groups on day outings. On June 15, the St. Mark’s German Lutheran Church assembled a group of 1,360 people, mostly
children and teachers, for their annual Sunday School picnic.

The picnic was to take place at Locust Point in the Bronx after
a cruise up the East River on the General Slocum.

At about 9 a.m., the dangerously overcrowded boat left its dock
in Manhattan with Captain William Van Schaik in charge. As the
boat passed 83rd Street, accounts indicate that a child spotted
a fire in a storeroom and reported it to the Captain. The onboard
fire hose, which had never been used, tested or inspected, did
not work.

In all, 630 bodies were recovered and another 401 were missing
and presumed dead.

The boat’s crew, and officers in the Knickerbocker Company,
owner and operator of the General Slocum, were charged with
criminal negligence.