On June 16, 1965, on their second day of recording at Columbia
Records’ Studio A in Manhattan, folk rock singer Bob Dylan,
along with a band featuring electric guitars and an organ, laid
down the master take of “Like A Rolling Stone.”
It would prove to be Dylan’s magnum opus and, arguably, one
of the greatest rock and roll records of all time.
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.
![[object Object]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/86/RIAN_archive_159271_Nikita_Khrushchev%2C_Valentina_Tereshkova%2C_Pavel_Popovich_and_Yury_Gagarin_at_Lenin_Mausoleum.jpg)
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.
On June 14, 1877 Henry Ossian Flipper (1856 – 1940), born
into slavery in Thomasville, Georgia, in 1856, became the
first African American cadet to graduate from the U.S.
Military Academy at West Point, New York, earning a
commission as a second lieutenant in the United States
Army.
Flipper was also an author who wrote about scientific topics
and his life experiences.
A painting depicting Lt. Flipper near the Rio Grande River,
TX in 1880 while scouting with company A, 10th US Cavalry
Regiment.
