What happened on this day in history: Richard III becomes King of England, Anne Frank goes into hiding, and other important events from July 6th.
1483: Richard III Becomes King Of England
Richard III becomes the king of England after declaring the sons of his late brother, King Edward IV, illegitimate. Having locked up — and perhaps murdered — his nephews, Richard reigned for two years. He was killed in 1485 during an uprising led by Henry Tudor, who became King Henry VII.
1535: Sir Thomas More Is Executed
Wikimedia CommonsThomas More in a 1527 portrait by Hans Holbein the Younger.
Sir Thomas More is beheaded in London, England. A humanist who wrote Utopia in 1516, More refused to support King Henry VIII’s divorce from Catherine of Aragon or the Act of Supremacy, which declared the king “Supreme Head of the Church of England.” Charged with high treason, More was imprisoned in the Tower of London, found guilty, and executed.
1747: John Paul Jones Is Born
John Paul Jones is born in Arbigland, Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland. A sailor, he became a naval hero during the Revolutionary War by leading American troops against the British. Jones later served in the Imperial Russian Navy before he died in Paris of interstitial nephritis in 1792.
1885: Louis Pasteur Gives The First Rabies Shot
Louis Pasteur gives the first rabies inoculation to nine-year-old Joseph Meister, who’d been bitten by a rabid dog. Meister — who would have likely died — soon recovered, and Pasteur’s inoculation technique quickly spread.
1892: The Homestead Strike Ends
Striking workers from Carnegie Steel defeat the Pinkerton Detective Agency in Pittsburgh’s Homestead, prompting the governor to deploy the National Guard to protect strikebreakers. In the end, the union strikers were defeated, dealing a major blow to their efforts to help steelworkers unionize.
1942: Anne Frank Goes Into Hiding
Public DomainAnne Frank in 1940.
Thirteen-year-old Anne Frank and her family go into hiding. Fearing capture by the Nazis during the Holocaust, the Franks hid out in an Amsterdam warehouse, where Frank famously recorded many of her thoughts and experiences in a diary. About two years later in August 1944, Nazis discovered Frank and her family, raising questions to this day about who had betrayed them.
2012: Skylar Neese Is Murdered
Sixteen-year-old Skylar Neese is murdered by two of her close friends, Shelia Eddy and Rachel Shoaf. After deciding that they “didn’t like” Neese, Eddy and Shoaf lured her into the woods and stabbed her to death. Neese’s death inspired “Skylar’s Law,” which mandates that Amber Alerts are issued for all missing children — not just those believed to be kidnapped.
