What happened on June 16 ?

1487 - Battle of Stoke Field, the last dying breath of the Wars of the Roses.

1586 - Mary Queen of Scots recognizes Philip II of Spain as her heir.

1745 - British troops take Cape Breton Island, which is now part of Nova Scotia, Canada.

1745 - Sir William Pepperell captures the French Fortress Louisbourg in Louisbourg, Nova Scotia during the War of the Austrian Succession.

1746 - War of Austrian Succession: Austria and Sardinia defeat a Franco-Spanish army at the Battle of Piacenza.

1755 - French and Indian War: French surrender Fort Beauséjour to the British, leading to the expulsion of the Acadians.

1774 - Formation of Harrodsburg, Kentucky.

1779 - Spain declares war on the Kingdom of Great Britain, and the siege of Gibraltar begins.

1815 - Battle of Ligny and Battle of Quatre Bras, two days before Waterloo.

1836 - Formation of the London Working Men's Association begins the Chartist Movement.

1846 - The Papal conclave of 1846 concludes. Pope Pius IX is elected pope, beginning the longest reign in the history of the papacy (not counting St. Peter).

1858 - Abraham Lincoln's House Divided speech in Springfield, Illinois.

1858 - Battle of Morar, during the Indian Mutiny.

1871 - University Tests Act allows students to enter the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge and Durham without religious tests, except for courses in theology.

1884 - The first roller coaster in the United States begins operation at Coney Island, New York.

1891 - John Abbott becomes Canada's third prime minister.

1903 - Ford Motor Company incorporates.

1903 - Roald Amundsen commences first east-west navigation of the Northwest Passage by leaving Oslo, Norway.

1904 - Eugen Schauman assassinates Nikolai Bobrikov, Governor-General of Finland.

1911 - A 772 gram stony meteorite struck earth near Kilbourn, Columbia County, Wisconsin damaging a barn.

1915 - Foundation of the British Women's Institute

1922 - General election in Irish Free State: large majority to pro-Treaty Sinn Féin.

1924 - Whampoa Military Academy is founded.

1925 - The most famous Young Pioneer camp of the USSR, Artek established.

1940 - World War II: Marshal Henri Philippe Pétain becomes Premier of Vichy France.

1940 - A Communist government is installed in Lithuania.

1948 - The storming of the cockpit of the Miss Macao passenger seaplane, operated by the Cathay Pacific airline, marks the first skyjacking of a commercial plane.

1955 - Pope Pius XII excommunicates Juan Perón.

1960 - Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho opens in New York.

1961 - Rudolf Nureyev defects at Le Bourget airport in Paris.

1963 - Soviet Space Program: Vostok 6 Mission, Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman in space.

1964 - Leonid Brezhnev becomes president of the USSR.

1967 - Monterey Pop Festival begins; Monterey, California.

1972 - Red Army Faction member Ulrike Meinhof is captured by police in Langenhagen.

1972 - Largest single-site hydro-electric power project in Canada starts at Churchill Falls, Labrador.

1976 - Apartheid: A non-violent march by 15,000 students in Soweto, South Africa turns into days of rioting when police open fire on the crowd and kill 566 children.

1983 - Yuri Andropov becomes president of the USSR.

1989 - Historic reburial of Imre Nagy, the former Hungarian Prime Minister in Budapest.

1994 - A Chinese operated Tupolev TU-154 crashes 10 minutes after takeoff killing 160.

1996 - First round of voting in the Russian presidential election.

1997 - Dairat Labguer massacre in Algeria; some 50 people killed.

1999 - Thabo Mbeki elected President of South Africa.

2001 - George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin meet in Brdo pri Kranju, Slovenia."