This Day in History: June 19

Union troops arrive in Galveston, Texas, with news that the Civil War is over, and that all remaining slaves in Texas are free - an event now celebrated as a federal holiday, Juneteenth

On this day, June 19 …
 
1865: Union troops arrive in Galveston, Texas, with news that the Civil War is over, and that all remaining slaves in Texas are free. (The event is now celebrated as a federal holiday as Juneteenth.)

Also on this day:

  • 1775: George Washington is commissioned by the Continental Congress as commander in chief of the Continental Army.
  • 1934: The Federal Communications Commission is created; it replaces the Federal Radio Commission.
  • 1952: The U.S. Army Special Forces, the elite unit of fighters known as the Green Berets, is established at Fort Bragg, N.C.

Ethel and Julius Rosenberg in 1951. (AP Photo, File)

  • 1953: Julius Rosenberg, 35, and his wife, Ethel, 37, convicted of conspiring to pass U.S. atomic secrets to the Soviet Union, are executed at Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, N.Y.
  • 1964: The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is approved after surviving a lengthy filibuster in the U.S. Senate.
  • 1987: The U.S. Supreme Court strikes down a Louisiana law requiring any public school teaching the theory of evolution to teach creation science as well.
  • 2017: Otto Warmbier, a 22-year-old American college student, dies in a Cincinnati hospital following his release by North Korea in a coma after more than a year in captivity.
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