Today in History - History - June 17th

1970Edwin Land patents Polaroid camera

1944Hitler secretly meets with von Rundstedt in Marjival Soissons

1837Charles Goodyear obtains his 1st rubber patent

1915The League to Enforce Peace is organised at Independence Hall in Philadelphia with William Howard Taft as president; its program anticipates the League of Nations

200943rd CMT Music Awards: Taylor Swift & Brad Paisley wins

1462vlad III the Impaler attempts to assassinate Mehmed II (The Night Attack) forcing him to retreat from Wallachia.

1579Sir Francis Drake lands on coast of California at Drakes Bay, names it "New Albion"

1982US President Reagan 1st UN Gen Assembly address ("evil empire" speech)

1983Ed Warren and Lorraine Warren exorcise a "werewolf demon" from Bill Ramsey, although the lack of photo or video evidence has called this claim into question

1954Rocky Marciano beats Ezzard Charles in 15 for heavyweight boxing title

1945Tony Roche, Wagga Wagga Australia, tennis player and coach

1881Tommy Burns, Hanover Ontario, Canadian boxer

1980Venus Williams, Lynwood California, tennis star

1940George Akerlof, American economist, Nobel laureate

1882Igor Stravinsky, Oranienbaum, Russia, composer (Rite of Spring) [OS 05/06]

1943Barry Manilow, New York City, American singer/pianist (Mandy, I Write the Songs)

1853Prime Minister of Canada Alexander Mackenzie (31) weds second wife Jane Sym

1923Chemist Linus Pauling (22) weds Ava Helen Miller

1835Soldier and politician Jefferson Davis (27) weds Sarah Knox Taylor (21) in Louisville, Kentucky

1977Senator Joseph biden of Delaware (34) weds Jill Jacobs (26) at the Chapel at the United Nations in New York City

2008Ice hockey player star Martin Brodeur (36) weds Genevieve Nault at the Bavaro Princess Resort in the Dominican Republic

1983Singer and actor Glenn Frey (34) weds Janie Beggs

1872Jurist Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr (31) weds childhood friend Fanny Bowditch Dixwell

1924Golfer Bobby Jones (22) weds high school sweetheart Mary Rice Malone (22) in Atlanta, Georgia

1997Actress and philanthropist Grace Hightower (57) weds actor Robert De Niro (68) at their Marbletown home

1962Actor Jack Nicholson (25) weds Sandra Knight (22) in Los Angeles

2012Rodney King, African American motorist beaten by LA cop, dies at 47

1947Maxwell Perkins, American editor and publisher for Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Thomas Wolfe, dies at 62