Today is June 19. On this date in:
1775
George Washington was commissioned by the Continental Congress as commander in chief of the Continental Army.
1865
Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, with news that the Civil War was over, and that all remaining slaves in Texas were free – an event celebrated to this day as “Juneteenth.”
1917
During World War I, King George V ordered the British royal family to dispense with German titles and surnames; the family took the name “Windsor.”
1934
The Federal Communications Commission was created; it replaced the Federal Radio Commission.
1938
Four dozen people were killed when a railroad bridge in Montana collapsed, sending a train known as the Olympian hurtling into Custer Creek.
1944
During World War II, the two-day Battle of the Philippine Sea began, resulting in a decisive victory for the Americans over the Japanese.
1952
The Army Special Forces, the elite unit of fighters known as the Green Berets, was established at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
1953
Julius Rosenberg, 35, and his wife, Ethel, 37, convicted of conspiring to pass U.S. atomic secrets to the Soviet Union, were executed at Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, New York.
1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was approved by the U.S. Senate, 73-27, after surviving a lengthy filibuster.
2015
Cincinnati police officer Sonny Kim was shot and killed by Trepierre Hummons.
2017
Otto Warmbier, a 22-year-old American college student released by North Korea in a coma after more than a year in captivity, died in a Cincinnati hospital.
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