June 1st, 1985 : 500 Hippy travellers clashed with police on their way to the ancient stone circle of Stonehenge in Wiltshire for an illegal festival, the police set up a roadblock seven miles from Stonehenge. The day became known as "The Battle of the Beanfield" and was the first major test of an English Heritage ban on midsummer festivals at Stonehenge.

June 2nd, 1953 : Following the death of her father Queen Elizabeth II was formally crowned as The Queen in England with hundreds of millions listening on radio and for the first time watched the proceedings on live television. After the coronation ceremony in Westminster Abbey, millions of rain-drenched spectators cheered the 27-year-old queen and her husband, the 30-year-old duke of Edinburgh, as they passed along a five-mile procession route in a gilded horse-drawn carriage.

June 3rd, 1098 : After 5-month siege during the First Crusade, the Crusaders seized Antioch (now in modern Turkey.)

June 4th, 781 BC : Marked the oldest Chinese recording of a solar eclipse

June 5th, 1967 : The Six-Day War began when Israel launched simultaneous attacks against Egypt and Syria. Jordan also joined the fray, but the Arab coalition was no match for Israel's proficient armed forces. In six days of fighting, Israel occupied the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt, the Golan Heights of Syria, and the West Bank and Arab sector of East Jerusalem. By the time the United Nations cease-fire took effect on June 11th, Israel had more than doubled its size.

June 6th, 1944 : Dwight D. Eisenhower, commander of Allied Expeditionary Forces in World War II gave the go-ahead for a massive invasion of Europe called Operation Overlord / D-Day by British, Canadian and American forces and a million Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy in northern France.

June 7th, 1775 : United Colonies changed name to United States.

June 8th, 1968 : James Earl Ray was arrested in London Airport on charges of conspiracy and murder in connection with the assassination of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

June 9th, 1934 : Donald Duck made his first film appearance, in The Wise Little Hen, a short by Walt Disney.

June 10th, 1605 : False Dimitri I, an impostor, was crowned Russian tsar (1605-1606)

June 11th, 1770 : Captain James Cook discovered Great Barrier Reef off Australia.

June 12th, 1931 : Al Capone was indicted on 5,000 counts of prohibition and perjury.

June 13th, 1920 : US Post Office decided children could not be sent by parcel post (children were "mailed" by their parents because it was cheaper to mail them - if a child came in under the 50 pound parcel weight limit, than other ways to travel)

June 14th, 1942: Anne Frank began her diary.

June 15th, 1215 : King John signed the Magna Carta at Runnymede, near Windsor, England. First drafted by the Archbishop of Canterbury to make peace between the unpopular King and a group of rebel barons, it promised the protection of church rights, protection for the barons from illegal imprisonment, access to swift justice, and limitations on feudal payments to the Crown, to be implemented through a council of 25 barons. Neither side stood behind their commitments, and the charter was annulled by Pope Innocent III, leading to the First Barons' War. The charter was later revived and eventually became part of English political life, typically being renewed by each monarch in turn. This document, one of only four surviving is held at the British Library and is identified as "British Library Cotton MS Augustus II.106". Originally authenticated with the Great Seal of King John, the original wax seal has been lost over the centuries.

June 16th, 1567 : Mary, Queen of Scots, was imprisoned in Lochleven Castle prison Scotland.