June 1 in Pop Culture History
495 – John Cor made a note referring to the first known batch of Scotch whisky.
1813 – James Lawrence, the mortally-wounded commander of the USS Chesapeake, gave the now famous line: “Don’t give up the ship!”
1831 – James Clark Ross discovered the Magnetic North Pole.
1886 – Thomas Edison received his first patent (#90646). It was for an “electrographic vote recorder.”
1938 – National Donut Day was created by the Salvation Army to honor the “Doughnut Dollies”, women volunteers who served donuts to soldiers in France during WWI. Today, it is officially celebrated the First Friday in June. A second National Doughnut Day occurs on November 5.
1946 – The BBC started to grant television licenses, for legal access to broadcast TV, costing £2 annually.
1947 – The Doomsday Clock first appeared, on the cover of Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. It was initially set at 7 minutes until midnight.
1959 #1 Hit June 1, 1959 – July 12, 1959: Johnny Horton – The Battle of New Orleans
1961 – Regular FM stereo radio broadcasting with a multiplexed signal began in Schenectady, NY, on WGFM.
1963 #1 Hit June 1, 1963 – June 14, 1963: Lesley Gore – It’s My Party
1965 (Explosion) A coal mine explosion in Fukuoka, Japan at the Yamano mine killed 236 people.
1967 – Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band by the Beatles was released.
1968 – Blind and Deaf popular icon Helen Keller died. (born June 27, 1880)
1968 #1 Hit June 1, 1968 – June 21, 1968: Simon & Garfunkel – Mrs. Robinson
1974 – The Heimlich maneuver, named after Dr. Henry Heimlich, was published in the journal Emergency Medicine.
1980 – The Cable News Network (CNN) began broadcasting
1991- The Comedy Network became Comedy Central
1994 – FX Network made its debut. It was the first cable TV network owned by FOX.
1996 – Major League Baseball debuted for the first time on FOX
2009 – The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien premiered on NBC
2009 – General Motors filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
2009 – (fictional) The Pulse, the deployment of an EMP weapon, destroys a significant amount of the computer-based infrastructure in the US, in turn leading to economic and social breakdown across the country on Dark Angel, TV series.
