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On 25 June 1876, 5,000 Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho warriors destroyed Custer's column at the Little Bighorn - the greatest Native American military victory against the U.S. Army. Within a year, it had cost them the Black Hills and their freedom.
On 24 June 1374, people in the streets of Aachen began dancing uncontrollably and could not stop. The outbreak swept across dozens of European cities within weeks. Twenty-five years after the Black Death, this was what mass psychological collapse looked like.
On 23 June 1314, Robert the Bruce held a council of war. His commanders urged retreat. Instead, he advanced his schiltrons into the English cavalry and won the battle everyone said he couldn't. Scotland wasn't free yet, but it was no longer losing.
On 22 June 1633, Galileo Galilei knelt before the Holy Office and recanted heliocentrism. The standard science-vs-religion myth is not wrong, but it misses the smaller, more human story: a scientist who could not resist mocking his most powerful protector.
On 21 June 1813, Wellington encircled Joseph Bonaparte near Vitoria and drove the French from Spain in a single afternoon. The road north was covered in abandoned guns, gold, and paintings. A six-year occupation ended in a rout.
On 20 June 1631, Barbary corsairs landed at Baltimore, County Cork, and took 107 sleeping villagers into slavery. The English king was busy negotiating a trade deal with Morocco. The captives spent the rest of their lives in North Africa.
On 19 June 1867, Maximilian I of Mexico was executed by firing squad on the Hill of the Bells outside Querétaro. Napoleon III had put him there. Juárez had a point to make. Maximilian had refused every chance to leave.
On 18th June 656, Ali ibn Abi Talib finally became caliph - the post he had arguably been born for, after watching three others take it before him. He inherited a throne built on his predecessor's corpse. The First Fitna followed within months.
On 17 June 1462, Vlad the Impaler led his cavalry into the sleeping camp of Mehmed II and nearly killed him. The real Dracula — the man who impaled 20,000 Turks outside his own capital — was considerably more dangerous than the fictional one.
On 16 June 632, an eight-year-old boy was crowned Shah of Persia at the sacred temple of Anahita. He was the last Sasanian King of Kings. The empire he inherited had already been hollowed out by civil war, plague, and twenty years of war with Byzantium - and within weeks, Muhammad would die in Arabia.