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HISTORY & TIMELINE
10 June

A journey through
10 June in history

The story of 10 June runs from a Japanese emperor’s water clock sounding the hours in 671 to South Koreans filling the streets for democracy in 1987. In between come a crusading emperor lost in a river, a new museum of natural history for revolutionary Paris, the first Boat Race, a French army riding into Mexico City, the premiere of Tristan und Isolde, an American landing in Korea, a volcano in the night, a murder that sealed Mussolini’s power, a surgeon’s last drink, a village destroyed, a law for equal pay and a message smuggled off Robben Island.

Begin the Timeline ↓ ← Back to Explore This Day
JUMP THROUGH TIME
II
THE MIDDLE AGES

Medieval History

Kingdoms, conflict, faith, power and the changing medieval world.

671
A monument to Emperor Tenji's water clock at Ōmi Jingū shrine in ŌtsuA monument to Emperor Tenji’s water clock at Ōmi Jingū shrine in ŌtsuImage: 663highland · CC BY 2.5
science · Asia

A Japanese emperor has the hours struck by a water clock

According to the Nihon Shoki, Japan’s ancient chronicle, Emperor Tenji had a water clock set up at his palace at Ōmi, by today’s Ōtsu, and the hours were announced to the court by bells and drums. By modern reckoning the day was 10 June 671. In 1920 Japan chose that date for its Time Day, still marked each year to encourage punctuality.

Source: Takehiko Hashimoto, Japanese clocks and the history of punctuality in modern Japan (East Asian Science, Technology and Society) ↗
1190
The death of Frederick Barbarossa in the river, from a medieval German chronicle, shown in a 19th-century facsimileThe death of Frederick Barbarossa in the river, from a medieval German chronicle, shown in a 19th-century facsimileImage: Unknown artist · Public domain
politics · Middle East

Frederick Barbarossa drowns on the road to Jerusalem

Frederick I, called Barbarossa for his red beard, had ruled the Holy Roman Empire for more than three decades when Saladin captured Jerusalem in 1187. Though well into his sixties, he took the cross and in 1189 led a large German army overland towards the Holy Land, marching through the Balkans and into Anatolia on what became the Third Crusade. On 10 June 1190, having ridden ahead with his bodyguard, the emperor tried to cross the river Saleph, today’s Göksu, near Silifke in southern Turkey, and drowned. His death shattered the morale of his army. Many of his men turned for home, and only a remnant reached the crusaders at Acre, leaving Richard the Lionheart and Philip II of France to carry on the war without him.

Source: Britannica: Frederick I ↗
III
A CHANGING WORLD

Early Modern Era

Exploration, political change, scientific development and expanding global connections.

1793
The Jardin des Plantes in Paris, with the museum's Grand Gallery of Evolution behind the flower bedsThe Jardin des Plantes in Paris, with the museum’s Grand Gallery of Evolution behind the flower bedsImage: Ken and Nyetta · CC BY 2.0
science · Europe

Revolutionary Paris creates a museum of natural history

The Jardin des Plantes in Paris began life as the king’s garden of medicinal plants, created by royal edict in 1626 and opened to the public in 1640. Over the following century and a half, under naturalists such as Buffon, it grew into one of Europe’s great centres of botany and natural history, with a rich cabinet of specimens. On 10 June 1793, in the middle of the Revolution, the National Convention decreed that the royal garden and its cabinet would become the Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle. It was run by twelve professors, each with his own field, and among the first were Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, placed in charge of the invertebrates, and Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, responsible for the vertebrates. Later Georges Cuvier taught there too, and the museum became a place where modern ideas about evolution and extinction took shape.

Source: Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle: The history of the Museum ↗
IV
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

The 1800s

Industry, empire, invention, reform and a century of enormous transformation.

1829
The Oxford and Cambridge crews racing on the Thames in 1841, an engraving after Francis William TophamThe Oxford and Cambridge crews racing on the Thames in 1841, an engraving after Francis William TophamImage: Francis William Topham · Public domain
sport · Europe

Oxford and Cambridge row the first Boat Race

The Boat Race began with two school friends from Harrow. Charles Wordsworth, a nephew of the poet and a student at Christ Church, Oxford, met Charles Merivale of St John’s, Cambridge, during a vacation, and Cambridge sent Oxford a challenge to row a match in eight-oared boats. The race took place on 10 June 1829 at Henley-on-Thames, over two and a quarter miles from Hambleden Lock to Henley Bridge, and Oxford won easily. Most of the Oxford rowers came from Christ Church, whose dark blue became the university’s colour, while Cambridge wore white with pink sashes. The winning boat survives at the River and Rowing Museum in Henley, and the race, later moved to London, is still rowed every spring.

Source: The Boat Race: Origins of the Boat Races ↗
1863
The French expeditionary force enters Mexico City in June 1863, painted by Jean-Adolphe BeaucéThe French expeditionary force enters Mexico City in June 1863, painted by Jean-Adolphe BeaucéImage: Jean-Adolphe Beaucé · Public domain
world · Americas

A French army rides into Mexico City

Napoleon III sent troops to Mexico hoping to build a friendly empire there. Beaten at Puebla in 1862, the French returned in greater strength, took Puebla in May 1863 and on 10 June General Élie-Frédéric Forey rode into Mexico City as its conqueror. President Benito Juárez and his government had already left, and kept moving across the north while the French set up an empire under Maximilian.

Source: Britannica: Mexico, La Reforma ↗
1865
Ludwig and Malvina Schnorr von Carolsfeld as Tristan and Isolde, photographed by Joseph Albert in 1865Ludwig and Malvina Schnorr von Carolsfeld as Tristan and Isolde, photographed by Joseph Albert in 1865Image: Josef Albert · Public domain
culture · Europe

Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde reaches the stage in Munich

Richard Wagner wrote Tristan und Isolde between 1857 and 1859, turning the medieval tale of two lovers doomed by a love potion into a drama of longing that only death can end. Its restless, unresolved harmonies were unlike anything heard before, and for years the opera was thought too difficult to stage. It finally opened at the Court Theatre in Munich on 10 June 1865, conducted by Hans von Bülow. Wagner chose the young tenor Ludwig Schnorr von Carolsfeld as Tristan, and his wife Malvina sang Isolde. Wagner was delighted with the performance, though Schnorr struggled with a heavy cold. Weeks later the tenor was dead, aged just 29. The opera itself went on to shape the music of the following decades, and its very first chord is still argued over by musicians.

Source: Britannica: Tristan und Isolde ↗
1871
Officers of the American squadron at a council of war aboard the flagship USS Colorado, June 1871Officers of the American squadron at a council of war aboard the flagship USS Colorado, June 1871Image: unattributed Naval History and Heritage Command photograph · Public domain
world · Asia

American marines and sailors land on Korea’s Ganghwa Island

In 1871 the kingdom of Joseon kept Korea firmly closed to Western trade. An American squadron under Rear Admiral John Rodgers sailed there carrying the diplomat Frederick Low, to learn the fate of the merchant ship General Sherman, destroyed in 1866, and to press for a treaty. When the squadron’s launches surveyed the channel past Ganghwa Island on 1 June, the Korean forts along the shore opened fire. Rodgers ordered the forts taken. On 10 June 1871 a force of 651 marines and sailors waded ashore through thick mud on Ganghwa, and over the next day and a half they stormed the forts one after another, killing hundreds of Korean defenders for the loss of a handful of their own men. The victory changed nothing: Korea’s rulers still refused to talk, and the squadron sailed away. Koreans remember the clash as the Sinmiyangyo, the Western disturbance of 1871.

Source: Naval History and Heritage Command: Marine amphibious landing in Korea, 1871 ↗
1886
Mount Tarawera in eruption on 10 June 1886, painted by Charles BlomfieldMount Tarawera in eruption on 10 June 1886, painted by Charles BlomfieldImage: Charles Blomfield · Public domain
world · Oceania

Mount Tarawera erupts and the Pink and White Terraces vanish

On the shores of Lake Rotomahana, near Rotorua in New Zealand’s North Island, hot springs had built two great staircases of silica, the Pink and White Terraces. Tinted and brimming with warm pools, they drew visitors from around the world, who were guided there from the village of Te Wairoa. Soon after midnight on 10 June 1886 a series of violent earthquakes woke the district. At about 2 a.m. Mount Tarawera split open, throwing up fountains of glowing lava and a column of ash some 10 kilometres high. Ash and mud buried Te Wairoa and other settlements; at Te Wairoa more than 60 people survived by sheltering in the sturdy house of the guide Sophia Hinerangi. More than a hundred people died, perhaps as many as 150, nearly all of them Māori. When the ash settled, the terraces were gone.

Source: NZHistory (Ministry for Culture and Heritage): Tarawera eruption, 1886 ↗
V
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

The 1900s

War and peace, technological leaps, social change, politics, sport and popular culture.

1924
The street beside the Tiber in Rome where Giacomo Matteotti was seized, in a photograph of 1924The street beside the Tiber in Rome where Giacomo Matteotti was seized, in a photograph of 1924Image: Unknown author · Public domain
politics · Europe

Fascist thugs seize and murder Giacomo Matteotti

Giacomo Matteotti led Italy’s Unitary Socialist Party and was one of the bravest critics of Benito Mussolini’s government. On 30 May 1924 he stood up in the Chamber of Deputies and denounced the violence and intimidation with which the Fascists had won that spring’s elections, while hostile deputies shouted him down. On 10 June 1924 a Fascist squad led by Amerigo Dumini, who worked in Mussolini’s press office, bundled Matteotti into a car in Rome, stabbed him to death and buried his body outside the city, where it was found weeks later. The murder caused an outcry, and about 150 opposition deputies walked out of parliament in the Aventine Secession. But the protest faded, and on 3 January 1925 Mussolini told the Chamber he took responsibility for what had happened and dared his critics to act. None could, and his dictatorship began in earnest.

Source: Britannica: Matteotti Crisis ↗
1935
The house in Akron, Ohio, where Dr Bob Smith lived, now kept as a museum of the fellowship's early daysThe house in Akron, Ohio, where Dr Bob Smith lived, now kept as a museum of the fellowship’s early daysImage: Nyttend · Public domain
world · Americas

Alcoholics Anonymous counts its first day

In May 1935 Bill W., a New York stockbroker who had been sober for six months, was in Akron, Ohio, on a failing business trip and badly wanted a drink. Looking for another alcoholic to talk to, he was put in touch with Dr Bob S., a local surgeon whose drinking was wrecking his career. They met on 12 May, Mother’s Day, and talked for hours. Dr Bob stayed sober for a few weeks, then slipped while at a medical convention. On 10 June 1935, before operating on a patient, he took one last beer to steady his hands, and he never drank again. Alcoholics Anonymous keeps that day as its founding date. The two men began helping other alcoholics one at a time, working out the idea of staying sober just for today, and the fellowship they started has since spread around the world.

Source: Alcoholics Anonymous: A.A. Timeline ↗
1942
Part of the bronze memorial to the children of Lidice, on the site of the destroyed villagePart of the bronze memorial to the children of Lidice, on the site of the destroyed villageImage: PeterBraun74 · CC BY-SA 4.0
world · Europe

Nazi forces destroy the Czech village of Lidice

In reprisal for the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, German forces surrounded the village of Lidice, near Prague, on 10 June 1942. All 173 men were shot, the women were sent to concentration camps and most of the children were later murdered. The village was burned and levelled. Its name became a symbol of resistance, and a memorial now stands on the site.

Source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: Lidice ↗
1963
Members of the American Association of University Women watch President Kennedy sign the Equal Pay ActMembers of the American Association of University Women watch President Kennedy sign the Equal Pay ActImage: Abbie Rowe · Public domain
world · Americas

Kennedy signs the Equal Pay Act

On 10 June 1963 President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act, which made it illegal in the United States to pay women less than men for the same work. At the signing he noted that the average woman worker earned only about 60 per cent of a man’s wage. The bill had been pressed by Esther Peterson, head of the Labor Department’s Women’s Bureau.

Source: JFK Library: Remarks on signing the Equal Pay Act, 10 June 1963 ↗
1980
Nelson Mandela's cell in the maximum security prison on Robben IslandNelson Mandela’s cell in the maximum security prison on Robben IslandImage: Krigore · CC BY-SA 4.0
politics · Africa

The ANC publishes Mandela’s call from Robben Island

After the Soweto uprising of 1976, Nelson Mandela wrote a message from his prison on Robben Island urging South Africans to unite against apartheid. Smuggled out in secret, it took more than two years to reach the ANC in exile, which published it on 10 June 1980 with an introduction by its president, Oliver Tambo, under the rallying cry ‘Unite! Mobilise! Fight on!’

Source: Nelson Mandela Foundation Archive: Unite! Mobilise! Fight on! ↗
1987
Myeongdong Cathedral in Seoul, a gathering place for the democracy movement in 1987Myeongdong Cathedral in Seoul, a gathering place for the democracy movement in 1987Image: Asacyan · CC BY-SA 4.0
politics · Asia

South Koreans rise for democracy

Anger at military-backed rule in South Korea boiled over in 1987, after a student died under police torture and President Chun Doo-hwan refused to let the people elect his successor. On 10 June some 240,000 people joined rallies in 22 cities, and the protests grew for nearly three weeks until, on 29 June, the ruling party agreed to direct presidential elections.

Source: Korea Democracy Foundation archive: The June 10 movement ↗
RESEARCH

Sources & Further Reading

Selected authoritative references supporting the events on this page.

WHY THESE MOMENTS?

Significance before volume

This page is not the longest possible list of events. It is a chronological journey through 10 June, where each entry is chosen for historical significance, human interest and reliability.

Facts are checked against authoritative museums, archives, universities and reference works. Where sources disagree, the page says so.

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