June 18, 1815 – On the fields of Waterloo in central Belgium, 72,000 French troops led by Napoleon suffer a crushing military defeat from a combined army of 113,000 British, Dutch, Belgian, and Prussian troops.
June 19, 1865 (Juneteenth Day) – In Galveston, Texas, General Gordan Granger enters the city officially placing Texas under Union control to close out the Civil War. He publicly reads General Order #3 transmitting the news of President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation freeing 256,000 enslaved Texans (two years after the proclamation was originally issued). The date becomes a Federal Holiday in 2021.
June 19, 1829 – British Home Secretary Robert Peel introduces the Metropolitan Police Act into Parliament to establish a unified police force for London. The result is the city’s first modern police force whose officers are appropriately nicknamed “Bobbies” after their founder.
June 20, 1975 – The movie “Jaws” , based on the book by Peter Benchley, directed by Steven Spielberg, a score by John Williams, and starring Roy Scheider is released. It won Academy Awards for Best Original Score, Best Film Editing, and Best Sound; it established the practice of summer blockbuster releases by major studios (becoming the first film to earn $100 million in U.S. theatrical rentals) and is ranked number two on the American Film Institute’s scariest movie list behind “Psycho.”