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American history, reported as it happened
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18981776 Club

Spain surrenders Guam; the garrison thought the opening shots were a salute

The Spanish captain sends a messenger to borrow powder so he can return the courtesy, and Captain Henry Glass has to explain that the United States is at war with Spain.

The Spanish garrison on Guam had not received a dispatch from Madrid since April 9, 1898 — and when the USS Charleston opened fire on Fort Santa Cruz on June 20, the Spanish captain of the port assumed it was a ceremonial salute. He sent a messenger asking to borrow powder so he could return it. Captain Henry Glass set him straight: those were hostile shots, and the United States was at war with Spain. Governor Don Juan Marina surrendered the following morning, and an American flag rose over Fort Santa Cruz on June 21 — ending 230 years of Spanish rule on the island without a single casualty…

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More from June 21
1768

Otis stands before the General Court and charges King and Parliament with tyranny

The Boston lawyer who called taxation without representation unlawful delivers his sharpest attack yet; word is already moving toward London.
1788

New Hampshire ratifies; the Constitution crosses the nine-state threshold

Eight states had approved it and it meant nothing; the Granite State's vote today makes the Philadelphia document the law of a real nation.
1942

Japanese submarine shells Fort Stevens; Doney orders blackout, holds his guns

Commander Tagami surfaces I-25 at the Columbia River mouth after dark, fires seventeen rounds, and slips away undamaged, leaving cut telephone lines on the Oregon coast.
20041776 Club
SpaceShipOne, built by Burt Rutan for roughly $25 million of Paul Allen's money, breaks a 43-year government monopoly on crewed spaceflight.
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Read the full June 21 edition →Everything that happened on June 21 →
More from Gilded Age & Progressive Era
1889

Gunmen behind a boulder hit Wham's paymaster convoy; eight Buffalo Soldiers wounded, $28,345 gone

A dozen riflemen firing from pre-built breastworks above an Arizona gorge stripped the Army payroll; Frankie Campbell's horse was still picking around the obstacle when the ambush opened.
1910

Taft signs Glacier into law; a million Montana acres become a national park

George Bird Grinnell, who first rode into the region in 1885 and spent two decades lobbying Congress, calls it "the Crown of the Continent."
1906

Roosevelt signs the Antiquities Act; no proclamation needed from Congress to seal off federal land

For decades, pot hunters have stripped pottery and bones from Chaco Canyon and across the Southwest. The president can now designate national monuments alone, by proclamation.
1882

Guiteau hangs at the Washington jail; Garfield's killer takes nine months to follow him

The self-declared savior of the Republican Party had bought his ivory-gripped revolver with a museum in mind. The jury was not sympathetic.
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