June 19th

June 19 is the 171st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. If the ancient Mayans were correct, there are 185 days remaining until the end of time.

1778 Washington's troops finally leave Valley Forge

1829 Sir Robert Peel establishes London Metropolitan Police (Bobbies) to round up little street urchins

1865 More than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation (January 1, 1863), slaves in Galveston, Texas, are finally informed of their freedom. The anniversary is still officially celebrated in Texas and 13 other states as Juneteenth Day.

1893 Lizzie Borden is acquitted of whacking because she’s a girl

1926 DeFord Bailey is 1st black to perform on Nashville's Grand Ole Opry even though he couldn’t sit in the audience to watch the rest of the show.

1978 Garfield, created by Jim Davis, 1st appears as a comic strip

1987 Supreme Court rules school teaching evolution need not teach creation

2009 British troops begin Operation Panther's Claw, one of the largest air operations in modern times, when more than 350 troops make an aerial assault on Taliban positions and subsequently repel Taliban counter-attacks. Here is one of the more famous Brits who helped beat off the Taliban.

1566 James Charles Stuart , maybe gay King James VI of Scotland and King James I of England, Ireland, Scotland, and France.(1566-1625) Patron of Shakespeare, financed the King James Version of the Bible. Had male lovers scurrying all about. There was even a secret passage between the King's bedchamber and that of George Villers (later the Duke of Buckingham). It was said at the time: Rex fuit Elizabeth, nunc est regina Jacobus (Elizabeth was King, now James is Queen)  [h/t, Stevil!]

1897 Moe Howard [Moses Harry Horwitz], US stooge.

1919 Louis Jourdan, French Actor who made it big in Hollywood. <le sigh>

1966 Samuel West, English actor 

1968 Scott Styles, US pornographic actor/nuclear engineer 

1972 Christian Kahrmann, German actor 

1972 Jean Dujardin, French actor 

1975 Hugh Dancy, English actor 

1977 Daniel de Oliveira, Brazilian actor 

1978 Garfield, usually nude, asexual fat US cartoon cat 

1980 Jesse Brune, gay US chef/personal trainer 

1983 Aidan Turner, Irish actor (not to be confused with the Aiden Turner on QAF-UK) 

1312 Piers Gaveston, probably gay earl of Cornwall, loses his head completely for Edward II

1937 Sir James M Barrie, probably gay Scottish writer (Dear Brutus/Peter Pan), believes in fairies

1982 John Cheever, bisexual US writer (Wapshot Chronicle, Pulitzer), cannot really tell of people, places and things that will not appear in his next novel

2010 Manute Bol, giant Sudanese basketball player and activist, dribbles.