June 16th

The world's first country-wide total tobacco ban goes into effect. Bhutan banned the cultivation, harvesting, production, and sale of tobacco and tobacco products. It is still legal in the South Asian country to smoke in a private setting, but obtaining tobacco products legally is close to impossible.

The 9/11 Commission determined that Saddam Hussein had no strong links to al-Qaeda, contradicting White House beliefs.

Israel complies with UN Security Council Resolution 425 after 22 years, which calls on Israel to completely withdraw from Lebanon. Israel withdraws from all of Lebanon, except the disputed Sheba Farms.

Russia voted in its first independent presidential election. Boris Yeltsin eventually won in a runoff.

South African police kill hundreds of protesting school children. An estimated 20,000 youth were protesting against the introduction of Afrikaans as the languages of instruction in their schools when police officers started firing into the crowd. The “Soweto uprising” is today commemorated on Youth Day each year.

The Monterey Pop Festival opens. The three-day concert event featured historic performances by Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Ravi Shankar, and Janis Joplin.

Valentina Tereshkova of the USSR became the first woman in space.

Alfred Hitchcock's film Psycho is premiered. The horror-thriller starring Anthony Perkins and Vera Miles has become one of the classics of the genre. The shower scene is one of the best-known murder scenes in the history of film.

US Congress accepts FDR's "New Deal".

President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the National Industrial Recovery Act.

Events in James Joyce's novel Ulysses took place on this day, which is celebrated as Bloomsday, for the main character, Leopold Bloom.

Salvation Army forms in London.

Abraham Lincoln says "A house divided against itself cannot stand" accepting Illinois Republican Party's nomination for the Senate.

The Battle of Stoke ended the Wars of the Roses.