In 1761, the first life insurance policy in the United States was issued, in Philadelphia.
In 1813, composer Richard Wagner was born in Leipzig, Germany.
In 1819, the first steam-propelled vessel to attempt a transatlantic crossing, the Savannah, departed from Savannah, Ga. It arrived in Leverpool on June 20.
In 1939, Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini signed the Pact of Steel, committing Germany and Italy to a miliary alliance.