George I was King of Great Britain and Ireland, from 1 August 1714 until his death. At the age of 54, he ascended the British throne as the first monarch of the House of Hanover. Although many bore closer blood-relationships to the childless Queen Anne, the Act of Settlement 1701, which prohibits Catholics from inheriting the throne, designated her cousin, Sophia of Hanover, as heiress to the throne. Sophia was Anne's closest living Protestant relative but died a matter of weeks before Anne leaving the Protestant succession to her son, George. In reaction, the Jacobites attempted to depose George and replace him with Anne's Catholic half-brother, James Francis Edward Stuart, but their attempts failed. During George's reign in Britain, the powers of the monarchy diminished and the modern system of Cabinet government led by a Prime Minister underwent development. Towards the end of his reign, actual power was held by Sir Robert Walpole. George died on a trip to his native Hanover, where he was buried. (more...)

June 11: Kamehameha Day in Hawaii

• 1770 – English explorer James Cook ran aground on the Great Barrier Reef (pictured).
• 1892 – The Salvation Army's Limelight Department, one of the world's earliest film studios, was officially established in Melbourne, Australia.
• 1937 – Marshal Mikhail Tukhachevsky and several senior officers of the Red Army were convicted in the Case of Trotskyist Anti-Soviet Military Organization, a secret trial during the Great Purge in the Soviet Union.
• 1963 – Vietnamese Mahayana Buddhist monk Thích Quảng Đức burned himself to death in Saigon to protest the persecution of Buddhists by South Vietnam's Ngô Đình Diệm administration.
• 1963 – The University of Alabama was desegregated as Governor of Alabama George Wallace stepped aside after a stand in the schoolhouse door.

• More events: June 10 – June 11 – June 12

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• The New Horizons spacecraft becomes the fastest ever launched, taking off successfully from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on a nine-year mission to Pluto.
• Alleged fraud prompts heavy sales of livedoor stock, forcing the Tokyo Stock Exchange to close early for the first time.
• Socialist Michelle Bachelet is elected the first female President of Chile.
• Tarja Halonen and Sauli Niinistö take the first round of the Finnish presidential election.

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