June 19 in Military History

The famous Confederate commerce raider CSS Alabama is sunk in a ship-to-ship duel off Cherbourg, France, by the USS Kearsarge, ending the most successful raiding cruise of the Civil War.

USS Kearsarge under Captain John Winslow engages and sinks the Confederate commerce raider CSS Alabama off Cherbourg, France, ending the career of the most successful commerce raider of the Civil War.

Union Major General Gordon Granger arrives in Galveston, Texas, and reads General Order No. 3 announcing the emancipation of all enslaved people, two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation.

Major General Gordon Granger arrives at Galveston, Texas with 2,000 Union troops and issues General Order No. 3, informing enslaved people in the last Confederate state of their freedom, two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation.

New Zealand Expeditionary Force completes the occupation of German Samoa, one of the earliest Allied territorial conquests of World War I in the Pacific theater.

President Roosevelt signs the Communications Act of 1934, creating the Federal Communications Commission to regulate radio, critical to military communications development.

The U.S. Navy destroys Japanese naval aviation in the "Great Marianas Turkey Shoot," sinking three carriers and shooting down over 600 aircraft to secure air supremacy in the Pacific.

U.S. Navy F6F Hellcat fighters from Task Force 58 destroy over 300 Japanese carrier aircraft in a single day during the first phase of the Battle of the Philippine Sea, gutting the Imperial Japanese Navy's air arm.

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are executed at Sing Sing Prison for conspiracy to commit espionage, having been convicted of passing nuclear weapon secrets to the Soviet Union.

The Rosenbergs are executed at Sing Sing prison for passing atomic bomb design information to the Soviet Union, the only American civilians executed for espionage during the Cold War.