June 7

Scholars and communal leaders met at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York to found the American Jewish Historical Society, the oldest U.S. ethnic historical society.

The forces of the First Crusade reached the walls of Jerusalem and began the five-week siege that ended the campaign.

After a select-committee report, the British House of Commons debated and voted 82 to 30 to purchase Lord Elgin's Parthenon sculptures for the British Museum.

The English writer and Egyptologist Amelia Edwards, co-founder of the Egypt Exploration Fund and endower of the first UK chair of Egyptology, was born in London.

The Danish-American Assyriologist Thorkild Jacobsen, a leading interpreter of Sumerian literature and religion, was born on this day in 1904 in Copenhagen.

The Austrian-American Assyriologist Adolf Leo Oppenheim, author of 'Ancient Mesopotamia' and an Assyrian Dictionary editor, was born on this day in 1904 in Vienna.

Ratification of the Lateran Treaty took effect, establishing the independent state of Vatican City under the sovereignty of the Holy See.

Hsuan Hua, who brought Chinese Chan Buddhism to America and founded the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, died in California.