Today in history—June 8

1042: The last Danish king of England, Harthacanute, falls to the floor in a fit while drinking and dies at Lambeth, leaving the throne to his half-brother, Edward the Confessor.

1637: René Descartes “ushers in the scientific revolution” with his Discourse on Method of Rightly Conducting the Reason, and Seeking Truth in the Sciences.

1809: Revolutionary writer Thomas Paine dies at Greenwich Village in New York City. Only six mourners come to the funeral, and the New York Citizen’s obituary sums him up by saying, “He had lived long, did some good and much harm.”

1845: Former President Andrew Jackson dies at his home near Nashville, Tennessee. Jackson’s pet parrot will have to be taken away from the funeral when it won’t stop swearing.

1867: Frank Lloyd Wright, the architect who popularized the idea that buildings should be built to please the architect, not the owner, is born at Richland Center, Wisconsin.

1912: In New York City, the owners of the Independent Motion Picture Co., Powers Picture Co., Champion Films, and American Eclair, sign a contract to merge their studios into what will become the Universal Motion Picture Manufacturing Co.

1917: Future U.S. Supreme Court Justice Byron Raymond White is born at Fort Collins, Colorado.

1947: Red Heart Dog Food introduces a new 15-minute radio program called Lassie.

1948: Texaco Star Theater debuts on NBC. Former child actor Milton Berle—who got his acting start playing Buster Brown in shoe ads—soon becomes one of TV’s biggest stars.

1949: George Orwell’s new book hits the streets. He’d wanted to call it The Last Man in Europe, but the publishers, Secker & Warburg, change it to Nineteen Eighty-Four.

1969: CBS cancels the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. The brothers move to ABC the next year for The Smothers Brothers Summer Show, but no one watches because it’s up against Hawaii Five-O.