This Week in History · 15 Jun 2026 · 7 min

Magna Carta, Juneteenth & the Birth of the Blockbuster | Jun 15–21

This week in history spans eight centuries of turning points: the sealing of the Magna Carta, the birth of Juneteenth, Valentina Tereshkova in space, the Battle of Waterloo, and the summer Jaws changed Hollywood forever. Ten events, ten stories, one extraordinary week.

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Magna Carta, Juneteenth & the Birth of the Blockbuster | Jun 15–21

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On July eighth, fourteen ninety-seven, in Lisbon, Portugal, a fleet of four ships and roughly one hundred seventy men slipped out of the harbor under the command of Vasco da Gama, bound for a destination no European vessel had ever reached by sea. Da Gama's mission was to find a direct ocean route to India, bypassing the overland spice trade that had made middlemen rich for centuries.

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