This Day in History

1675 In colonial New England, King Philip’s War begins when a band of Wampanoag warriors raid the border settlement of Swansea, Mass., and massacre the English colonists there. 1717 On June 24, 1717, members of four local Masonic lodges—all part of a secret society of Masons—meet at the Goose and Gridiron alehouse in London’s St. Paul’s Churchyard to create the first Grand Lodge as their collective governing body. Known initially as the Grand Lodge of London and Westminster, it will evolve into today’s United Grand Lodge of England. 1993 On June 24, 1993, Yale University computer science professor David Gelernter is seriously injured w