On June 13th:

1777-The 19-year old French nobleman, the Marquis de Lafayette, arrives in South Carolina to aid the colonist's cause in the American Revolution.  Lafayette, who volunteers to fight in the patriot cause without pay, fights alongside American troops and suffers with them through the long winter at Valley Forge.

On June 14th:

1775-The Second Continental Congress, meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, gives birth to the United States Army when it authorizes the formation of the Continental Army.  Happy Birthday U.S. Army!

On June 15th:

1775-One day after authorizing the formation of the Continental Army, the Second Continental Congress gives command of the armed forces to George Washington.

On June 16th:

1922-Mr. Harry Berliner succesfully makes one of the world's first helicopter flights, achieving a height of seven feet, at College Park, Maryland.

On June 17th:

1775-Patriot and British troops fight the Battle of Bunker Hill, the first major battle of the American Revolution, near Boston, Massachusetts.  It is during this battle that either Israel Putnam or Colonel William Prescott (although one or the other is usually given the credit, no one knows for certain who actually issued the order) uttered the famous words in the face of the British advance, "Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes!"  The Americans eventually had to withdraw from the battlefield when they ran out of ammunition but they had inflicted a great sting on the opposing British Army-approximately half of the British force of about two thousand men were casualties.

On June 18th:

1812-The United States declares war against Great Britain in the War of 1812.

On June 19th:

1778-General George Washington's army departs from its winter encampment at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.