HISTORY AT A GLANCE
TODAY is Wednesday, June 7, the 158th day of 2017. There are 207 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date: 1942 – World War II: The Battle of Midway ends in American
victory. 1942 – World War II: Aleutian Islands Campaign: Imperial Japanese soldiers begin occupying the American islands of Attu and Kiska, in the Aleutian Islands off Alaska. 1944 – World War II: Battle of Normandy: At Ardenne Abbey, members of the SS Division Hitlerjugend massacre 23 Canadian prisoners of war. 1948 – Edvard Beneš resigns as President of Czechoslovakia rather than signing the Ninth-of-May Constitution, making his nation a Communist state. 1967 – Six-Day War: Israeli soldiers enter Jerusalem. 1971 – The United States Supreme Court overturns the conviction of Paul Cohen for disturbing the peace, setting the precedent that vulgar writing is protected under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. 1975 – The inaugural Cricket World Cup begins in England. 1977 – Five hundred million people watch the high day of the
Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II begin on television. 1981 – The Israeli Air Force destroys Iraq’s Osiraq nuclear
reactor during Operation Opera. 1982 – Priscilla Presley opens Graceland to the public; the bathroom where Elvis Presley died five years earlier is kept off-limits. 1989 – Surinam Airways Flight 764 crashes on approach to Paramaribo-Zanderij International Airport in Suriname because of pilot error, killing 176 of 187 aboard. 1990 – Universal Studios Florida opens in Orlando, Florida. 1991 – Mount Pinatubo erupts, generating an ash column 7
kilometres (4.3 mi) high. 1995 – The long-range Boeing 777 enters service with United
Airlines. 2000 – The United Nations defines the Blue Line as the
border between Israel and Lebanon. 2013 – A bus catches fire in the Chinese city of Xiamen, killing
at least 47 people and injuring more than 34 others. 2013 – A gunman opens fire at Santa Monica College in Santa Monica, California, after setting a house on fire nearby, killing six people, including the suspect. 2014 – At least 37 people are killed in an attack in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s South Kivu province.