history at a glance

TODAY is Sunday June 11 the 162nd day of the year. There are 203 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:

1942 – Free French Forces retreat from Bir Hakeim after having successfully delayed the Axis

advance. 1944 – USS Missouri, the last battleship built by the United States Navy and future site of the

signing of the Japanese Instrument of Surrender, is commissioned. 1955 – Eighty-three spectators are killed and at least 100 are injured after an Austin-Healey and a Mercedes-Benz collide at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the deadliest ever accident in motorsports. 1956 – Start of Gal Oya riots, the first reported ethnic riots that target minority Sri Lankan

Tamils in the Eastern Province. The total number of deaths is reportedly 150. 1962 – Frank Morris, John Anglin and Clarence Anglin allegedly become the only prisoners to

escape from the prison on Alcatraz Island. 1963 – American Civil Rights Movement: Governor of Alabama George Wallace defiantly stands at the door of Foster Auditorium at the University of Alabama in an attempt to block two black students, Vivian Malone and James Hood, from attending that school. Later in the day, accompanied by federalized National Guard troops, they are able to register. 1963 – Buddhist monk Thích Quang Ðuc burns himself with gasoline in a busy Saigon

intersection to protest the lack of religious freedom in South Vietnam. 1963 – John F. Kennedy addresses Americans from the Oval Office proposing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that would revolutionize American society. Proposing equal access to public facilities, end segregation in education and guarantee federal protection for voting rights. 1968 – Lloyd J. Old identified the first cell surface antigens distinguishing cells of different lineages, introducing the concept of cell surface antigens that could differentiate different cell types. 1971 – The US Government forcibly removes the last holdouts to the Native American

Occupation of Alcatraz, ending 19 months of control. 1982 – The Sentosa Musical Fountain was officially opened as part of the second phase of

construction on the island of Sentosa, Singapore. 1987 – Diane Abbott, Paul Boateng and Bernie Grant are elected as the first black

Parliamentarians in Great Britain. 1993 – The film Jurassic Park is released in the United States, becoming the highest-grossing

film of all time until the release of Titanic in 1997. 1998 – Compaq Computer pays US$9 billion for Digital Equipment Corporation in the largest

high-tech acquisition. 2001 – Timothy McVeigh is executed for his role in the Oklahoma City bombing. 2002 – Antonio Meucci is acknowledged as the first inventor of the telephone by the United

States Congress. 2004 – Cassini–Huygens makes its closest flyby of the Saturn moon Phoebe. 2007 – Mudslides in Chittagong, Bangladesh, kill 130 people. 2008 – Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper makes a historic official apology to Canada’s First Nations in regard to a residential school abuse in which children are isolated from their homes, families and cultures for a century. 2008 – The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope is launched into orbit. 2012 – More than 80 people die in a landslide triggered by two earthquakes in Afghanistan;

an entire village is buried. 2013 – Shenzhou 10, China’s fifth manned spaceflight mission and the second and final one to

the Tiangong-1 space laboratory, is launched with 3 taikonauts on a 15-day mission.