HISTORY AT AGLANCE

TODAY is Monday, June 12, the 163rd day of 2017. There are 202 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:

1944 – American paratroopers of the 101st Airborne Division secure the town of Carentan.

1954 – Pope Pius XII canonises Dominic Savio, who was 14 years old at the time of his death, as a saint, making him the youngest unmartyred saint in the Roman Catholic Church.

1964 – Anti-apartheid activist and ANC leader Nelson Mandela is sentenced to life in prison for sabotage in South Africa.

1967 – Venera program: Venera 4 is launched (it will become the first space probe to enter another planet’s atmosphere and successfully return data).

1978 – David Berkowitz, the “Son of Sam” killer in New York City, is sentenced to 365 years in prison for six killings.

1987 – The Central African Republic’s former Emperor JeanBédel Bokassa is sentenced to death for crimes he had committed during his 13-year rule.

1987 – Cold War: At the Brandenburg Gate U.S. President Ronald Reagan publicly challenges Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall.

1990 – Russia Day: The parliament of the Russian Federation formally declares its sovereignty.

1991 – Russians elect Boris Yeltsin as the president of the republic.

1991 – 1991 Kokkadichcholai massacre: The Sri Lankan Army massacres 152 minority Tamil civilians in the village of Kokkadichcholai near the eastern province town of Batticaloa.

1993 – An election takes place in Nigeria which and is later annulled by the military Government led by Ibrahim Babangida.

1994 – Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman are murdered outside her home in Los Angeles, California. O.J. Simpson is later acquitted of the killings, but is held liable in wrongful death civil suit.

1994 – The Boeing 777, the world’s largest twinjet, makes its first flight.

1999 – Kosovo War: Operation Joint Guardian begins when a NATO-led United Nations peacekeeping force (KFor) enters the province of Kosovo in Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

2009 – A disputed presidential election in Iran leads to wide ranging protests in Iran and around the world.