TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS WEDNESDAY, JUNE 14, the 165th day of 2017. There are 200 days left in the year. This is Flag Day.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 1777, the Second Continental Congress approved the design of the original American flag, declaring: “Resolved, that the Flag of the thirteen United States shall be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the Union be thirteen stars, white on a blue field, representing a new constellation.”
In 1775, the Continental Army, forerunner of the United States Army, was created.
In 1801, former American Revolutionary War general and notorious turncoat Benedict Arnold died in London.
In 1922, Warren G. Harding became the first president heard on radio, as Baltimore station WEAR broadcast his speech dedicating the Francis Scott Key memorial at Fort McHenry.
In 1940, German troops entered Paris during World War II; the same day, the Nazis began transporting prisoners to the Auschwitz concentration camp in German-occupied Poland.
In 1943, the U.S. Supreme Court, in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, ruled 6-3 that children in public schools could not be forced to salute the flag of the United States.
In 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a measure adding the phrase “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance.
In 1967, the space probe Mariner 5 was launched from Cape Kennedy on a flight that took it past Venus. California Gov. In 1972, the Environmental Protection Agency ordered a ban on domestic use of the pesticide DDT, to take effect at year’s end.
In 1985, the 17-day hijack ordeal of TWA Flight 847 began as a pair of Lebanese Shiite Muslim extremists seized the jetliner shortly after takeoff from Athens, Greece.
In 1992, Mona Van Duyn became the first woman named the nation’s Poet Laureate by the Library of Congress.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Actor Jack Bannon is 77. President Donald Trump is 71. Rock musician Alan White (Yes) is 68. Singer Boy George is 56. Actress Yasmine Bleeth is 49. International Tennis Hall-of-Famer Steffi Graf is 48.