TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS FRIDAY, JUNE 16, the 167th day of 2017. There are 198 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY:
On this date in 1967, the three-day Monterey International Pop Music Festival, a major event of the “Summer of Love,” opened in northern California; among the featured acts were Jefferson Airplane, The Who, the Grateful Dead, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Janis Joplin, Otis Redding and Ravi Shankar.
In 1567, Mary, Queen of Scots, was imprisoned in Lochleven Castle in Scotland. (She escaped almost a year later, but ended up imprisoned again.)
In 1858, accepting the Illinois Republican Party’s nomination for the U.S. Senate, Abraham Lincoln said the slavery issue had to be resolved, declaring, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”
In 1903, Ford Motor Co. was incorporated.
In 1933, the National Industrial Recovery Act became law with President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s signature. (The Act was later struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court.) The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was founded as President Roosevelt signed the Banking Act of 1933.
In 1942, a second four-man team of Nazi saboteurs landed in Florida, three days after another group arrived on Long Island, N.Y. (The plot was foiled when two members of the first team agreed to betray their comrades.)
In 1944, George Stinney, a 14-year-old black youth, was electrocuted by the state of South Carolina for the murders of two white girls, Betty June Binnicker, 11, and Mary Emma Thames, 7.
In 1956, poets Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes were married in London.
In 1963, the world’s first female space traveler, Valentina Tereshkova, 26, was launched into orbit by the Soviet Union aboard Vostok 6; she spent 71 hours in flight, circling the Earth 48 times before returning safely.
In 1977, Soviet Communist Party General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev was named president, becoming the first person to hold both posts simultaneously. Business software maker Oracle Corp. had its beginnings as Larry Ellison, Bob Miner and Ed Oates founded Oracle’s precursor, Software Development Laboratories.
In 1987, a jury in New York acquitted Bernhard Goetz of attempted murder in the subway shooting of four youths he said were going to rob him; however, Goetz was convicted of illegal weapons possession. (In 1996, a civil jury ordered Goetz to pay $43 million to one of the persons he had shot.) In 1996, Russian voters went to the polls in their first independent presidential election; the result was a runoff between President Boris Yeltsin (the eventual winner) and Communist challenger Gennady Zyuganov. Sportscaster Mel Allen died in Greenwich, Conn., at age 83. In 2015, real estate mogul Donald Trump launched his successful campaign to become President of the United States with a speech at Trump Tower in Manhattan.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Actress Eileen Atkins (TV: “The Crown”; “Doc Martin”) and actor Bill Cobbs are 83. Author Joyce Carol Oates and country singer Billy “Crash” Craddock are 79. Songwriter Lamont Dozier is 76. Rhythm-and-blues singer Eddie Levert is 75. Actress Joan Van Ark is 74. Actor Geoff Pierson is 68. Rhythmand-blues singer James Smith (The Stylistics) is 67. Boxing Hall-of-Famer Roberto Duran is 66. Pop singer Gino Vannelli is 65. Actress Laurie Metcalf is 62. Actor Arnold Vosloo is 55. Actor Danny Burstein is 53. Model-actress Jenny Shimizu is 50. Actor James Patrick Stuart is 49. Rapper MC Ren is 48. Actor Clifton Collins Jr. and golfer Phil Mickelson are 47. Actor John Cho is 45. Actor Eddie Cibrian is 44. Actor Fred Koehler is 42. Actress China Shavers is 40. Actor Daniel Bruhl and bluegrass musician Caleb Smith (Balsam Range) are 39. Actress Sibel Kekilli is 37. Actress Missy Peregrym is 35. Actress Olivia Hack is 34. Singer Diana DeGarmo (TV: “American Idol”) and pop-rock musician Ian Keaggy (Hot Chelle) are 30.