TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS SUNDAY, JUNE 21, the 173rd day of 2020. There are 193 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 1989, a sharply divided Supreme Court ruled that burning the American flag as a political protest was protected by the First Amendment.
In 1788, the United States Constitution went into effect as New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify it.
In 1954, the American Cancer Society presented a study to the American Medical Association which found that men who regularly smoked cigarettes died at a considerably higher rate than non-smokers.
In 1964, civil rights workers Michael H. Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James E. Chaney were slain in Philadelphia, Mississippi; their bodies were found buried in an earthen dam six weeks later. (Forty-one years later on this date in 2005, Edgar Ray Killen, an 80-year-old former Ku Klux Klansman, was found guilty of manslaughter; he was sentenced to 60 years in prison, where he died in January 2018.)
In 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Miller v. California, ruled that states may ban materials found to be obscene according to local standards.
In 1982, a jury in Washington, D.C., found John Hinckley Jr. not guilty by reason of insanity in the shootings of President Ronald Reagan and three other men.
In 2001, a federal grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia, indicted 13 Saudis and a Lebanese in absentia for the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 American servicemen. Death claimed actor Carroll O’Connor at age 76 and blues musician John Lee Hooker at age 80.
In 2002, one of the worst wildfires in Arizona history grew to 128,000 acres, forcing thousands of homeowners near the community of Show Low to flee.
In 2013, President Barack Obama nominated James Comey, to head the FBI, succeeding Robert Mueller. The Food Network dropped Paula Deen, an hour after the celebrity cook posted a videotaped apology begging forgiveness from fans and critics troubled by her admission to having used racial slurs in the past.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Composer Lalo Schifrin is 88. Actor Bernie Kopell is 87. Rock singer-musician Ray Davies (The Kinks) is 76. Actress Meredith Baxter, actor Michael Gross and rock musician Joe Molland (Badfinger) are 73. Rock musician Don Airey (Deep Purple) is 72. Rock musician Joey Kramer (Aerosmith) is 70. Rock musician Nils Lofgren is 69. Cartoonist Berke Breathed is 63. Actor Josh Pais is 62. Country singer Kathy Mattea is 61. Actress Carrie Preston is
53. Actress Paula Irvine is 52. Rapper/ producer Pete Rock is 50. Country singer Allison Moorer is 48. Actress Juliette Lewis is 47. Actor Chris Pratt is 41. Rock singer Brandon Flowers is
39. Britain’s Prince William, and actors Jussie Smollett and Benjamin Walker are 38. Actor Michael Malarkey is 37. Pop singer Kris Allen (TV: “American Idol”) and pop/rock singer Lana Del Rey are 35. Actor Jascha Washington is 31. Country musician Chandler Baldwin (LANCO) is 28. Pop singer Rebecca Black is 23.