TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT June 18, 1940

During World War II, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill urged his countrymen to conduct themselves in a manner that would prompt future generations to say, “This was their finest hour.” Charles de Gaulle delivered a speech on the BBC in which he rallied his countrymen after the fall of France to Nazi Germany.

ALSO ON THIS DATE 1873

Suffragist Susan B. Anthony was found guilty by a judge in Canandaigua, New York, of breaking the law by casting a vote in the 1872 presidential election. (The judge fined Anthony $100, but she never paid the penalty.)

1953

A U.S. Air Force Douglas C-124 Globemaster II crashed near Tokyo, killing all 129 people on board.

1983

Astronaut Sally K. Ride became America’s first woman in space as she and four colleagues blasted off aboard the space shuttle Challenger on a sixday mission.