TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is Thursday, June 16.
Today’s highlight:
On June 16, 1858, accepting the Illinois Republican Party’s nomination for the U.S. Senate, Abraham Lin- coln said the slavery issue had to be resolved, declar- ing, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”
On this date:
In 1903, Ford Motor Co. was incorporated.
In 1933, the Nation al Industrial Recovery Act became law with President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s sig- nature. (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 1941, National Airport (now Ronald Reagan Wash- ington National Airport) opened for business with a ceremony attended by Pres- ident Franklin D. Roosevelt.
In 1963, the world’s first female space traveler, Valentina Tereshkova, 26, was launched into orbit by the Soviet Union aboard Vostok 6; Tereshkova spent 71 hours in flight, circling the Earth 48 times before returning safely.
In 1970, Kenneth A. Gibson of Newark, New Jersey, became the first Black pol- itician elected mayor of a major Northeast city. Chicago Bears running back Brian Piccolo, 26, died at a New York hospital after battling cancer.
In 1977, Soviet Communist Party General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev was named president, becoming the first person to hold both posts simultaneously.
In 1978, President Jimmy Carter and Panamanian leader Omar Torrijos signed the instruments of ratifica- tion for the Panama Canal treaties during a ceremony in Panama City.
In 1999, Thabo Mbeki took the oath as president of South Africa, succeeding Nelson Mandela.
In 2011, U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., announced his resignation from Congress, bowing to the furor caused by his sexually charged online dalliances with a former porn performer and other women. Osama bin Laden’s longtime second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahri, took control of al-Qaida.
In 2016, President Barack Obama traveled to Orlando, Florida, the scene of a deadly n ightclub shoot i ng that claimed 49 victims; the president embraced grieving families and cheered on Democrats’ push for new gun control measures.
In 2020, federal authorities announced murder and attempted murder charges against an Air Force sergeant, Steven Carrillo, in the fatal shooting of a federal security officer outside a U.S. courthouse in Oakland, California. (Carrillo, who had ties to the far-right, anti-government “boogaloo” movement, pleaded guilty to a federal murder charge after prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty.) A statue of Christopher Columbus that stood in a St. Louis park for 134 years was removed; park officials said it had symbolized a “historical disregard for indigenous peoples.”
Five ye a rs ago: A St. Anthony, Minnesota, police officer was acquitted of manslaughter in the fatal shooting of Philando Castile, a Black motorist who had just informed the officer that he was carrying a gun.
One year ago: After a three-hour summit in Geneva, President Joe Biden and Russia’s Vladimir Putin emerged largely where they started, with deep differences on human rights, cyberattacks, election interference and more.