DAY IN HISTORY

SATURDAY, JUNE 11, 2022

Today is the 162nd day of 2022 and the 84th day of spring.

TODAY’S HISTORY: In 1770, Captain James Cook discovered the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Australia by accidentally running aground on a shoal.

In 1776, the Continental Congress appointed the Committee of Five -John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman and Robert Livingston -- to begin

drafting the Declaration of Independence.

In 1963, Alabama Gov. George Wallace, confronted by National Guard troops, allowed the University of Alabama to be desegregated.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS:

Richard Strauss (18641949), composer/conductor; Jacques Cousteau (1910-1997), explorer/ inventor/writer; Vince Lombardi (1913-1970), football coach; William Styron (1925-2006), author; Gene Wilder (19332016), actor; Joe Montana (1956- ), football player; Hugh Laurie (1959- ), actor; Peter Dinklage (1969), actor; Joshua Jackson (1978- ), actor; Diana Taurasi (1982- ), basketball player; Shia Labeouf (1986- ), actor.

TODAY’S FACT: In 2002, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution stating that Italian inventor Antonio Meucci, who demonstrated his “telettrofono” device in New York in 1860, should be acknowledged for his work in the invention of the telephone.

TODAY’S SPORTS: In 1919, Sir Barton won the Belmont Stakes, becoming the first horse to win horse racing’s Triple Crown.

TODAY’S QUOTE: “The happiness of the bee and the dolphin is to exist. For man it is to know that and to wonder at it.” -- Jacques Cousteau

TODAY’S NUMBER: 133,000 -- square mileage of the Great Barrier Reef, the world’s largest coral reef system, made up of more than 2,500 individual reefs and 900 islands.

TODAY’S MOON: Between first quarter moon (June 7) and full moon (June 14).