TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is Sunday, June 11, the 162nd day of 2017. There are 203 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History
On June 11, 1947, the government announced the end of sugar rationing for households and “institutional users” (e.g., restaurants and hotels) as of midnight.
On this date
1258 — The Oxford Parliament (also known as the “Mad Parliament”) convened during the reign of King Henry III, who agreed to the creation of a privy council that would advise him and provide oversight, an arrangement which did not last.
1509 — England’s King Henry VIII married his first wife, Catherine of Aragon.
1770 — Capt. James Cook, commander of the British ship Endeavour, “discovered” the Great Barrier Reef off Australia by running onto it.
1919 — Sir Barton won the Belmont Stakes, becoming horse racing’s first Triple Crown winner.
1937 — Eight members of the Soviet Red Army High Command accused of disloyalty were put on trial, convicted and immediately executed as part of Josef Stalin’s Great Purge.
1942 — The United States and the Soviet Union signed a lend-lease agreement to aid the Soviet war effort in World War II.
1959 — The Saunders-Roe Nautical 1, the first operational hovercraft, was publicly demonstrated off the southern coast of England.
1962 — Three prisoners at Alcatraz in San Francisco Bay staged an escape, leaving the island on a makeshift raft; they were never found or heard from again.
1977 — A 20-day hostage drama in the Netherlands ended as Dutch marines stormed a train and a school held by Moluccan extremists; six gunmen and two hostages on the train were killed.
1993 — The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that people who commit “hate crimes” motivated by bigotry may be sentenced to extra punishment; the court also ruled religious groups had a constitutional right to sacrifice animals in worship services.
2001 — Timothy McVeigh, 33, was executed by injection at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, for the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people.
Five years ago
Testimony began in the trial of former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, accusing of sexually abusing 10 boys over 15 years. (Sandusky was later convicted and sentenced to at least 30 years in prison.)
Today’s Birthdays
Singer Joey Dee is 77. Actress Adrienne Barbeau is 72. Rock musician Frank Beard (ZZ Top) is 68. Rock singer Donnie Van Zant is 65. Actor Peter Bergman is 64. Pro Football Hall of Famer Joe Montana is 61. Actor Hugh Laurie is 58. TV personality Mehmet Oz, M.D., is 57. Singer Gioia Bruno (Expose) is 54. Country singer-songwriter Bruce Robison is 51. Actor Peter Dinklage is 48. Country musician Smilin’ Jay McDowell is 48. Actor Lenny Jacobson is 43. Actor Joshua Jackson is 39. Actor Shia LaBeouf is 31.
‘A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him.’
David Brinkley American broadcast journalist (born 1920, died this date in 2003)