Today in History
Today’s highlight:
On June 18, 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 six-day mission.
On this date:
1812: The War of 1812 began as the United States Congress approved, and President James Madison signed, a declaration of war against Britain.
1815: Napoleon Bonaparte met defeat at Waterloo as
British and Prussian troops defeated the French in Belgium.
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.
1945: Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower received a tumultuous welcome in Washington, D.C., where he addressed a joint session of Congress.
1953: Egypt’s 148-year-old Muhammad Ali Dynasty came to an end with the overthrow of the monarchy and the proclamation of a republic.
1964: President Lyndon B. Johnson and Japanese Prime Minister Hayato Ikeda spoke to each other by telephone as they inaugurated the first trans-pacific cable completed by AT&T between Japan and Hawaii.
1979: President Jimmy Carter and Soviet President Leonid I. Brezhnev signed the SALT II strategic arms limitation treaty in Vienna.
1992: The U.S. Supreme Court, in Georgia v. Mccollum, ruled that criminal defendants could not use race as a basis for excluding potential jurors from their trials.
1996: Richard Allen Davis was convicted in San Jose, California, of the 1993 kidnap-murder of 12-year-old Polly
Klaas of Petaluma. Davis remains on death row.
2007: Nine firefighters died in a fire at a furniture store and warehouse in Charleston, South Carolina.
2018: President Donald Trump announced that he was directing the Pentagon to create the “Space Force” as an independent service branch.
Ten years ago: Death row inmate Ronnie Lee Gardner died in a barrage of bullets as Utah carried out its first firing squad execution in 14 years. Gardner had been sentenced to death for fatally shooting attorney Michael Burdell during a failed escape attempt from a Salt Lake City courthouse.
One year ago: President Donald Trump officially kicked off his reelection campaign at a rally attended by thousands in Orlando, Florida; he told the crowd that he’d been “under assault from the very first day” by a “fake news media” and an “illegal witch hunt.”