TODAY IN HISTORY

Today is Saturday, June 16, the 167th day of 2018. There are 198 days left in the year. Today’s Highlight in History:

On June 16, 1963, the world’s first female space traveler, Valentina Tereshkova (tehruhsh-KOH’-vuh), 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. On this date:

In 1567, Mary, Queen of Scots, was imprisoned in Lochleven Castle in Scotland. (She escaped almost a year later but ended up imprisoned again.)

In 1779, the nearly fouryear Great Siege of Gibraltar began as Spain declared war on Britain.

In 1858, accepting the Illinois Republican Party’s nomination for the U.S. Senate, Abraham Lincoln said the slavery issue had to be resolved, declaring, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”

In 1944, George Stinney, a 14-year-old black youth, was electrocuted by the state of South Carolina for the murders of two white girls, Betty June Binnicker, 11, and Mary Emma Thames, 7.

In 1978, President Jimmy Carter and Panamanian leader Omar Torrijos (toh-REE’-ohs) signed the instruments of ratification for the Panama Canal treaties during a ceremony in Panama City.

In 2015, real estate mogul Donald Trump launched his successful campaign to become President of the United States with a speech at Trump Tower in Manhattan.

Thought for Today: “We seldom stop to think how many people’s lives are entwined with our own. It is a form of selfishness to imagine that every individual can operate on his own or can pull out of the general stream and not be missed.”—Ivy Baker Priest, former U.S. Treasurer (1905-1975).