TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is Thursday, June 18, the 170th day of 2020. There are 196 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
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:
■ In 1812, the War of 1812 began as the United States Congress approved, and President James Madison signed, a declaration of war against Britain.
■ In 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte met defeat at Waterloo as British and Prussian troops defeated the French in Belgium.
■ In 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.
■ In 1945, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower received a tumultuous welcome in Washington D.C., where he addressed a joint session of Congress.
■ In 1953, a U.S. Air Force Douglas C-124 Globemaster II crashed near Tokyo, killing all 129 people on board. Egypt’s 148-year-old Muhammad Ali Dynasty came to an end with the overthrow of the monarchy and the proclamation of a republic.
■ In 1971, Southwest Airlines began operations, with flights between Dallas and San Antonio, and Dallas and Houston.
■ In 1979, President Jimmy Carter and Soviet President Leonid I. Brezhnev signed the SALT II strategic arms limitation treaty in Vienna.
■ In 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.
■ In 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.)
■ In 2007, nine firefighters died in a fire at a furniture store and warehouse in Charleston, South Carolina.
■ In 2018, President Donald Trump announced that he was directing the Pentagon to create the “Space Force” as an independent service branch. Troubled rapper-singer XXXTentacion (ex ex ex tenta-see-YAWN’) was shot and killed in Florida in what police called an apparent robbery attempt.
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.)
Five years ago: In dueling decisions about free speech, the Supreme Court upheld Texas’ refusal to issue a license plate bearing the Confederate battle flag and struck down an Arizona town’s restrictions on temporary signs put up by a small church. Texas death row inmate Gregory Russeau was executed for the 2001 slaying of James Syvertson, a 75-yearold East Texas auto repair shop owner, during a crack cocaine binge.
Thought for Today: “Most of the successful people I’ve known are the ones who do more listening than talking.” — Bernard M. Baruch, American businessman and statesman (1870-1965).