DAILY ALMANAC
Today is Friday, June 17, the 168th day of 2022. There are 197 days left in the year.
On this date in:
1775: The Revolutionary War Battle of Bunker Hill resulted in a costly victory for the British, who suffered heavy losses.
1885: The Statue of Liberty arrived in New York Harbor aboard the French ship Isere.
1930: President Herbert Hoover signed the Smoot-hawley Tariff Act, which boosted U.S. tariffs to historically high levels, prompting foreign retaliation.
1963: The U.S. Supreme Court, in Abington (Pa.) School District v. Schempp, struck down, 8-1, rules requiring the recitation of the Lord’s Prayer or reading of biblical verses in public schools.
1967: China successfully tested its first thermonuclear (hydrogen) bomb.
1972: President Richard Nixon’s eventual downfall began with the arrest of five burglars inside the Democratic headquarters in Washington, D.C.’S, Watergate complex.
1994: After leading police on a slowspeed chase on Southern California freeways, O.J. Simpson was arrested and charged with murder in the slayings of his ex-wife, Nicole, and her friend Ronald Goldman. (Simpson was later acquitted in a criminal trial but held liable in a civil trial.)
2009: President Barack Obama extended some benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees. Nevada Sen. John Ensign resigned from the GOP leadership a day after admitting an affair with a former campaign staffer.
2013: The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 7-2 that states can’t demand proof of citizenship from people registering to vote in federal elections unless they get federal or court approval to do so.
2015: Nine people were shot to death in a historic African-american church in Charleston, South Carolina; suspect Dylann Roof was arrested the following morning. (Roof was convicted of federal hate crimes and sentenced to death; he later pleaded guilty to state murder charges and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.)
2019: Iran announced that it was breaking compliance with the international accord that kept it from making nuclear weapons; the announcement meant that Iran could soon start to enrich uranium to just a step away from weapons-grade levels. The Trump administration followed Iran’s announcement by ordering 1,000 more troops to the Middle East.
Singer Barry Manilow is 79. Comedian Joe Piscopo is 71. Director Bobby Farrelly (“There’s Something About Mary”) is 64. Actor Thomas Haden Church (“Sideways,” “Wings,” “Ned and Stacy”) is 62. Actor Greg Kinnear is 59. Actor Kami Cotler (“The Waltons”) is 57. Actor Jason Patric is 56. Singer Kevin Thornton of Color Me Badd is 53. Actor-comedian Will Forte (“Saturday Night Live”) is 52. Actor Arthur Darvill (“DC’S Legends of Tomorrow”) is 40. Actor Jodie Whittaker (“Doctor Who”) is 40. Actor Manish Dayal (“The Resident”) is 39. Country singer Mickey Guyton is 39. Actor-rapper Herculeez of Herculeez and Big Tyme is 39. Rapper Kendrick Lamar is 35. Actor KJ Apa (“Riverdale”) is 25.