DAILY ALMANAC
Today is Sunday, June 26, the 177th day of 2022. There are 188 days left in the year.
On this date in:
1917: The first troops of the American Expeditionary Force deployed to France during World War I landed in St. Nazaire.
1925: Charles Chaplin’s classic comedy “The Gold Rush” premiered at Grauman’s Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood.
1945: The charter of the United Nations was signed by 50 countries in San Francisco.
1948: The Berlin Airlift began in earnest after the Soviet Union cut off land and water routes to the isolated western sector of Berlin.
1963: President John F. Kennedy visited West Berlin, where he delivered his famous speech expressing solidarity with the city’s residents, declaring: “Ich bin ein Berliner” (I am a Berliner).
1977: Forty-two people were killed when a fire sent toxic smoke pouring through the Maury County Jail in Columbia, Tennessee. Elvis Presley performed his last concert, at Market Square Arena in Indianapolis.
1990: President George H.W. Bush went back on his “no-new-taxes” campaign pledge, conceding that tax increases would have to be included in any deficit-reduction package worked out with congressional negotiators.
1993: President Bill Clinton announced the U.S. had launched missiles against Iraqi targets because of “compelling evidence” Iraq had plotted to assassinate former President George H.W. Bush.
1996: The Supreme Court ordered the
Virginia Military Institute to admit women or forgo state support.
1997: The first Harry Potter novel, “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” by J.K. Rowling, was published in the United Kingdom (it was later released in the United States under the title “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone”).
2008: The U.S. Supreme Court struck down a handgun ban in the District of Columbia as it affirmed, 5-4, that an individual right to gun ownership existed.
2013: In deciding its first cases on the issue, the U.S. Supreme Court gave the nation’s legally married gay couples equal federal footing with all other married Americans and also cleared the way for same-sex marriages to resume in California.
Singer Billy Davis Jr. of the Fifth Dimension is 84. Musician Mick Jones of The Clash is 67. Actor Gedde Watanabe (“ER,” “Sixteen Candles”) is 67. Singer Chris Isaak is 66. Singer Patty Smyth is 65. Singer Terri Nunn of Berlin is 63. Bassist Colin Greenwood of Radiohead is 53. Actor Sean Hayes (“Will and Grace”) is 52. Actor Chris O’donnell is 52. Actor Nick Offerman is 52. Singer Gretchen Wilson is 48. Drummer Nathan Followill of Kings of Leon is 43. Singer Ryan Tedder of Onerepublic is 43. Actor Jason Schwartzman is 42. Actor Aubrey Plaza (“Parks and Recreation”) is 38. Actor Jennette Mccurdy (“icarly”) is 30. Singer-actor Ariana Grande is 29.