TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT 1776

Richard Henry Lee of Virginia offered a resolution to the Continental Congress stating “That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States.”

1654

King Louis XIV, age 15, was crowned in Rheims, 11 years after the start of his reign.

1712

Pennsylvania’s colonial assembly voted to ban the further importation of slaves.

1892

Homer Plessy, a “Creole of color,” was arrested for refusing to leave a whitesonly car of the East Louisiana Railroad.

1942

The Battle of Midway ended in a decisive victory for American naval forces over Imperial Japan, marking a turning point in the Pacific War.

1954

British mathematician, computer pioneer and code breaker Alan Turing died at age 41, an apparent suicide. (Turing, convicted in 1952 of “gross indecency” for a homosexual relationship, was pardoned in 2013.

1965

The U.S. Supreme Court, in Griswold v. Connecticut, struck down, 7-2, a Connecticut law used to prosecute a Planned Parenthood clinic in New Haven for providing contraceptives to married couples.

1977

Britons thronged London to celebrate the silver jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, who was marking the 25th year of her reign.

1981

Israeli military planes destroyed a nuclear power plant in Iraq, a facility the Israelis charged could have been used to make nuclear weapons.

Today’s Birthdays

Former talk show host Jenny Jones is 74. Actor Liam Neeson is 68. Actor William Forsythe is 65. Record producer L.A. Reid is 64. Vice President Mike Pence is 61. Rock musician Dave Navarro is 53. TV personality Bear Grylls is 46. Actor-comedian Bill Hader is 42. Actress Larisa Oleynik is 39. Former tennis player Anna Kournikova is 39. Actor Michael Cera is 32. Rapper Iggy Azalea is 30. Actress-model Emily Ratajkowski is 29.