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Thursday, June 25, 2020

Today is Thursday, June 25, the 177th day of 2020. There are 189 days left in the year. Today’s Highlight in History:

On June 25, 1876, Lt. Col. Colonel George A. Custer and his 7th Cavalry were wiped out by Sioux and Cheyenne Indians in the Battle of the Little Bighorn in Montana. On this date:

In 1788, Virginia ratified the U.S. Constitution.

In 1867, barbed wire was patented by Lucien B. Smith of Kent, Ohio.

In 1910, President William Howard Taft signed the White-slave Traffic Act, more popularly known as the Mann Act, which made it illegal to transport women across state lines for “immoral” purposes.

In 1942, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower was designated Commanding General of the European Theater of Operations during World War II. Some 1,000 British Royal Air Force bombers raided Bremen, Germany.

In 1947, “The Diary of a Young Girl,” the personal journal of Anne Frank, a German-born Jewish girl hiding with her family from the Nazis in Amsterdam during World War II, was first published.

In 1950, war broke out in Korea as forces from the communist North invaded the South.

In 1962, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that recitation of a state-sponsored prayer in New York State public schools was unconstitutional.

In 1973, former White House Counsel John W. Dean began testifying before the Senate Watergate Committee, implicating top administration officials, including President Richard Nixon as well as himself, in the Watergate scandal and cover-up.

In 1990, the U.S. Supreme Court, in its first “right-to-die” decision, ruled that family members could be barred from ending the lives of persistently comatose relatives who had not made their wishes known conclusively.

In 1996, a truck bomb killed 19 Americans and injured hundreds at a U.S. military housing complex in Saudi Arabia.

In 2003, the Recording Industry Association of America threatened to sue hundreds of individual computer users who were illegally sharing music files online.

In 2009, death claimed Michael Jackson, the “King of Pop,” in Los Angeles at age 50 and actress Farrah Fawcett in Santa Monica, California, at age 62. Ten years ago: Group of Eight leaders, including President Barack Obama, began meeting in Huntsville, Ontario, Canada. BP said its effort to drill a relief well through 2 1⁄2 miles of rock to stop the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico was on target for completion by mid-august. Edwin Jackson threw the fourth no-hitter of the season, leading the Arizona Diamondbacks to a 1-0 victory over his former team, the Tampa Bay Rays. Five years ago: The U.S. Supreme Court upheld nationwide tax subsidies under President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul in a 6-3 ruling that preserved health insurance for millions of Americans. Univision’s Unimas network announced it was dropping its Spanish-language coverage of the Miss USA pageant in a spiraling controversy over comments made by Republican presidential candidate

Donald Trump, a part owner of the Miss Universe pageant, about Mexican immigrants. Actor Patrick Macnee, 93, died in Rancho Mirage, California.

One year ago: Stephanie Grisham, longtime spokeswoman and confidante to Melania Trump, was named to succeed Sarah Sanders as White House press secretary. (She would hold the job for nine months without conducting a formal briefing for reporters.) San Francisco became the first major U.S. city to ban the sale of electronic cigarettes. On the 10th anniversary of the death of Michael Jackson, hundreds of his fans gathered at his grave in Glendale, California for a daylong celebration of his life and music.

Today’s Birthdays: Actress June Lockhart is 95. Civil rights activist James Meredith is 87. Rhythm and blues singer Eddie Floyd is 83. Actress Barbara Montgomery is 81. Actress Mary Beth Peil (peel) is 80. Basketball Hall of Famer Willis Reed is 78. Singer Carly Simon is 75. Rock musician Ian Mcdonald (Foreigner; King Crimson) is 74. Actor-comedian Jimmie Walker is 73. Actor-director Michael Lembeck is 72. Rock singer Tim Finn is 68. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor is 66. Rock musician David Paich (Toto) is 66. Actor Michael Sabatino is 65. Actorwriter-director Ricky Gervais (JERVAYZ’) is 59. Actor John Benjamin Hickey is 57. Actress Erica Gimpel is 56. Basketball Hall of Famer Dikembe Mutombo (dih-kehm’-bay moo-tahm’-boh) is 54. Rapperproducer Richie Rich is 53. Contemporary Christian musician Sean Kelly (formerly with Sixpence None the Richer) is 49. Actress Angela Kinsey is 49. Rock musician Mike Kroeger (KROO’-GUR) (Nickelback) is 48. Rock musician Mario Calire is 46. Actress Linda Cardellini is 45. Actress Busy Philipps is 41. Jazz musician Joey Alexander is 17.

Friday, June 26, 2020 Today is Friday, June 26, the 178th day of 2020. There are 188 days left in the year. Today’s Highlight in History:

On June 26, 1948, the Berlin Airlift began in earnest after the Soviet Union cut off land and water routes to the isolated western sector of Berlin. On this date:

In 1870, the first section of Atlantic City, New Jersey’s Boardwalk was opened to the public.

In 1911, John J. Mcdermott became the first American-born golf player to win the U.S. Open, played in Chicago. In 1917, the first troops of the American Expeditionary Force deployed to France during World War I landed in St. Nazaire.

In 1936, President Franklin D. Roosevelt was nominated for a second term of office by delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.

In 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).

In 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson announced his choice of Abe Fortas to succeed the retiring Earl Warren as chief justice of the United States (however, Fortas later withdrew in the face of stiff Senate opposition).

In 1974, the supermarket price scanner made its debut in Troy, Ohio, as a 10-pack of Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit chewing gum costing 67 cents and bearing a Uniform Product Code (UPC) was scanned by a Marsh Supermarket cashier.

In 1977, 42 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.

In 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.

In 1996, the Supreme Court ordered the Virginia Military Institute to admit women or forgo state support. In 1997, the first Harry Potter novel, “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” by J.K. Rowling (ROHL’-ING), was published in the United Kingdom (it was later released in the United States under the title “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone”).

In 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.

Ten years ago: At odds over how to strengthen the global economic recovery, Group of Eight leaders meeting in Canada did find common ground on foreign policy, condemning North Korea for the alleged sinking of a South Korean warship and endorsing a five-year exit timetable for Afghanistan. Ghana sent the U.S. packing from the World Cup in South Africa, eliminating the Americans in the second round.

Five years ago: President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and their wives visited Charleston, South Carolina, where nine Black churchgoers had been shot to death; Obama eulogized one of the victims, the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, who was the pastor of the church and also a state senator. Richard Matt, one of two convicted murderers who’d escaped from the Clinton Correctional Facility in upstate New York, was shot and killed by authorities in a wooded area 30 miles from the prison; David Sweat remained at large (he was arrested two days later). A gunman killed 38 tourists on a beach in Sousse (soos), Tunisia, in an attack later claimed by the Islamic State group. Former Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov, 85, died in Moscow. One year ago: Meeting for the first time on the debate stage in the 2020 presidential campaign, ten Democrats railed against an economy and an administration that they argued exist only for the rich, as they embraced income inequality as a defining theme in their fight to deny Donald Trump a second term in office. (Ten other Democrats would meet in a separate debate a day later.)

Today’s Birthdays: Jazz musicianfilm composer Dave Grusin is 86. Actor Josef Sommer is 86. Singer Billy Davis Jr. is 82. Rock singer Georgie Fame is 77. Actor Clive Francis is 74. Rhythm and blues singer Brenda Holloway is 74. Actor Michael Paul Chan is 70. Actor Robert Davi is 69. Singer-musician Mick Jones is 65. Actor Gedde Watanabe (Geh’-dee wah-tah-nah’-bee) is 65. Rock singer Chris Isaak is 64. Rock singer

Patty Smyth is 63. Singer Terri Nunn (Berlin) is 61. U.S. Bicycling Hall of Famer Greg Lemond is 59. Rock singer Harriet Wheeler (The Sundays) is 57. Country musician Eddie Perez (The Mavericks) is 52. Rock musician Colin Greenwood (Radiohead) is 51. Writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson is 50. Actor Sean Hayes is 50. Actor Matt Letscher is 50. Actor Chris O’donnell is 50. Actor Nick Offerman is 50. Actress Rebecca Budig is 47. Retired MLB All-star Derek Jeter is 46. Contemporary Christian musician Jeff Frankenstein (Newsboys) is 46. Country singer Gretchen Wilson is 46. Rock musician Nathan Followill (Kings of Leon) is 41. Poprock singer-musician Ryan Tedder (Onerepublic) is 41. Actor-musician Jason Schwartzman is 40. Actress Aubrey Plaza is 36. Actress-singer Jennette Mccurdy is 28. Actresssinger Ariana Grande is 27.

Saturday, June 27, 2020

Today is Saturday, June 27, the 179th day of 2020. There are 187 days left in the year. Today’s Highlight in History:

On June 27, 1991, Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, the first Black jurist to sit on the nation’s highest court, announced his retirement. (His departure led to the contentious nomination of Clarence Thomas to succeed him.) On this date:

In 1844, Mormon leader Joseph Smith and his brother, Hyrum, were killed by a mob in Carthage, Illinois. In 1846, New York and Boston were linked by telegraph wires.

In 1880, author-lecturer Helen Keller, who lived most of her life without sight or hearing, was born in Tuscumbia, Alabama.

In 1942, the FBI announced the arrests of eight Nazi saboteurs put ashore in Florida and Long Island, New York. (All were tried and sentenced to death; six were executed while two were spared for turning themselves in and cooperating with U.S. authorities.)

In 1944, during World War II, American forces liberated the French port of Cherbourg (Shehr’-boorg) from the Germans.

In 1950, the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution calling on member nations to help South Korea repel an invasion from the North.

In 1957, Hurricane Audrey slammed into coastal Louisiana and Texas as a Category 4 storm; the official death toll from the storm was placed at 390, although a variety of state, federal and local sources have estimated the number of fatalities at between 400 and 600.

In 1974, President Richard Nixon opened an official visit to the Soviet Union.

In 1988, at least 56 people were killed when a commuter train ran into a stationary train at the Gare de Lyon terminal in Paris. In 1988, Mike Tyson retained the undisputed heavyweight crown as he knocked out Michael Spinks 91 seconds into the first round of a championship fight in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

In 2001, actor Jack Lemmon died in Los Angeles at age 76.

In 2005, the Supreme Court ruled, in a pair of 5-4 decisions, that displaying the Ten Commandments on government property was constitutionally permissible in some cases but not in others. BTK serial killer Dennis Rader pleaded guilty to ten murders that had spread fear across Wichita, Kansas, beginning in the 1970s. (Rader later received multiple life sentences.)

In 2006, a constitutional amendment to ban desecration of the American flag died in a Senate cliffhanger, falling one vote short of the 67 needed to send it to states for ratification.

Ten years ago: Wary of slamming on the stimulus brakes too quickly but shaken by the European debt crisis, world leaders meeting in Canada pledged to reduce government deficits in richer countries in half by 2013, with wiggle room to meet the goal. Pope Benedict XVI lashed out at what he called “deplorable” raids carried out by Belgian police as part of an investigation into priest sex abuse. Cristie Kerr cruised to a 12-stroke victory in the LPGA Championship, closing with a 6-under 66 for a 19-under 269 total.

Five years ago: The Episcopal Church elected its first Africanamerican presiding bishop, choosing Bishop Michael Curry of North Carolina during the denomination’s national assembly in Salt Lake City. Chris Squire, 67, the bassist and cofounder of the progressive rock band Yes, died in Phoenix, Arizona.

One year ago: A debate involving ten Democratic presidential candidates included a heated exchange between former Vice President Joe Biden and California Sen. Kamala Harris, who criticized Biden’s record of working with Democratic segregationist senators on non-race issues; Biden called it a “complete mischaracterization” of his record and said he had run for office “because of civil rights.” The Supreme Court refused to let the Trump administration add a citizenship question to the 2020 census. The high court also ruled that federal courts have no role to play in challenges to the drawing of electoral districts for partisan purposes.