Today in history
Today is Monday, June 5, the 156th day of 2017. There are 209 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History
On June 5, 1967, war erupted in the Middle East as Israel, anticipating a possible attack by its Arab neighbors, launched a series of pre-emptive airfield strikes that destroyed nearly the entire Egyptian air force; Syria, Jordan and Iraq immediately entered the conflict. (By the time fighting ended on the sixth day, Israel had captured the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights.)
On this date
In 1794, Congress passed the Neutrality Act, which prohibited Americans from taking part in any military action against a country that was at peace with the United States.
In 1884, Civil War hero Gen. William T. Sherman refused the Republican presidential nomination, saying, “I will not accept if nominated and will not serve if elected.”
In 1917, about 10 million American men between the ages of 21 and 31 began registering for the draft in World War I.
In 1933, the United States went off the gold standard.
In 1947, Secretary of State George C. Marshall gave a speech at Harvard University in which he outlined an aid program for Europe that came to be known as The Marshall Plan.
In 1950, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Henderson v. United States, struck down racially segregated railroad dining cars.
In 1968, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated after claiming victory in California’s Democratic presidential primary; gunman Sirhan Bishara Sirhan was arrested.
In 1976, 14 people were killed when the Teton Dam in Idaho burst.
In 1986, a federal jury in Baltimore convicted Ronald W. Pelton of selling secrets to the Soviet Union. (Pelton was sentenced to three life prison terms plus ten years.)
In 1997, former CIA officer Harold J. Nicholson was sentenced to 23 ½ years in prison for selling defense secrets to Russia after the Cold War.
In 2002, 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart was abducted from her Salt Lake City home. (Smart was found alive by police in a Salt Lake suburb in March 2003; her kidnappers, Brian David Mitchell and Wanda Barzee, are serving prison sentences.)
In 2004, Ronald Wilson Reagan, the 40th president of the United States, died in Los Angeles at age 93 after a long struggle with Alzheimer’s disease.
Ten years ago: Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, was sentenced to 2½ years in prison for lying and obstructing an investigation into the exposure of CIA operative Valerie Plame. (President George W. Bush later commuted the sentence.) A fourth suspect in an alleged plot to destroy New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport surrendered to police in Trinidad.
Five years ago: Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker beat back a recall challenge, winning both the right to finish his term and a voter endorsement of his strategy to curb state spending. Jury selection began in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, in the trial of Jerry Sandusky, the former Penn State assistant football coach charged with child sexual abuse. (Sandusky was later convicted of 45 counts and sentenced to 30 to 60 years in prison.) Science-fiction author Ray Bradbury, 91, died in Los Angeles.