Today in history
Today is Tuesday, June 6, the 157th day of 2017. There are 208 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History
On June 6, 1944, during World War II, Allied forces stormed the beaches of Normandy, France, on “DDay” as they began the liberation of German-occupied Western Europe.
On this date
In 1523, Gustav Vasa became Sweden’s new king, Gustav I.
In 1654, Queen Christina of Sweden abdicated; she was succeeded by her cousin, Charles X Gustav.
In 1799, American politician and orator Patrick Henry died at Red Hill Plantation in Virginia.
In 1809, Sweden adopted a new constitution.
In 1844, the Young Men’s Christian Association was founded in London.
In 1925, Walter Percy Chrysler founded the Chrysler Corp.
In 1933, the first drive-in movie theater was opened by Richard Hollingshead in Camden County, New Jersey. (The movie shown was “Wives Beware,” starring Adolphe Menjou.)
In 1966, black activist James Meredith was shot and wounded as he walked along a Mississippi highway to encourage black voter registration.
In 1968, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy died at Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles, a day after he was shot by Sirhan Bishara Sirhan.
In 1977, a sharply divided U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Louisiana law imposing an automatic death sentence on defendants convicted of the first-degree murder of a police officer.
In 1982, Israeli forces invaded Lebanon to drive Palestine Liberation Organization fighters out of the country. (The Israelis withdrew in June 1985.)
In 1994, President Bill Clinton joined leaders from America’s World War II allies to mark the 50th anniversary of the D-Day invasion of Normandy. A China Northwest Airlines passenger jet crashed near Xian (SHEE’-ahn), killing all 160 people on board.
Ten years ago: The Group of Eight summit opened in Heiligendamm, Germany. Police arrested a suspect in the abduction and death of 18-year-old Kelsey Smith, whose body was found in a Missouri park four days after she’d disappeared from a Kansas store’s parking lot. (Edwin R. Hall later pleaded guilty to capital murder and was sentenced to life in prison.) Police in Connecticut looking for clues in the yearlong disappearance of a 15-year-old Bloomfield girl found her locked in a hidden room in a West Hartford home owned by an acquaintance of her parents. (Adam Gault later pleaded guilty to kidnapping and sexual assault and was sentenced to 25 years in prison.) The Anaheim Ducks captured the Stanley Cup with a 6-2 victory over the Ottawa Senators in Game 5. Bob Barker taped his last episode as host of CBS’ “The Price Is Right.”
Five years ago: Business social network LinkedIn reported that some of its users’ passwords had been stolen and leaked onto the Internet. New Yorkers lined the West Side waterfront to welcome the space shuttle Enterprise as it sailed up the Hudson River to its new home aboard the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum.
One year ago: A jury in Los Angeles returned a death sentence for Lonnie Franklin Jr., the serial killer known as the “Grim Sleeper” who murdered nine women and a teenage girl over several decades.