Today in history
Today is Saturday, June 10, the 161st day of 2017. There are 204 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlights in History
On June 10, 1967, war in the Mideast ended as Israel and Syria accepted a United Nations-mediated cease-fire; during the six days of conflict with Syria, Egypt, Jordan and Iraq, Israeli forces captured the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights. Academy Awardwinning actor Spencer Tracy died in Beverly Hills, California, at age 67.
On this date
In 1692, the first execution resulting from the Salem witch trials in Massachusetts took place as Bridget Bishop was hanged.
In 1892, the Republican national convention in Minneapolis nominated President Benjamin Harrison for re-election and Whitelaw Reid for vice president. (Harrison, however, lost the election to former President Grover Cleveland.)
In 1907, eleven men in five cars set out on a race from “Peking to Paris.” (Prince Scipione Borghese (ship-ee-OH’-nay bohrGAY’-seh) of Italy was the first to arrive in the French capital two months later.)
In 1922, singer-actress Judy Garland was born Frances Ethel Gumm in Grand Rapids, Minnesota.
In 1935, Alcoholics Anonymous was founded in Akron, Ohio, by Dr. Robert Holbrook Smith and William Griffith Wilson.
In 1942, during World War II, German forces massacred 173 male residents of Lidice (LIH’-dyiht-zeh), Czechoslovakia, in retaliation for the killing of Nazi official Reinhard Heydrich.
In 1944, German forces massacred 642 residents of the French village of Oradour-sur-Glane.
In 1957, in Canadian elections, John Diefenbaker (DEE’-fehn-BAY’-kur) led the Progressive Conservatives to an upset victory over the Liberal party of Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent (LOO’-ee sant lawRAHNT’).
In 1977, James Earl Ray, the convicted assassin of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., escaped from Brushy Mountain State Prison in Tennessee with six others; he was recaptured June 13.
In 1982, Steven Spielberg’s sci-fi fantasy “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” had its world premiere in Los Angeles.
In 1991, 11-year-old Jaycee Dugard of South Lake Tahoe, California, was abducted by Phillip and Nancy Garrido; Jaycee was held by the couple for 18 years before she was found by authorities.
In 2002, organized crime figure John Gotti died at a prison hospital in Springfield, Missouri, at age 61. A partial solar eclipse cast a shadow over parts of eastern Asia, the Pacific Ocean and North America.
Ten years ago: President George W. Bush was enthusiastically welcomed to Albania as the first U.S. president to visit the former communist nation. The crews of Atlantis and the international space station greeted each other after the space shuttle arrived at the orbiting outpost. In the French Open final, Rafael Nadal defeated Roger Federer, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4. Suzann Pettersen shot a 5-under 67 for a one-shot victory over Karrie Webb at the LPGA Championship. “Spring Awakening” was named best musical at the Tony Awards; “The Coast of Utopia,” best play. HBO aired the final episode of “The Sopranos,” featuring an abrupt blackout ending that left forever dangling the fate of mob boss Tony Soprano.