Today in history
Today is Tuesday, June 13, the 164th day of 2017. There are 201 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlights in History
On June 13, 1942, a fourman Nazi sabotage team arrived on Long Island, New York, during World War II, three days before a second four-man team landed in Florida. (All eight were arrested after two members of the first group decided to defect and cooperate with U.S. authorities; they were ultimately spared while the other six were executed.) President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the Office of Strategic Services, a wartime intelligence agency, and the Office of War Information, headed by radio news commentator Elmer Davis.
On this date
In 1842, Queen Victoria became the first British monarch to ride on a train, traveling from Slough Railway Station to Paddington in 25 minutes.
In 1886, King Ludwig II of Bavaria drowned in Lake Starnberg.
In 1917, during World War I, a group of German Gotha bombers attacked London, killing 162 people. The Phillips Petroleum Co. was incorporated in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. (Phillips merged with Conoco in 2002.)
In 1927, aviation hero Charles Lindbergh was honored with a ticker-tape parade in New York City.
In 1935, James Braddock claimed the title of world heavyweight boxing champion from Max Baer in a 15-round fight in Queens, New York. “Becky Sharp,” the first movie photographed in “three-strip” Technicolor, opened in New York.
In 1957, the Mayflower II, a replica of the ship that brought the Pilgrims to America in 1620, arrived at Plymouth, Massachusetts, after a nearly two-month journey from England.
In 1966, the Supreme Court ruled in Miranda v. Arizona that criminal suspects had to be informed of their constitutional right to consult with an attorney and to remain silent.
In 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson nominated Solicitor-General Thurgood Marshall to become the first black justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.
In 1977, James Earl Ray, the convicted assassin of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., was recaptured following his escape three days earlier from a Tennessee prison.
In 1981, a scare occurred during a parade in London when a teenager fired six blank shots at Queen Elizabeth II.
In 1992, Democratic presidential candidate Bill Clinton stirred controversy during an appearance before the Rainbow Coalition by criticizing rap singer Sister Souljah for making remarks that he said were “filled with hatred” toward whites.
In 1997, a jury voted unanimously to give Timothy McVeigh the death penalty for the Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people. The Chicago Bulls captured their fifth professional basketball championship in seven years with a 90-86 victory over the Utah Jazz in Game 6.
Ten years ago: In Beirut, Lebanon, a powerful car bombing killed Walid Eido, a prominent anti-Syrian legislator. Insurgents blew up the two minarets of a revered Shiite shrine in Samarra, Iraq, a year after the shrine’s golden dome was destroyed in a bombing.
Five years ago: Federal prosecutors dropped all charges against former Democratic vice-presidential candidate John Edwards after his corruption trial ended the previous month in a deadlocked jury.