Today in history
On June 13, 1942, a four-man 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.
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 1917, 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 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.
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. Matt Cain pitched the 22nd perfect game in major league history and the first for the San Francisco Giants, beating the Houston Astros 10-0.
One year ago: A day after the Orlando, Florida, nightclub shooting rampage that claimed 49 victims, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton offered drastically different proposals for stemming the threat of terrorism and gun violence; Trump focused heavily on the nation’s immigration system (even though the shooter was U.S. born) and redoubled his call for temporarily banning Muslims from the United States, while Clinton said she would prioritize stopping “lone wolf” attackers as president and reiterated her call for banning assault weapons.
“The penalty of success is to be bored by people who used to snub you.” — Viscountess Astor, American-born English politician (1879-1964).