Today in history
Today is Wednesday, June 10, the 162nd day of 2020. There are 204 days left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: On June 10, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon lifted a twodecades-old trade embargo on China.
On this date:
In 1692, the first execution resulting from the Salem witch trials in Massachusetts took place as Bridget Bishop was hanged.
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-surGlane.
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 1963, President John F. Kennedy signed into law the Equal Pay Act of 1963, aimed at eliminating wage disparities based on gender.
In 1967, six days of war in the Mideast involving Israel, Syria, Egypt, Jordan and Iraq ended as Israel and Syria accepted a United Nations-mediated cease-fire.
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 1978, Affirmed, ridden by Steve Cauthen, won the 110th Belmont Stakes to claim horse racing's 11th Triple Crown. (Alydar was second while Darby Creek Road came in third in a five-horse field.)
In 1990, Alberto Fujimori (foo-jee-MOHR'-ee) was elected president of Peru by a narrow margin over novelist Mario Vargas Llosa. Two members of the rap group 2 Live Crew were arrested in Hollywood, Florida (they and a third band member were later acquitted of obscenity charges).
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, Mo., at age 61.
In 2004, singer-musician Ray Charles died in Beverly Hills, California, at age 73.
Ten years ago: Army Secretary John McHugh announced that an investigation found that potentially hundreds of remains at Arlington National Cemetery were misidentified or misplaced. Nelson Mandela's 13-year-old great-granddaughter, Zenani Mandela, was killed in a car accident while on the way home from a concert in Soweto on the eve of the World Cup. The NCAA sanctioned the University of Southern California with a two-year bowl ban, four years' probation, loss of scholarships and forfeits of an entire year's games for improper benefits given to Heisman Trophy winner Reggie Bush.
Five years ago: President Barack Obama ordered the deployment of up to 450 more American troops to Iraq in an effort to reverse major battlefield losses to the Islamic State. Pope Francis took the biggest step yet in cracking down on bishops who covered up for priests who raped and molested children, creating a new tribunal inside the Vatican to hear cases of bishops accused of failing to protect their flocks.