TODAY IN HISTORY
SUNDAY JUN 12, 2022
2016
A gunman opened fire at the Pulse nightclub, a gay establishment in Orlando, Florida, leaving 49 people dead and 53 wounded; Omar Mateen pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group during a three-hour standoff before being killed in a shootout with police.
1630
Englishman John Winthrop, leading a fleet carrying Puritan refugees, arrived at the Massachusetts Bay Colony, where he became its governor.
1776
Virginia’s colonial legislature adopted a Declaration of Rights.
1942
Anne Frank, a German-born Jewish girl living in Amsterdam, received a diary for her 13th birthday, less than a month before she and her family went into hiding from the Nazis.
1994
Byron De La Beckwith was convicted of murdering Evers and sentenced to life in prison; he died in 2001.)
1964
South African Black nationalist Nelson Mandela was sentenced to life in prison along with seven other people, including Walter Sisulu, for committing sabotage against the apartheid regime.
1967
The U.S. Supreme Court, in Loving v. Virginia, unanimously struck down state laws prohibiting interracial marriages.
1978
David Berkowitz was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for each of the six “Son of Sam” .44-caliber killings that terrified New Yorkers.
1987
President Ronald Reagan, during a visit to the divided German city of
Berlin, exhorted Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev to “tear down this wall.”
1991
Russians went to the polls to elect Boris N. Yeltsin president of their republic.
1994
Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman were slashed to death outside her Los Angeles home.
2004
Former President Ronald Reagan’s body was sealed inside a tomb at his presidential library in Simi Valley, California, following a week of mourning and remembrance by world leaders and regular Americans.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS
Songwriter Richard M. Sherman is 94. Sportscaster Marv Albert is 81. Singer Roy Harper is 81. Actor Roger Aaron Brown is 73. Actor Sonia Manzano is 72. Rock musician Bun E. Carlos (Cheap Trick) is 71. Country singer-musician Junior Brown is 70. Singer-songwriter Rocky Burnette is 69. Actor Timothy Busfield is 65. Singer Meredith Brooks is 64. Actor Jenilee Harrison is 64. Rock musician John Linnell (They Might Be Giants) is 63. Actor John Enos is 60. Rapper Grandmaster Dee (Whodini) is 60. Actor Paul Schulze is 60. Actor Eamonn Walker is 60. Actor Paula Marshall is 58. Actor Frances O’Connor is 55. Actor Rick Hoffman is 52. Actor-comedian Finesse Mitchell is 50. Actor Mel Rodriguez is 49. Actor Jason Mewes is 48. Actor Michael Muhney is 47. Blues musician Kenny Wayne Shepherd is 45. Actor Timothy Simons is 44. Actor Wil Horneff is 43.