TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS SUNDAY, JUNE 17, the 168th day of 2018. There are 197 days left in the year. This is Father’s Day.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 1775, the Revolutionary War Battle of Bunker Hill resulted in a costly victory for the British, who suffered heavy losses.
In 1397, the Treaty of Kalmar created a union between the kingdoms of Sweden, Denmark and Norway.
In 1579, Sir Francis Drake arrived in present-day northern California, naming it New Albion and claiming English sovereignty.
In 1928, Amelia Earhart embarked on a trans-Atlantic flight from Newfoundland to Wales with pilots Wilmer Stultz and Louis Gordon, becoming the first woman to make the trip as a passenger.
In 1930, President Herbert Hoover signed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, which boosted U.S. tariffs to historically high levels, prompting foreign retaliation.
In 1953, U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas stayed the execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, originally set for the next day, the couple’s 14th wedding anniversary. (They were put to death June 19.)
In 1967, China successfully tested its first thermonuclear (hydrogen) bomb.
In 1972, President Richard Nixon’s eventual downfall began with the arrest of five burglars inside Democratic national headquarters in Washington, D.C.’s Watergate complex.
In 1987, Charles Glass, a journalist on leave from ABC News, was kidnapped in Beirut by pro-Iranian guerrillas. (Glass escaped his captors in August 1987.)
In 2015, nine people were shot to death in a historic African-American church in Charleston, S.C.; suspect Dylann Roof was arrested the following morning. (Roof has since been convicted of federal hate crimes and sentenced to death; he later pleaded guilty to state murder charges and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.)
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Actor Peter Lupus is 86. Movie director Ken Loach is 82. Actor William Lucking is 77. Singer Barry Manilow is 75. Comedian Joe Piscopo is 67. Actor Mark Linn-Baker is 64. Actor Jon Gries is 61. Rock singer Jello Biafra and movie producerdirector-writer Bobby Farrelly are 60. Actor Thomas Haden Church is 57. Actor Greg Kinnear is 55. Actor Jason Patric is 52. Rhythm and blues singer Kevin Thornton is 49. Actor-comedian Will Forte is 48. Latin pop singer Paulina Rubio is 47. Tennis player Venus Williams is 38. Actress Marie Avgeropoulos is 32. Rapper Kendrick Lamar is 31. Actor Damani Roberts is 22.