TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS SATURDAY, JUNE 29, the 180th day of 2019. There are 185 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 1988, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Morrison v. Olson, upheld the independent counsel law in a 7-1 decision (the sole dissenter was Justice Antonin Scalia).
In 1520, Montezuma II, the ninth and last emperor of the Aztecs, died in Tenochtitlan under unclear circumstances. Some say he was killed by his subjects, others, by the Spanish.
In 1613, London’s original Globe Theatre, where many of Shakespeare’s plays were performed, was destroyed by a fire sparked by a cannon shot during a performance of “Henry VIII.”
In 1767, Britain approved the Townshend Revenue Act, which imposed import duties on glass, paint, oil, lead, paper and tea shipped to the American colonies. Colonists bitterly protested, prompting Parliament to repeal the duties — except for tea.
In 1927, the first trans-Pacific airplane flight was completed as U.S. Army Air Corps Lt. Lester J. Maitland and Lt. Albert F. Hegenberger arrived at Wheeler Field in Hawaii aboard the Bird of Paradise, an Atlantic-Fokker C-2, after flying 2,400 miles from Oakland, California, in 25 hours, 50 minutes..
In 1967, actress Jayne Mansfield, 34, was killed along with her boyfriend, Sam Brody, and their driver, Ronnie Harrison, when their car slammed into the rear of a tractor-trailer on a highway in Slidell, Louisiana; three children riding in the back, including Mansfield’s 3-year-old daughter, Mariska Hargitay, survived.
In 1970, the United States ended a two-month military offensive into Cambodia.
In 1995, the space shuttle Atlantis and the Russian Mir space station linked in orbit, beginning a historic five-day voyage as a single ship.
In 2006, the Supreme Court ruled, 5-3, that President George W. Bush’s plan to try Guantanamo Bay detainees in military tribunals violated U.S. and international law.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Movie producer Robert Evans is 89. Singersongwriter Garland Jeffreys is 76. Actor Gary Busey is 75. Comedian Richard Lewis is 72. Singer Don Dokken (Dokken) and rock singer Colin Hay (Men At Work) are 66. Actress Maria Conchita Alonso is 64. Rhythm and blues singer Stedman Pearson (Five Star) and actress Kathleen Wilhoite are 55. Actress Christina Chang is 48. Actor Lance Barber is 46. Actordancer Will Kemp and actress Zuleikha Robinson are 42. NBA forward Kawhi Leonard of the Toronto Raptors is 28. Actress Camila Mendes (TV: “Riverdale”) is 25.