ON JUNE 21 ...
In 1788 the U.S. Constitution took effect when New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify it.
In 1834 inventor Cyrus Hall McCormick was granted a patent on his reaping machine.
In 1922 actress Judy Holliday was born Judith Tuvim in New York.
In 1932 heavyweight Max Schmeling lost a title fight by decision to Jack Sharkey, prompting Schmeling's manager, Joe Jacobs, to exclaim: “We was robbed!”
In 1945 during World War II, American soldiers on Okinawa found the body of the Japanese commander, Lt. Gen. Mitsuru Ushijima, who had committed suicide.
In 1948 Dr. Peter Goldmark of the Columbia Broadcasting System demonstrated his “long-playing” record, which revolutionized the recording industry.
In 1953 Benazir Bhutto, the former Pakistani prime minister, was born in Karachi, Pakistan.
In 1963 Cardinal Giovanni Battista Montini was chosen to succeed the late Pope John XXIII. (He would take the name Paul VI.)
In 1964 civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney disappeared in Philadelphia, Miss.; their bodies were found buried in an earthen dam six weeks later. (Seven Ku Klux Klansmen later were convicted of federal civil rights violations in the deaths and sentenced to prison terms ranging from 3 to 10 years; none served more than 6 years.)
In 1973 the Supreme Court ruled that states may ban materials found to be obscene according to local standards.
In 1977 Menachem Begin became Israel’s sixth prime
In 1982 a District of Columbia jury found John Hinckley Jr. innocent by reason of insanity in the shooting of President Ronald Reagan and three others in March 1981. Also in 1982 Britain’s Prince William was born in London.
In 1985 scientists announced that skeletal remains exhumed in Brazil were those of Nazi war criminal Josef Mengele.
In 1989 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that burning the American flag as a form of political protest is protected by the First Amendment.
In 1996 European leaders agreed to gradually lift a global ban on British beef exports imposed nearly three months earlier following a scare over “mad cow” disease.
In 1997 the Women’s National Basketball Association made its debut as the New York Liberty defeated the Los Angeles Sparks 6757.
In 2001 a federal grand jury in Alexandria, Va., indicted 13 Saudis and a Lebanese in the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 U.S. servicemen. Also in 2001 actor Carroll O’Connor died in Culver City, Calif.; he was 76. Also in 2001 blues musician John Lee Hooker died in Los Altos, Calif.; he was 80.
In 2004 Connecticut Gov. John Rowland resigns amid graft allegations and federal investigation. Also in 2004 the SpaceShipOne rocket plane punched through Earth’s atmosphere, then glided to a landing in California’s Mojave Desert in the first privately financed manned spaceflight.
In 2005 Roman Catholic Cardinal Jaime Sin, one of Asia’s top religious leaders, died in Manila, Philippines; he was 76.
In 2008 a ferry carrying more than 800 people capsized as Typhoon Fengshen battered the Philippines; only about four dozen people survived.