TODAY IN HISTORY

Today is Saturday, June 20, the 171st day of 2015. There are 194 days left in the year.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

On June 20, 1975, Steven Spielberg’s shark thriller “Jaws,” starring Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw and Richard Dreyfuss (not to mention a mechanical shark nicknamed “Bruce”) was released by Universal Pictures.

ON THIS DATE

In 1782, Congress approved the Great Seal of the United States, featuring the emblem of the bald eagle.

In 1863, West Virginia became the 35th state.

In 1893, a jury in New Bedford, Mass., found Lizzie Borden not guilty of the ax murders of her father and stepmother.

In 1921, U.S. Rep. Alice Mary Robertson, R-Okla., became the first woman to preside over a session of the House of Representatives.

In 1943, race-related rioting erupted in Detroit; federal troops were sent in two days later to quell the violence that resulted in more than 30 deaths.

In 1947, Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel was shot dead at the Beverly Hills, Calif., mansion of his girlfriend, Virginia Hill, apparently at the order of mob associates.

In 1967, boxer Muhammad Ali was convicted in Houston of violating Selective Service laws by refusing to be drafted. (Ali’s conviction was ultimately overturned by the Supreme Court).

In 1979, ABC News correspondent Bill Stewart was shot to death in Managua, Nicaragua, by a member of President Anastasio Somoza’s national guard.

In 1990, South African black nationalist Nelson Mandela and his wife, Winnie, arrived in New York City for a tickertape parade in their honor as they began an eight-city U.S. tour.

TODAY’S THOUGHT

“The art of progress is to preserve order amid change and to preserve change amid order.”— Alfred North Whitehead, English philosopher.