TODAY IN HISTORY

Today is Wednesday, June 6, the 157th day of 2018.

TODAY'S HIGHLIGHT

On June 6, 1968, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy died at Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles, 25 ½ hours after he was shot by Sirhan Bishara Sirhan.

ON THIS DATE

In 1523, Gustav Vasa became Sweden’s new king, Gustav I.

In 1654, Queen Christina of Sweden abdicated; she was succeeded by her cousin, Charles X Gustav.

In 1799, American politician and orator Patrick Henry died at Red Hill Plantation in Virginia.

In 1809, Sweden adopted a new constitution.

In 1918, U.S. Marines suffered heavy casualties as they launched their eventually successful counteroffensive against German troops in the World War I Battle of Belleau Wood in France.

In 1925, Walter Percy Chrysler founded the Chrysler Corp.

In 1933, the first drive-in movie theater was opened by Richard Hollingshead in Camden County, New Jersey. (The movie shown was “Wives Beware,” starring Adolphe Menjou.)

In 1944, during World War

II, Allied forces stormed the beaches of Normandy, France, on“D-Day”as they began the liberation of German-occupied Western Europe. In 1966, black activist James Meredith was shot and wounded as he walked along a Mississippi highway to encourage black voter registration.

In 1978, California voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 13, a primary ballot initiative calling for

major cuts in property taxes. In 1982, Israeli forces invaded Lebanon to drive Palestine Liberation Organization fighters out of the country. (The Israelis withdrew in June 1985.) In 1994, President Bill Clinton joined leaders from America’s World War II allies to mark the 50th anniversary of the D-Day invasion of Normandy. A China Northwest Airlines passenger jet crashed near Xian, killing all 160 people on board.

Ten years ago: The Dow industrial average dropped 394.64 points to 12,209.81, its worst loss in more than a year. Crude futures soared nearly $11 for the day to $138.54 a barrel.

Five years ago: Director of National Intelligence James Clapper moved to tamp down a public uproar spurred by the disclosure of secret surveillance programs involving phone and Internet records, declassifying key details about one of the programs while insisting the efforts were legal, limited in scope and necessary to detect terrorist threats.

One year ago: Bill Cosby’s chief accuser, Andrea Constand, took the stand at his sexual assault trial to tell her story publicly for the first time, saying the comedian groped her after giving her three blue pills that left her paralyzed and helpless. (The jury deadlocked, resulting in a mistrial, but Cosby was convicted in a second trial.)

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

“To win without risk is to triumph without glory.” — Pierre Corneille (KOHR’-nayuh), French dramatist (born this date in 1606, died 1684). — ASSOCIATED PRESS