TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is Thursday, June 8, the 159th day of 2023. There are 206 days left in the year.
Today's Highlight in History: On June 8, 1864, Abraham Lincoln was nominated for another term as president during the National Union (Republican) Party's convention in Baltimore.
On this date:
In A.D. 632, the prophet Muhammad died in Medina.
In 1867, modern American architect Frank Lloyd Wright was born in Richland Center, Wisconsin.
In 1953, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that restaurants in the District of Columbia could not refuse to serve Blacks.
In 1966, a merger was announced between the National and American Football Leagues, to take effect in 1970.
In 1967, during the sixday Middle East war, 34 American servicemen were killed when Israel attacked the USS Liberty, a Navy intelligence-gathering ship in the Mediterranean Sea. (Israel later said the Liberty had been mistaken for an Egyptian vessel.)
In 1968, authorities announced the capture in London of James Earl Ray, the suspected assassin of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
In 1978, a jury in Clark County, Nevada, ruled the so-called "Mormon will," purportedly written by the late billionaire Howard Hughes, was a forgery.
In 1995, U.S. Marines rescued Capt. Scott O'Grady, whose F-16C fighter jet had been shot down by Bosnian Serbs on June 2.
In 2008, the average price of regular gas crept up to $4 a gallon.
In 2009, North Korea's highest court sentenced American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee to 12 years' hard labor for trespassing and "hostile acts." (The women were pardoned in early August 2009 after a trip to Pyongyang by former President Bill Clinton.)
In 2015, siding with the White House in a foreignpolicy power struggle with Congress, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that Americans born in the disputed city of Jerusalem could not list Israel as their birthplace on passports.
Ten years ago: President Barack Obama and Chinese leader Xi Jinping (shee jihn-peeng) concluded a two-day summit in the California desert that ended with few policy breakthroughs but the prospect of closer personal ties. Serena Williams won her 16th Grand Slam title and her first French Open championship since 2002, beating Maria Sharapova 6-4, 6-4. Palace Malice took charge on the turn for home and won the Belmont Stakes, holding off Preakness winner Oxbow and Kentucky Derby winner Orb.