On this day, June 6

1816 A snowstorm struck the northeastern U.S., heralding what would become known as the “Year Without a Summer.” 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.

1922 Actress and singer Lillian Russell Moore, wife of Alexander Moore, editor of the Pittsburgh Leader newspaper, died at the age of 61 at her Point Breeze home. 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.

1949 Carnegie Institute of Technology opened a nuclear research center in Saxonburg.

1966 Black activist James Meredith was shot and wounded as he walked along a Mississippi highway to encourage black voter registration.

1968, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy died at Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles, 25½ hours after he was shot by Sirhan Bishara Sirhan.

1998 The Alcoa Foundation Hall of American Indians opened at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Oakland. 2005 The Supreme Court ruled, 6-3, that people who smoked marijuana because their doctors recommended it to ease pain could be prosecuted for violating federal drug laws.

Some items are from Stefan Lorant’s “Pittsburgh: The Story of an American City” (digital.library.pitt.edu/chronology). — Compiled by Alyssa Brown

Today’s birthdays: Singer-songwriter Gary “U.S.” Bonds, 81. Country singer Joe Stampley, 77. Actor Robert Englund, 73. Singer Dwight Twilley, 69. Playwright-actor Harvey Fierstein (FY’-ur-steen), 68. Comedian Sandra Bernhard, 65. International Tennis Hall of Famer Bjorn Borg, 64. Comedian Colin Quinn, 61. Actor Paul Giamatti, 53. TV correspondent Natalie Morales, 48.

Thought for today: “A great man is one who leaves others at a loss after he is gone.”