DAY IN HISTORY

Friday, June 12, 2020

Today is the 164th day of 2020 and the 86th day of spring.

TODAY’S HISTORY: In 1963, civil rights leader Medgar Evers was assassinated in Jackson, Mississippi.

In 1964, anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela was sentenced to life in prison for sabotage in South Africa.

In 1987, President Ronald Reagan challenged Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall” in a speech delivered in divided Berlin.

In 1994, Nicole Brown Simpson, ex-wife of professional football player O.J. Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman were murdered in Los Angeles.

In 2016, a gunman killed 49 people and injured 53 others at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS:

Charles Kingsley (18191875), priest/historian/ author; Uta Hagen (19192004), actress; George H.W. Bush (1924-2018), 41st U.S. president; Anne Frank (1929-1945), diarist/ Holocaust victim; Jim Nabors (1930-2017), actor; Marv Albert (1941- ), sportscaster; Chick Corea (1941- ), musician; Hideki Matsui (1974- ), baseball player; Dave Franco (1985- ), actor; Blake Ross (1985- ), software engineer.

TODAY’S FACT: Assassinated civil rights leader Medgar Evers’ brother, Charles Evers, was the first African American since Reconstruction to be elected a mayor in Mississippi, in 1969.

TODAY’S SPORTS: In 1939, the Baseball Hall of Fame opened in Cooperstown, New York.

TODAY’S QUOTE: “We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiastic about.” — Charles Kingsley

TODAY’S NUMBER: 28 — years the Berlin Wall stood separating East and West Berlin.

TODAY’S MOON: Last quarter moon (June 12).