Today in history
On June 22, 1611, English explorer Henry Hudson, his son and several other people were set adrift by mutineers in what is now Hudson Bay.
In 1815 Napoleon Bonaparte abdicated for a second time.
In 1870 Congress established the Department of Justice.
In 1911 Britain’s King George V was crowned at Westminster Abbey.
In 1937 Joe Louis became the world heavyweight boxing champ by knocking out James Braddock in Chicago. (Exactly one year later, Louis knocked out Max Schmeling in the first round in New York’s Yankee Stadium.)
In 1941 Germany invaded the Soviet Union.
In 1944 President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the GI Bill of Rights, authorizing a broad package of benefits for World War II veterans.
In 1945
battle for the OkinawaWorld War offi- II cially during ended which after 12,520 83 days, Americans and 110,000 Japanese were killed.
In 1969 entertainer Judy Garland died in London; she was 47.
In 1970 President Richard Nixon signed a measure lowering the voting age from 21 to 18.
In 1987 dancer-actor Fred Astaire died in Los Angeles; he was 88.
In 2002 Esther “Eppie” Lederer, known to millions of readers as advice columnist Ann Landers, died in Chicago; she was 83.
In 2005 an American U-2 spy plane crashed while returning to its base in the United Arab Emirates, killing the pilot after a mission in support of U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
In 2008 standup comedian and satirist George Carlin died in Santa Monica, Calif.; he was 71.
In 2011, in a nationally televised address from the White House, President Barack Obama announced plans to withdraw 10,000 troops from Afghanistan by the end of the year and another 23,000 troops by the end of summer 2012, essentially undoing the military “surge” he ordered in 2009.
Also in 2011 the FBI captured reputed Boston mob boss James “Whitey” Bulger and his girlfriend, Catherine Elizabeth Greig, in Santa Monica, Calif., ending his nearly 16 years as a fugitive.
In 2012 former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, 68, was convicted on 45 of 48 counts of child sex abuse.