TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT June 17, 1994

After leading police on a slowspeed chase on Southern California freeways, O.J. Simpson was arrested and charged with murder in the slayings of his ex-wife, Nicole, and her friend, Ronald Goldman.

ALSO ON THIS DATE 1579

Sir Francis Drake arrived in present-day northern California, naming it New Albion and claiming English sovereignty.

1775

The Revolutionary War Battle of Bunker Hill resulted in a costly victory for the British, who suffered heavy losses.

1928

Amelia Earhart embarked on a trans-Atlantic flight from Newfoundland to Wales with pilots Wilmer Stultz and Louis Gordon, becoming the first woman to make the trip as a passenger.

1930

President Herbert Hoover signed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, which boosted U.S. tariffs to historically high levels, prompting foreign retaliation.

1953

U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas stayed the execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, originally set for the next day, the couple’s 14th wedding anniversary.

1963

The U.S. Supreme Court, in Abington School District v. Schempp, struck down, 8-1, rules requiring the recitation of the Lord’s Prayer or reading of Biblical verses in public schools.

1967

China successfully tested its first thermonuclear bomb.

1972

President Richard Nixon’s eventual downfall began with the arrest of five burglars inside the Democratic headquarters in Washington, D.C.’s Watergate complex.

2002

A judge in San Francisco tossed out the seconddegree murder conviction of Marjorie Knoller for the dogmauling death of neighbor Diane Whipple, but let stand Knoller’s conviction for involuntary manslaughter.