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Today is Thursday, June 7, the 159th day of 2012. There are 207 days left in the year.
Highlights in History
On June 7, 1892, Homer Plessy, a “Creole of color,” was arrested and fined for refusing to leave a whites-only car of the East Louisiana Railroad; his case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which at the time upheld “separate but equal” racial segregation, a concept overturned in 1954 by Brown v. Board of Education.
On this date
In 1654, King Louis XIV, age 15, was crowned in Rheims, 11 years after the start of his reign.
In 1712, Pennsylvania’s colonial assembly voted to ban the further importation of slaves.
In 1769, frontiersman Daniel Boone first began to explore present-day Kentucky.
In 1776, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia proposed to the Continental Congress a resolution stating “That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown.”
In 1862, William Bruce Mumford, a Confederate loyalist, was hanged at the order of Union military authorities for tearing down a U.S. flag that had been flying over the New Orleans mint shortly before the city was occupied by the North.
In 1929, the sovereign state of Vatican City came into existence as copies of the Lateran Treaty were exchanged in Rome.
In 1937, actress Jean Harlow died in Los Angeles at age 26.
In 1942, the World War II Battle of Midway ended in a decisive victory for American forces over the Imperial Japanese.
In 1967, the Haight Ashbury Free Medical Clinic opened in San Francisco.
In 1972, the musical “Grease” opened on Broadway, having already been performed in lower Manhattan.
In 1981, Israeli military planes destroyed a nuclear power plant in Iraq, a facility the Israelis charged could have been used to make nuclear weapons.
In 1998, in a crime that shocked the nation, James Byrd Jr., a 49-year-old black man, was hooked by a chain to a pickup truck and dragged to his death in Jasper, Texas. (Two white men were later sentenced to death for the crime; a third received life with the possibility of parole.)
Ten years ago
A yearlong hostage crisis in the Philippines involving a U.S. missionary couple came to a bloody end as Filipino commandos managed to save only one of three captives, American Gracia Burnham. Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel was convicted in Norwalk, Conn., of beating Greenwich (GREH’-nihch) neighbor Martha Moxley to death when they were 15 in 1975. (Skakel, who continues to maintain his innocence, was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison.)
Top News
Today in History for Thursday, June 7, 2012
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‘Trek’ does $70.6M but falls short of studio hopes
“Star Trek: Into Darkness” has warped its way to a $70.6 million domestic launch from Friday to Sunday, though it’s not setting any light-speed records with a debut that’s lower than the studio’s expectations.
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Syrian troops push into strategic rebel-held town
Syrian troops pushed into a rebel-held town near the Lebanese border on Sunday, fighting house-to-house and bombing from the air as President Bashar Assad tried to strengthen his grip on a strategic strip of land running from the capital to the Mediterranean coast.
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Taylor Swift wins 8 trophies at Billboard Awards
Another day, another domination for Taylor Swift: She was the red hot winner at the Billboard Music Awards.
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Tornadoes level homes in Okla., 21 injured
One of several tornadoes that touched down Sunday in Oklahoma turned homes in a trailer park near Oklahoma City into splinters and rubble and sent frightened residents along a 100-mile corridor scurrying for shelter.
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Ticket for record Powerball jackpot sold in Florida town
Some lucky person walked into a Publix supermarket in suburban Florida over the past few days and bought a ticket now worth an estimated $590.5 million — the highest Powerball jackpot in history.
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Today in History for Monday, May 20, 2013
Today is Monday, May 20, the 140th day of 2013. There are 225 days left in the year.
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Official: Broken rail eyed in Conn. train crash
The commuter train derailment and collision that left dozens injured outside New York City was not the result of foul play, officials said Saturday, but a fractured section of rail is being studied to determine if it is connected to the accident.
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FBI searches apartment in ricin letter case
Authorities in hazardous materials suits searched a downtown Spokane apartment Saturday, investigating the recent discovery of a pair of letters containing the deadly poison ricin.
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Up to 60 injured after car drives into Va. parade
An elderly driver plowed into dozens of hikers marching in a Saturday parade in a small Virginia mountain town and investigators were looking into whether he suffered a medical emergency before the accident.
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Authorities: Hofstra student was killed by police
A Hofstra University student being held in a headlock at gunpoint by an intruder was accidently shot and killed by a police officer who had responded to the home invasion at an off-campus home, police said Saturday.
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