Today in History
Today is Wednesday, June 8, the 159th day of 2022. There are 206 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On June 8, 1864, Abraham Lincoln was nominated for another term as president during the National Union (Republican) Party’s convention in Baltimore.
On this date:
In A.D. 632, the prophet Muhammad died in Medina.
In 1867, modern American architect Frank Lloyd Wright was born in Richland Center, Wisconsin.
In 1953, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that restaurants in the District of Columbia could not refuse to serve Blacks. Eight tornadoes struck Michigan’s Lower Peninsula, killing 126 people.
In 1966, a merger was announced between the National and American Football Leagues, to take effect in 1970.
In 1967, during the six-day Middle East war, 34 American servicemen were killed when Israel attacked the USS Liberty, a Navy intelligence-gathering ship in the Mediterranean Sea. (Israel later said the Liberty had been mistaken for an Egyptian vessel.)
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In 1968, authorities announced the capture in London of James Earl Ray, the suspected assassin of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
In 1978, a jury in Clark County, Nevada, ruled the so-called “Mormon will,” purportedly written by the late billionaire Howard Hughes, was a forgery.
In 1995, U.S. Marines rescued Capt. Scott O’Grady, whose F-16C fighter jet had been shot down by Bosnian Serbs on June 2. Mickey Mantle received a liver transplant at a Dallas hospital; however, the baseball great died two months later.
In 2008, the average price of regular gas crept up to $4 a gallon.
In 2009, North Korea’s highest court sentenced American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee to 12 years’ hard labor for trespassing and “hostile acts.” (The women were pardoned in early August 2009 after a trip to Pyongyang by former President Bill Clinton.)
In 2015, siding with the White House in a foreign-policy power struggle with Congress, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that Americans born in the disputed city of Jerusalem could not list Israel as their birthplace on passports.
In 2020, thousands of mourners gathered at a church in Houston for a service for George Floyd, as his death during an arrest in Minneapolis continued to stoke protests in America and beyond over racial injustice.
Ten years ago: President Barack Obama declared “the private sector is doing fine,” prompting Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney to ask, “Is he really that out of touch?” (Obama quickly clarified his remarks, saying it was “absolutely clear that the economy is not doing fine.”) In Cairo, Egypt, a mob of hundreds of men assaulted women holding a march demanding an end to sexual harassment.
Five years ago: Former FBI Director James Comey, testifying before Congress, asserted that President Donald Trump fired him to interfere with his investigation of Russia’s ties to the Trump campaign. British Prime Minister Theresa May’s strategy of calling an early election backfired as her Conservatives lost their majority in Parliament. Actor Glenne Headly died in Santa Monica, California, at age 62.
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One year ago: A bipartisan Senate report on the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol found a broad intelligence breakdown across multiple agencies, along with widespread law enforcement and military failures; there were clear warnings and tips that right-wing extremist groups and other supporters of former President Donald Trump were planning to “storm the Capitol” with weapons and possibly infiltrate the tunnel system underneath it, but that intelligence never made it to top leaders. Ratko Mladic (RAHT’-koh MLAH’-dich), the military chief known as the “Butcher of Bosnia” for orchestrating genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in the Balkan nation’s 1992-95 war, lost his final legal battle when U.N. judges affirmed his life sentence.
Today’s Birthdays: Actor Millicent Martin is 88. Actor James Darren is 86. Singer Nancy Sinatra is 82. Singer Chuck Negron is 80. Musician Boz Scaggs is 78. Author Sara Paretsky is 75. Actor Sonia Braga is 72. Actor Kathy Baker is 72. Rock singer Bonnie Tyler is 71. Actor Griffin Dunne is 67. “Dilbert” creator Scott Adams is 65. Actor-director Keenen Ivory Wayans is 64. Singer Mick Hucknall (Simply Red) is 62. Musician Nick Rhodes (Duran Duran) is 60. R&B singer Doris Pearson (Five Star) is 56. Actor Julianna Margulies is 55. Actor Dan Futterman is 55. Actor David Sutcliffe is 53. Actor Kent Faulcon is 52. R&B singer Nicci Gilbert is 52. Actor Kelli Williams is 52. Former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., is 52. Actor Mark Feuerstein is 51. Contemporary Christian musician Mike Scheuchzer (MercyMe) is 47. Actor Eion Bailey is 46. Former tennis player Lindsay Davenport is 46. Rapper Ye (YAY) (formerly Kanye (KAHN’-yay) West) is 45. TV personality-actress Maria Menounos is 44. Country singer-songwriter Sturgill Simpson is 44. Blues-rock musician Derek Trucks (The Derek Trucks Band) is 43. Rock singer Alex Band (The Calling) is 41. Folk-bluegrass singer-musician Sara Watkins (Nickel Creek, I’m With Her) is 41. Former tennis player Kim Clijsters is 39. Actor Torrey DeVitto is 38. Tennis player Jelena Ostapenko is 25. U.S. Olympic track gold medalist Athing Mu (uh-THING moh) is 20.
