Today in History

Published 9:48 pm Friday, June 8, 2012

Today is Saturday, June 9, the 161st day of 2012. There are 205 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight:

On June 9, 1972, heavy rains triggered record flooding in the Black Hills of South Dakota; the resulting disaster left at least 238 people dead and $164 million in damage.

On this date:

In A.D. 68, the Roman Emperor Nero committed suicide, ending a 13-year reign.

In 1909, Alice Huyler Ramsey, 22, set out from New York in a Maxwell DA on a journey to become the first woman to drive across the United States. (Ramsey and three female companions arrived in San Francisco on Aug. 7.)

In 1911, Carrie (sometimes spelled “Carry”) A. Nation, the hatchet-wielding temperance crusader, died in Leavenworth, Kan., at age 64.

In 1940, during World War II, Norway decided to surrender to the Nazis, effective at midnight.

In 1954, during the Senate-Army Hearings, Army special counsel Joseph Welch berated Sen. Joseph McCarthy for verbally attacking a member of Welch’s law firm, Fred Fisher, asking McCarthy: “Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?”

In 1969, the Senate confirmed Warren Burger to be the new chief justice of the United States, succeeding Earl Warren.

In 1973, Secretariat became horse racing’s first Triple Crown winner in 25 years by winning the Belmont Stakes.

In 1978, leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints struck down a 148-year-old policy of excluding black men from the Mormon priesthood.

Associated Press