Today is Saturday, June 18, the 169th day of 2011. There are 196 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight:
On June 18, 1983, astronaut Sally Ride became America’s first woman in space as she and four colleagues blasted off aboard the space shuttle Challenger.
On this date:
In 1778, American forces entered Philadelphia as the British withdrew during the Revolutionary War.
In 1812, the United States declared war against Britain.
In 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte met his Waterloo as British and Prussian troops defeated the French in Belgium.
In 1873, suffragist Susan B. Anthony was found guilty by a judge in Canandaigua, N.Y., of breaking the law by casting a vote in the 1872 presidential election. (The judge fined Anthony $100, but she never paid the penalty.)
In 1908, William Howard Taft was nominated for president by the Republican national convention in Chicago.
In 1940, during World War II, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill urged his countrymen to conduct themselves in a manner that would prompt future generations to say, “This was their finest hour.” Charles de Gaulle delivered a speech on the BBC in which he rallied his countrymen after the fall of France to Nazi Germany.
In 1971, Southwest Airlines began operations, with flights between Dallas and San Antonio, and Dallas and Houston.
In 1979, President Jimmy Carter and Soviet President Leonid I. Brezhnev signed the SALT II strategic arms limitation treaty in Vienna.
Associated Press
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
