Today is Sunday, June 19, the 170th day of 2011. There are 195 days left in the year. This is Father’s Day.
Today’s highlight:
On June 19, 1910, the first-ever Father’s Day was celebrated in Spokane, Wash. (The idea for the observance is credited to Sonora Louise Smart Dodd.)
On
this date:
In 1862, slavery was outlawed in U.S. territories.
In 1865, Union troops commanded by Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, with news that the Civil War was over, and that all remaining slaves in Texas were free.
In 1911, Pennsylvania became the first state to establish a motion picture censorship board.
In 1934, the Federal Communications Commission was created; it replaced the Federal Radio Commission.
In 1953, Julius Rosenberg, 35, and his wife, Ethel, 37, convicted of conspiring to pass U.S. atomic secrets to the Soviet Union, were executed at Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, N.Y.
In 1961, the Supreme Court ruled that illegally obtained evidence was inadmissible in court and struck down a provision in Maryland’s constitution requiring state officeholders to profess a belief in God.
In 1977, Pope Paul VI proclaimed a 19th-century Philadelphia bishop, John Neumann, the first male U.S. saint.
In 1986, University of Maryland basketball star Len Bias, the first-round draft pick of the Boston Celtics, suffered a fatal cocaine-induced seizure. Artificial heart recipient Murray P. Haydon died in Louisville, Ky., after 16 months on the manmade pump.
In 1991, actress Jean Arthur died in Carmel, Calif., at age 90.
In 1999, author Stephen King was seriously injured when he was struck by a van driven by Bryan Smith in North Lovell, Maine. Britain’s Prince Edward married commoner Sophie Rhys-Jones in Windsor, England.
In 2001, Strapped to the same padded gurney on which Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh died, drug kingpin Juan Raul Garza received a chemical injection and became the second inmate in eight days to be executed by the U.S. government. A jury in San Jose, Calif., convicted Andrew Burnett of tossing a little dog to its death on a busy highway in a bout of road rage. (Burnett was later sentenced to three years in prison for the death of Leo, a fluffy white bichon frise.)
Today’s Birthdays: Actress Gena Rowlands is 81. Singer Spanky McFarlane (Spanky and Our Gang) is 69. Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi is 66. Actress Phylicia Rashad is 63. Rock singer Ann Wilson (Heart) is 61. Musician Larry Dunn is 58. Actress Kathleen Turner is 57. Country singer Doug Stone is 55. Singer Mark DeBarge is 52. Singer-dancer Paula Abdul is 49. Actor Andy Lauer is 48. Rock singer-musician Brian Vander Ark (Verve Pipe) is 47. Actress Mia Sara is 44. Rock musician Brian “Head” Welch is 41. Actress Robin Tunney is 39. Actor Bumper Robinson is 37. Actress Poppy Montgomery is 36. Alt-country singer-musician Scott Avett (The Avett Brothers) is 35. Actor Ryan Hurst is 35. Actress Zoe Saldana is 33. Actress Lauren Lee Smith is 31. Actor Paul Dano is 27. Actor Atticus Shaffer (TV: “The Middle”) is 13.
Thought for Today: “Exuberance is better than taste.” — Gustave Flaubert, French author (1821-1880).
Associated Press
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