Today is Thursday, June 14, the 166th day of 2012. There are 200 days left in the year. This is Flag Day.
Today’s highlight:
On June 14, 1777, the Continental Congress in Philadelphia adopted the Stars and Stripes as the national flag.
On this date:
In 1775, the Continental Army, forerunner of the United States Army, was created.
In 1801, former American Revolutionary War general and notorious turncoat Benedict Arnold died in London.
In 1922, Warren Harding became the first president heard on radio, as Baltimore station WEAR broadcast his speech dedicating the Francis Scott Key memorial at Fort McHenry.
In 1940, German troops entered Paris during World War II; the same day, the Nazis began transporting prisoners to the Auschwitz concentration camp in German-occupied Poland.
In 1943, the Supreme Court, in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, ruled that children in public schools could not be forced to salute the flag of the United States.
In 1952, President Harry Truman officiated at the keel-laying of the nuclear-powered submarine USS Nautilus at the Electric Boat Shipyard in Groton, Conn.
In 1954, the words “under God” were added to the Pledge of Allegiance.
In 1967, the space probe Mariner 5 was launched from Cape Kennedy on a flight that took it past Venus.
In 1972, the Environmental Protection Agency ordered a ban on continued domestic use of the pesticide DDT, to take effect at year’s end.
In 1982, Argentine forces surrendered to British troops on the disputed Falkland Islands.
In 1992, Mona Van Duyn became the first woman to be named the nation’s poet laureate by the Library of Congress.
Associated Press
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