Today is Wednesday, June 7, the 158th day of 2017. There are 207 days left in the year.
Today’s highlight: On June 7, 1942, the Battle of Midway ended in a decisive victory for American naval forces over Imperial Japan, marking a turning point in the Pacific War.
On this date:
In 1654, King Louis XIV, age 15, was crowned in Rheims, 11 years after the start of his reign.
In 1776, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia offered a resolution to the Continental Congress stating “That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States.”
In 1892, Homer Plessy, a “Creole of color,” was arrested for refusing to leave a whites-only car of the East Louisiana Railroad. (Ruling on his case, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld “separate but equal” racial segregation, a concept it renounced in 1954.)
In 1917, the Lions Clubs service organization was founded in Chicago. Actor-singer Dean Martin was born Dino Paul Crocetti in Steubenville, Ohio.
In 1929, the sovereign state of Vatican City came into existence as copies of the Lateran Treaty were exchanged in Rome.
In 1937, actress Jean Harlow died in Los Angeles at age 26.
In 1958, singer-songwriter Prince was born Prince Rogers Nelson in Minneapolis.
In 1965, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Griswold v. Connecticut, struck down, 7-2, a Connecticut law used to prosecute a Planned Parenthood clinic in New Haven for providing contraceptives to married couples.
In 1967, the Haight Ashbury Free Medical Clinic opened in San Francisco. Author-critic Dorothy Parker, famed for her caustic wit, died in New York at age 73.
In 1977, Britons thronged London to celebrate the silver jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, who was marking the 25th year of her reign.
In 1981, Israeli military planes destroyed a nuclear power plant in Iraq, a facility the Israelis charged could have been used to make nuclear weapons.
In 1998, in a crime that shocked the nation, James Byrd Jr., a 49-year-old black man, was hooked by a chain to a pickup truck and dragged to his death in Jasper, Texas. (Two white men were later sentenced to death; one of them, Lawrence Russell Brewer, was executed in 2011. A third defendant received life with the possibility of parole.)
Ten years ago: At the G-8 summit in Germany, Russian President Vladimir Putin, bitterly opposed to a U.S. missile shield in Europe, presented President George W. Bush with a surprise counterproposal built around a Soviet-era radar system in Azerbaijan; Bush promised to consider the idea, but ended up essentially rejecting it. After three days in jail for a reckless-driving probation violation, Paris Hilton was released by Los Angeles County sheriff’s officials to be sent home under house arrest. (The next day, a judge ordered Hilton back to jail, where she spent 2½ weeks.)
Five years ago: Attorney General Eric Holder clashed with Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee seeking more information about a flawed gun-trafficking investigation in Arizona known as “Operation Fast and Furious.” Bob Welch, a former member of Fleetwood Mac who went on to write songs and record several hits during a solo career, died in Nashville.
One year ago: Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump claimed their parties’ presidential nominations following contests in New Jersey, California, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota and South Dakota. Five people were killed and four were injured when a pickup struck a large group of bicyclists from behind on a two-lane road in Kalamazoo County, Michigan; the driver of the pickup, Charles Pickett Jr., was charged with second-degree murder and driving under the influence of drugs.
Today’s birthdays: Movie director James Ivory is 89. Former Canadian Prime Minister John Turner is 88. Actress Virginia McKenna is 86. Singer Tom Jones is 77. Actor Ronald Pickup is 77. Poet Nikki Giovanni is 74. Actor Ken Osmond (TV: “Leave It to Beaver”) is 74. Former talk show host Jenny Jones is 71. Americana singer-songwriter Willie Nile is 69. Actress Anne Twomey is 66. Actor Liam Neeson is 65. Actress Colleen Camp is 64. Singer-songwriter Johnny Clegg is 64. Author Louise Erdrich is 63. Actor William Forsythe is 62.TV personality Bear Grylls is 43. Rock musician Eric Johnson (The Shins) is 41. Actress Adrienne Frantz is 39. Actor-comedian Bill Hader is 39. Actress Anna Torv is 38. Actress Larisa Oleynik is 36. Tennis player Anna Kournikova is 36. Actor Michael Cera is 29. Actress Shelley Buckner is 28. Rapper Iggy Azalea is 27. Rapper Fetty Wap is 26.
Thought for today: “I might repeat to myself, slowly and soothingly, a list of quotations beautiful from minds profound; if I can remember any of the damn things.” — Dorothy Parker (1893-1967)
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