Today in History
Today is Thursday, June 13, the 165th day of 2024. There are 201 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On June 13, 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson nominated Solicitor-General Thurgood Marshall to become the first Black justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.
On this date:
In 1865, Nobel Prize-winning poet-playwright William Butler Yeats was born in Dublin, Ireland.
In 1942, a four-man Nazi sabotage team arrived on Long Island, New York, three days before a second four-man team landed in Florida. (All eight men were arrested after two members of the first group defected.) President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the Office of Strategic Services and the Office of War Information.
In 1966, the Supreme Court ruled in Miranda v. Arizona that criminal suspects had to be informed of their constitutional right to consult with an attorney and to remain silent.
In 1971, The New York Times began publishing excerpts of the Pentagon Papers, a secret study of America’s involvement in Vietnam from 1945 to 1967 that had been leaked to the paper by military analyst Daniel Ellsberg.
In 1977, James Earl Ray, the convicted assassin of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., was recaptured following his escape three days earlier from a Tennessee prison.
In 1981, a scare occurred during a parade in London when a teenager fired six blank shots at Queen Elizabeth II.
In 1983, the U.S. space probe Pioneer 10, launched in 1972, became the first spacecraft to leave the solar system as it crossed the orbit of Neptune.
In 1996, the 81-day-old Freemen standoff ended as 16 remaining members of the anti-government group surrendered to the FBI and left their Montana ranch.
In 1997, a jury voted unanimously to give Timothy McVeigh the death penalty for his role in the Oklahoma City bombing. The Chicago Bulls captured their fifth NBA championship in seven years with a 90-86 victory over the Utah Jazz in game six.
In 2005, a jury in Santa Maria, California, acquitted Michael Jackson of molesting a 13-year-old cancer survivor at his Neverland ranch.
In 2012, federal prosecutors dropped all charges against former Democratic vice-presidential candidate John Edwards after his corruption trial ended the previous month in a deadlocked jury.
In 2013, the White House said it had conclusive evidence that Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime had used chemical weapons against opposition forces seeking to overthrow the government.
In 2020, Atlanta’s police chief resigned, hours after the fatal police shooting of Rayshard Brooks; protests over the shooting grew turbulent, and the Wendy’s restaurant at the scene of the shooting was gutted by flames.
In 2022, the committee investigating the Capitol attack was told that Donald Trump’s closest campaign advisers, top government officials and even his family were dismantling his false claims of 2020 election fraud ahead of Jan. 6, but the defeated president was becoming “detached from reality” and clinging to outlandish theories to stay in power.
In 2023, Donald Trump became the first former president to face a judge on federal charges as he pleaded not guilty in a Miami courtroom to dozens of felony counts that he hoarded classified documents and refused government demands to give them back.
Today’s Birthdays: Actor Malcolm McDowell is 81. Former U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is 80. Singer Dennis Locorriere is 75. Actor Richard Thomas is 73. Actor Jonathan Hogan is 73. Actor Stellan Skarsgard is 73. Comedian Tim Allen is 71. North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper is 67. Actor Ally Sheedy is 62. TV anchor Hannah Storm is 62. Rock musician Paul De Lisle (deh-LYL’) (Smash Mouth) is 61. Actor Lisa Vidal is 59. Singer David Gray is 56. R&B singer Denise Pearson (Five Star) is 56. Rock musician Soren Rasted (Aqua) is 55. Actor Jamie Walters is 55. Singer-musician Rivers Cuomo (Weezer) is 54. Country singer Susan Haynes is 52. Actor Steve-O is 50. Country singer Jason Michael Carroll is 46. Actor Ethan Embry is 46. Actor Chris Evans is 43. Actor Sarah Schaub is 41. Singer Raz B is 39. Actor Kat Dennings is 38. Fashion designer and former actor Ashley Olsen is 38. Fashion designer and former actor Mary-Kate Olsen is 38. DJ/producer Gesaffelstein is 37. Actor Aaron Johnson is 34.