Jun 13, 2023

Today in History, June 13

Posted Jun 13, 2023 2:08 PM

Today’s Highlight in History:<br>

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:&nbsp;

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. Matt Cain pitched the 22nd perfect game in major league history and the first for the San Francisco Giants, beating the Houston Astros 10-0.

In 2016, a day after the Orlando, Florida, nightclub shooting rampage that claimed 49 victims, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton offered drastically different proposals for stemming the threat of terrorism and gun violence; Trump focused heavily on the nation’s immigration system (even though the shooter was U.S. born) and redoubled his call for temporarily banning Muslims from the United States, while Clinton said that as president she would prioritize stopping “lone wolf” attackers and reiterated her call for banning assault weapons.

In 2017, comatose Otto Warmbier (WARM’-beer), released by North Korea after more than 17 months in captivity, arrived in Cincinnati aboard a medevac flight; the 22-year-old college student, who had suffered severe brain damage, died six days later. Rolling Stone magazine agreed to pay $1.65 million to settle a defamation lawsuit filed by a University of Virginia fraternity over a debunked story about a rape on campus.

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 2021, Israel’s parliament narrowly approved a new coalition government, ending the historic 12-year rule of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and sending the polarizing leader into the opposition; Naftali Bennett, a former ally of Netanyahu, became prime minister after the 60-59 vote. Character actor Ned Beatty, whose films included “Deliverance,” “Network” and “Superman,” died at his Los Angeles home at 83. Novak Djokovic came all the way back after dropping the first two sets to beat Stefanos Tsitsipas in the French Open final for his 19th Grand Slam title. A Pekingese named Wasabi won best in show at the Westminster Kennel Club, notching a fifth-ever win for the toy breed. (Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the event was held outdoors in a New York suburb in June instead of at Madison Square Garden in February, and it was closed to the public.)

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. 

Nancy Brophy, a self-published romance novelist who once wrote an online essay called “How to Murder Your Husband,” was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole in Portland, Oregon for murdering her husband in 2018. Philip Baker Hall, a character actor of film and theater who memorably hunted down a long-overdue library book in “Seinfeld,” died at age 90.