Today’s Highlight in History:<br>
On June 14, 1940, German troops entered Paris during World War II; the same day, the Nazis began transporting prisoners to the Auschwitz (OWSH’-vitz) concentration camp in German-occupied Poland.
On this date:
In 1775, the Continental Army, forerunner of the United States Army, was created.
In 1777, the Second Continental Congress approved the design of the original American flag.
In 1846, a group of U.S. settlers in Sonoma proclaimed the Republic of California.
In 1911, the British ocean liner RMS Olympic set out on its maiden voyage for New York, arriving one week later. (The ship’s captain was Edward John Smith, who went on to command the ill-fated RMS Titanic the following year.)
In 1919, John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown embarked on the first non-stop flight across the Atlantic Ocean. (Flying a Vickers Vimy biplane bomber, they took off from St. Johns, Newfoundland, Canada and arrived 16 1/2 hours later in Clifden, Ireland.)
In 1943, the U.S. Supreme Court, in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, ruled 6-3 that public school students could not be forced to salute the flag of the United States.
In 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a measure adding the phrase “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance.
In 1967, California Gov. Ronald Reagan signed a bill liberalizing his state’s abortion law.
In 1972, the Environmental Protection Agency ordered a ban on 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 1993, President Bill Clinton nominated Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court.
In 2005, Michelle Wie, 15, became the first female player to qualify for an adult male U.S. Golf Association championship, tying for first place in a 36-hole U.S. Amateur Public Links sectional qualifying tournament.
In 2012, in dueling speeches in the battleground state of Ohio, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, speaking in Cincinnati, described the Obama administration as the very “enemy” of people who create jobs; President Barack Obama, going second in Cleveland, asked the nation to buy into his vision for four more years or face a return to the recession-era “mistakes of the past.”
In 2017, a rifle-wielding gunman opened fire on Republican lawmakers at a congressional baseball practice in Alexandria, Virginia, wounding House Whip Steve Scalise (skuh-LEES’) and several others; the assailant died in a battle with police. Fire ripped through the 24-story Grenfell Tower in West London, killing 71 people.
In 2021, Joe Biden used his first appearance as president at the NATO summit in Brussels to call on Russian President Vladimir Putin to step back from provocative actions targeting the U.S. and allies. U.S. health officials announced a one-year ban on bringing in dogs from more than 100 countries where rabies was still a problem. The Senate voted to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson to the nation’s second most powerful court, the federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. (Jackson would win Senate confirmation to the Supreme Court in April 2022.)
In 2022, Ukrainian officials said Russian troops controlled about 80% of the fiercely contested eastern city of Sievierodonetsk and destroyed all three bridges leading out of it but authorities were still trying to evacuate the wounded. Raging floodwaters that pulled houses into rivers and forced rescues by air and boat across the Yellowstone region began to recede, but tourists and others were still stranded after roads and bridges were knocked out by torrential rains. New York’s top court rejected an effort to free Happy the elephant from the Bronx Zoo. The court decided she did not meet the definition of a “person” who was being illegally confined.
Notable Birthdays
June 14: Actor Marla Gibbs is 92. Singer Rod Argent of The Zombies and Argent is 78. Singer Janet Lennon of The Lennon Sisters is 77. Guitarist Barry Melton of Country Joe and the Fish is 76. Actor Will Patton is 69. Jazz bassist Marcus Miller is 64. Singer Boy George of Culture Club is 62. Actor Traylor Howard (“Monk,” ″Two Guys And A Girl”) is 57. Actor Yasmine Bleeth is 55. Actor Faizon Love (“The Parent ’Hood”) is 55. Actor Stephen Wallem (“Nurse Jackie”) is 55. Actor Sullivan Stapleton (“Blindspot”) is 46. Screenwriter Diablo Cody (“Juno”) is 45. Actor Lawrence Saint-Victor (“The Bold and the Beautiful,” ″Guiding Light”) is 41. Actor Torrance Coombs (“Reign,” “The Tudors”) is 40. Actor J.R. Martinez (“All My Children”) is 40. Actor Kevin McHale (“Glee”) is 35. Actor Lucy Hale (“Pretty Little Liars”) is 34. Singer Jesy Nelson of Little Mix is 32. Actor Daryl Sabara (“Spy Kids”) is 31.