Today’s Highlight in History:<br>
On June 9,1969, the Senate confirmed Warren Burger to be the new chief justice of the United States, succeeding Earl Warren.
On this date:
In 1732, James Oglethorpe received a charter from Britain’s King George II to found the colony of Georgia.
In 1870, author Charles Dickens died in Gad’s Hill Place, England.
In 1915, guitarist, songwriter and inventor Les Paul was born in Waukesha, Wisconsin.
In 1940, during World War II, Norway decided to surrender to the Nazis, effective at midnight.
In 1954, during the Senate Army-McCarthy hearings, Army special counsel Joseph N. Welch berated Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy, R-Wis., asking: “Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?”
In 1972, heavy rains triggered record flooding in the Black Hills of South Dakota; the resulting disaster left at least 238 people dead and $164 million in damage.
In 1978, leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints struck down a 148-year-old policy of excluding black men from the Mormon priesthood.
In 1983, Britain’s Conservatives, led by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, won a decisive election victory.
In 1986, the Rogers Commission released its report on the Challenger disaster, criticizing NASA and rocket-builder Morton Thiokol for management problems leading to the explosion that claimed the lives of seven astronauts.
In 1993, the science-fiction film “Jurassic Park,” directed by Steven Spielberg, had its world premiere in Washington, D.C.
In 2004, the body of Ronald Reagan arrived in Washington to lie in state in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda before the 40th president’s funeral.
In 2012: Spain became the fourth and largest country to ask Europe to rescue its failing banks (however, the bailout was averted). Maria Sharapova (shah-rah-POH’-vah) won the French Open, defeating Sara Errani 6-3, 6-2 to complete the career Grand Slam.
In 2017: Punching back a day after his fired FBI director’s damaging testimony, President Donald Trump accused James Comey of lying to Congress and said he was “100 percent” willing to testify under oath about their conversations. Actor Adam West, TV’s “Batman,” died in Los Angeles at age 88.
In 2020, hundreds of mourners packed a Houston church for the funeral of George Floyd, a Black man whose death during a Minneapolis arrest inspired a worldwide reckoning over racial injustice.
In 2021: The sponsor of the Keystone XL crude oil pipeline said it was pulling the plug on the contentious project after Canadian officials failed to persuade the Biden administration to reverse its cancellation of the company’s permit; the partially built line was intended to transport crude from the oil sand fields of western Canada to Nebraska. The White House dropped executive orders from the Trump era that were intended to ban the popular apps TikTok and WeChat; officials said there would be a new review aimed at identifying national security risks with software applications tied to China.