Today’s Highlight in History:<br>
On June 21, 1788, the United States Constitution went into effect as New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify it.
On this date:
In 1377, King Edward III died after ruling England for 50 years; he was succeeded by his grandson, Richard II.
In 1834, Cyrus Hall McCormick received a patent for his reaping machine.
In 1942, an Imperial Japanese submarine fired shells at Fort Stevens on the Oregon coast, causing little damage.
In 1954, the American Cancer Society presented a study to the American Medical Association meeting in San Francisco which found that men who regularly smoked cigarettes died at a considerably higher rate than non-smokers.
In 1964, civil rights workers Michael H. Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James E. Chaney were slain in Philadelphia, Mississippi; their bodies were found buried in an earthen dam six weeks later. (Forty-one years later on this date in 2005, Edgar Ray Killen, an 80-year-old former Ku Klux Klansman, was found guilty of manslaughter; he was sentenced to 60 years in prison, where he died in January 2018.)
In 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Miller v. California, ruled that states may ban materials found to be obscene according to local standards.
In 1977, Menachem Begin (men-AH’-kem BAY’-gihn) of the Likud bloc became Israel’s sixth prime minister.
In 1982, a jury in Washington, D.C. found John Hinckley Jr. not guilty by reason of insanity in the shootings of President Ronald Reagan and three other men.
In 1989, a sharply divided Supreme Court ruled that burning the American flag as a form of political protest was protected by the First Amendment.
In 1997, the WNBA made its debut as the New York Liberty defeated the host Los Angeles Sparks 67-57.
In 2010, Faisal Shahzad (FY’-sul shah-ZAHD’), a Pakistan-born U.S. citizen, pleaded guilty to charges of plotting a failed car bombing in New York’s Times Square. (Shahzad was later sentenced to life in prison.)
In 2011, the Food and Drug Administration announced that cigarette packs in the U.S. would have to carry macabre images that included rotting teeth and gums, diseased lungs and a sewn-up corpse of a smoker as part of a graphic campaign aimed at discouraging Americans from lighting up.
In 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously threw out penalties against Fox and ABC television stations that violated the Federal Communications Commission policy regulating curse words and nudity on television, but the justices declined to issue a broader constitutional ruling. Miami’s LeBron James capped his title bid with 26 points, 13 assists and 11 rebounds as he led the Heat in a 121-106 rout of the Oklahoma City Thunder to win the NBA Finals in five games. Broadway composer-lyricist Richard Adler, 90, died in Southhampton, New York.
In 2017, Edmonton’s Connor McDavid won the Hart Trophy as the NHL’s most valuable player at the league’s postseason awards show in Las Vegas.
In 2018, First lady Melania Trump visited with migrant children during a brief stop at a Texas facility housing some children separated from their parents at the border; she caused a stir when she left Washington wearing a green, hooded military jacket with lettering that said, “I REALLY DON’T CARE, DO U?”.
In 2021, the town council in Amherst, Massachusetts, created a fund to pay reparations to Black residents; the move came as communities and institutions looked for ways to atone for slavery, discrimination and past wrongs amid the nation’s ongoing racial reckoning. Raiders defensive lineman Carl Nassib became the first active player in NFL history to publicly declare that he was gay. (Nassib would get support from his teammates and the Raiders, but was cut in March 2022 in a salary cap move.) Major League Baseball umpires began doing regular checks of all pitchers for tacky substances that could be used to doctor baseballs.
In 2022, the House Jan. 6 committee heard testimony that Donald Trump’s relentless pressure to overturn the 2020 presidential election led to widespread threats against local workers and state officials. A month after the Uvalde, Texas school massacre, the state’s public safety chief testified that police had enough officers on the scene to have stopped a gunman three minutes after he entered the building and killed 19 students and two teachers. Officers with rifles instead stood and waited in a hallway for more than an hour before they finally stormed the classroom and killed the gunman. Józef Walaszczyk, a member of the Polish resistance who rescued dozens of Jews during the Nazi German occupation of Poland during World War II, died at age 102.
Celebrity Birthdays
June 21: Actor Bernie Kopell (“The Love Boat”) is 90. Actor Monte Markham is 88. Actor Mariette Hartley is 83. Comedian Joe Flaherty (“SCTV”) is 82. Musician Ray Davies of The Kinks is 79. Actor Meredith Baxter (“Family Ties”) is 76. Actor Michael Gross (“Family Ties”) is 76. Guitarist Joey Molland of Badfinger is 76. Drummer Joey Kramer of Aerosmith is 73. Guitarist Nils Lofgren is 72. Actor Robyn Douglass (TV’s “Galactica,” film’s “Breaking Away”) is 71. Actor Leigh McCloskey (“Dallas”) is 68. Cartoonist Berke Breathed (“Opus,” ″Bloom County”) is 66. Actor Josh Pais (“Ray Donovan”) is 65. Country singer Kathy Mattea is 64. Actor Marc Copage (“Julia”) is 61. Actor Doug Savant (“Desperate Housewives,” ″Melrose Place”) is 59. Guitarist Porter Howell of Little Texas is 59. Actor Michael Dolan (“Hamburger Hill,” “Biloxi Blues”) is 58. Filmmaker Lana Wachowski (“The Matrix,” “Speed Racer”) is 58. Actor Carrie Preston (“The Good Wife”) is 56. Actor Paula Irvine (“Santa Barbara”) is 55. Country singer Allison Moorer is 51. Actor Juliette Lewis is 50. Actor Maggie Siff (“Mad Men”) is 49. Bassist Justin Cary (Sixpence None the Richer) is 48. Guitarist Mike Einziger of Incubus is 47. Actor Chris Pratt (“Jurassic World,” ″Guardians of the Galaxy”) is 44. Singer Brandon Flowers of The Killers is 42. Actor Jussie Smollett (“Empire”) is 41. Actor Michael Malarkey (“The Vampire Diaries”) is 40. Singer Kris Allen (“American Idol”) is 38. Singer Lana Del Rey is 38. Actor Jascha Washington (“Big Momma’s House” films) is 34. Bassist Chandler Baldwin of LANCO is 31. Singer Rebecca Black is 26.