Today is Friday, June 17, the 168th day of 2022. There are 197 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On June 17, 2015, nine people were shot to death in a historic African-American church in Charleston, South Carolina; suspect Dylann Roof was arrested the following morning. (Roof was convicted of federal hate crimes and sentenced to death; he later pleaded guilty to state murder charges and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.)
On this date:
In 1775, the Revolutionary War Battle of Bunker Hill resulted in a costly victory for the British, who suffered heavy losses.
In 1885, the Statue of Liberty arrived in New York Harbor aboard the French ship Isere.
In 1930, President Herbert Hoover signed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, which boosted U.S. tariffs to historically high levels, prompting foreign retaliation.
In 1963, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Abington (Pa.) School District v. Schempp, struck down, 8-1, rules requiring the recitation of the Lord’s Prayer or reading of Biblical verses in public schools.
In 1967, China successfully tested its first thermonuclear (hydrogen) bomb.
In 1972, President Richard Nixon’s eventual downfall began with the arrest of five burglars inside the Democratic headquarters in Washington, D.C.’s, Watergate complex.
In 1994, after leading police on a slow-speed chase on Southern California freeways, O.J. Simpson was arrested and charged with murder in the slayings of his ex-wife, Nicole, and her friend, Ronald Goldman. (Simpson was later acquitted in a criminal trial but held liable in a civil trial.)
In 2008, hundreds of same-sex couples got married across California on the first full day that gay marriage became legal by order of the state’s highest court.
Today’s Birthdays: Actor Peter Lupus is 90. Singer Barry Manilow is 79. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is 79. Comedian Joe Piscopo is 71. Actor Mark Linn-Baker is 68. Actor Greg Kinnear is 59. Actor Kami Cotler is 57. Olympic gold medal speed skater Dan Jansen is 57. Tennis player Venus Williams is 42. Rapper Kendrick Lamar is 35.
