This day in history

[June 18, 2011]  (AP)  Today is Saturday, June 18, the 169th day of 2011. There are 196 days left in the year.

Today's highlight in history:

On June 18, 1983, astronaut Sally K. Ride became America's first woman in space as she and four colleagues blasted off aboard the space shuttle Challenger.

On this date:

In 1778, American forces entered Philadelphia as the British withdrew during the Revolutionary War.

In 1812, the United States declared war against Britain.

In 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte met his Waterloo as British and Prussian troops defeated the French in Belgium.

In 1873, suffragist Susan B. Anthony was found guilty by a judge in Canandaigua, N.Y., of breaking the law by casting a vote in the 1872 presidential election. (The judge fined Anthony $100, but she never paid the penalty.)

In 1908, William Howard Taft was nominated for president by the Republican national convention in Chicago.

In 1940, during World War II, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill urged his countrymen to conduct themselves in a manner that would prompt future generations to say, "This was their finest hour." Charles de Gaulle delivered a speech on the BBC in which he rallied his countrymen after the fall of France to Nazi Germany.

In 1945, William Joyce, known as "Lord Haw-Haw," was charged in London with high treason for his English-language wartime broadcasts on German radio. (He was hanged the following January.)

In 1971, Southwest Airlines began operations, with flights between Dallas and San Antonio, and Dallas and Houston.

In 1979, President Jimmy Carter and Soviet President Leonid I. Brezhnev signed the SALT II strategic arms limitation treaty in Vienna.

In 1981, Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart announced his retirement; his departure paved the way for Sandra Day O'Connor to become the first female associate justice.

Ten years ago: A judge in Golden, Colo., sentenced two therapists, Connell Watkins and Julie Ponder, to 16 years in prison each for reckless child abuse in the death of 10-year-old Candace Newmaker, who had suffocated while wrapped in blankets during a "rebirthing" session. (Watkins was released from prison in 2008 to serve out the rest of her sentence at a halfway house; Ponder remains imprisoned.) Retief (reh-TEEF') Goosen won the U.S. Open in an 18-hole playoff with Mark Brooks.

Five years ago: Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori (SHOHR'-ee) was elected the first female presiding bishop for the Episcopal Church, the U.S. arm of the global Anglican Communion. Phil Mickelson's bid for a third consecutive major ended with a shocking collapse on the final hole, giving the U.S. Open to Geoff Ogilvy.

One year ago: Death row inmate Ronnie Lee Gardner died in a barrage of bullets as Utah carried out its first firing squad execution in 14 years. (Gardner had been sentenced to death for fatally shooting an attorney, Michael Burdell, during a failed escape attempt from a Salt Lake City courthouse.)

Today's birthdays: Columnist Tom Wicker is 85. Rock singer-composer-musician Sir Paul McCartney is 69. Movie critic Roger Ebert is 69. Actress Constance McCashin is 64. Actress Linda Thorson is 64. Rock musician John Evans (The Box Tops) is 63. Actress Isabella Rossellini is 59. Actress Carol Kane is 59. Actor Brian Benben is 55. Actress Andrea Evans is 54. Rock singer Alison Moyet is 50. Country singer-musician Tim Hunt is 44. Rock singer-musician Sice (The Boo Radleys) is 42. Rhythm-and-blues singer Nathan Morris (Boyz II Men) is 40. Actress Mara Hobel is 40. Rapper Silkk the Shocker is 36. Actress Alana de la Garza is 35. Country singer Blake Shelton is 35. Actress Renee Olstead is 22.

Thought for today: "Frailty, thy name is no longer woman." -- Victor Riesel, American labor journalist (1913-1995)

[Associated Press]

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