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 Today's
highlight in history:
On June 19, 1865, Union troops commanded by Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, with news that the Civil War was over, and that all remaining slaves in Texas were free. (This event is celebrated as "Juneteenth.")
On this date:
In 1862, slavery was outlawed in U.S. territories.
In 1910, Father's Day was celebrated for the first time, in Spokane, Wash.
In 1917, during World War I, King George V ordered the British royal family to dispense with German titles and surnames; the family took the name "Windsor."
In 1934, the Federal Communications Commission was created; it replaced the Federal Radio Commission.
In 1938, four dozen people were killed when a railroad bridge in Montana collapsed, sending a train known as the "Olympian" hurtling into Custer Creek.
In 1952, the celebrity-panel game show "I've Got A Secret" made its debut on CBS-TV with Garry Moore as host.
In 1953, Julius Rosenberg, 35, and his wife, Ethel, 37, convicted of conspiring to pass U.S. atomic secrets to the Soviet Union, were executed at Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, N.Y.
In 1964, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was approved by the Senate, 73-27, after surviving a lengthy filibuster.
In 1977, Pope Paul VI proclaimed a 19th-century Philadelphia bishop, John Neumann, the first male U.S. saint.
In 1986, University of Maryland basketball star Len Bias, the first draft pick of the Boston Celtics, suffered a fatal cocaine-induced seizure.
Ten years ago: Switzerland's three biggest banks offered $600 million to settle claims they'd stolen the assets of Holocaust victims; outraged Jewish leaders called the offer insultingly low. Pope John Paul II began his third visit to Austria. A study published in the British medical journal The Lancet said smoking more than doubles the risk of developing dementia and Alzheimer's disease.
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Five years ago: The FBI put cosmetics heir Andrew Luster aboard a plane in Mexico and flew him back to California, five months after he'd been convicted in absentia of drugging and raping three women. Federal authorities said an Ohio truck driver who met Osama bin Laden and admitted plots against trains and the Brooklyn Bridge had pleaded guilty to felony charges. The U.S. Air Force dropped manslaughter and aggravated assault charges against two fighter pilots who'd mistakenly bombed Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan in 2002. One pilot was later found guilty of dereliction of duty, and reprimanded.
One year ago: A truck bomb struck a Shiite mosque in central Baghdad, killing at least 87 people. President Bush and visiting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert sided emphatically with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in his standoff with the militant group Hamas. The space shuttle Atlantis undocked from the international space station for its return to earth.
Today's birthdays: Actress Gena Rowlands is 78. Singer Spanky McFarlane (Spanky and Our Gang) is 66. Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi is 63. Actress Phylicia Rashad is 60. Rock singer Ann Wilson (Heart) is 58. Musician Larry Dunn is 55. Actress Kathleen Turner is 54. Country singer Doug Stone is 52. Singer Mark DeBarge is 49. Singer-dancer-"American Idol" judge Paula Abdul is 46. Actor Andy Lauer is 45. Rock singer-musician Brian Vander Ark (Verve Pipe) is 44. Rock musician Brian "Head" Welch is 38. Actress Robin Tunney is 36. Actor Bumper Robinson is 34. Actress Poppy Montgomery is 33. Actress Zoe Saldana is 30. Actor Paul Dano is 24.
Thought for today: "One has two duties -- to be worried and not to be worried."
-- E.M. Forster, British author (1879-1970)
[Associated Press]
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
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