Post by MacBeth on Jun 12, 2009 7:05:52 GMT -5
In 1665, England installed a municipal government in New York, formerly the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam.
In 1776, Virginia's colonial legislature became the first to adopt a Bill of Rights.
In 1880, Lee Richmond of the Worcester Ruby Legs pitched the first perfect game in major league history in a 1-0 victory over the Cleveland Blues.
In 1898, Philippine nationalists declared independence from Spain.
In 1909, New York's Queensboro Bridge was formally dedicated, more than two months after it had opened to the public.
In 1929, Holocaust diarist Anne Frank was born in Frankfurt.
In 1939, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum was dedicated in Cooperstown, N.Y.
In 1963, civil rights lawyer Medgar Evers is shot dead in the driveway of his home in Philadelphia, Mississippi. The assassin, a Klansman named Byron De La Beckwith, dodges prison when two all-white juries return hung verdicts, but is finally convicted of the crime in 1994.
In 1967, the Supreme Court, in Loving v. Virginia, struck down state laws prohibiting interracial marriages.
In 1978, David Berkowitz is sentenced to 365 consecutive years in prison without the possibility of parole. Berkowitz killed six New Yorkers between 1976 and 1977, known collectively as the Son of Sam murders.
In 1979, 26-year-old cyclist Bryan Allen flew the manpowered Gossamer Albatross across the English Channel.
In 1987, President Ronald Reagan, during a visit to a divided Berlin, publicly challenged Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev to "tear down this wall."
In 1991, after 500 years of silence, Mount Pinatubo erupts, making an estimated 100,000 homeless and killing 300. Two U.S. military bases, Clark Air Force Base and Subic Bay Naval Base, are abandoned. The blast is ten times larger than the eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980.
In 1994, Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman were slashed to death outside her Los Angeles home; her former husband, football Hall of Famer O.J. Simpson, was later acquitted of the killings in a criminal trial, but held liable in a civil action.
In 1999, thousands of NATO peacekeeping troops poured into Kosovo by air and by land; but in a surprising move, a Russian armored column entered Pristina before dawn to a heroes' welcome from Serb residents.
In 2004, Former President Ronald Reagan's body was sealed inside a tomb at his presidential library in Simi Valley, Calif., following a week of mourning and remembrance by world leaders and regular Americans.
In 2008, in a stinging rebuke to President George W. Bush's anti-terror policies, a deeply divided Supreme Court ruled that foreign detainees held for years at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba had the right to appeal to U.S. civilian courts to challenge their indefinite imprisonment without charges. Three heavily armed robbers stole two Pablo Picasso prints, "The Painter and the Model" and "Minotaur, Drinker and Women," from a museum in Sao Paulo, Brazil. (The prints were later recovered.) Taiwan and China agreed to set up permanent offices in each other's territory for the first time in nearly six decades.
In 1776, Virginia's colonial legislature became the first to adopt a Bill of Rights.
In 1880, Lee Richmond of the Worcester Ruby Legs pitched the first perfect game in major league history in a 1-0 victory over the Cleveland Blues.
In 1898, Philippine nationalists declared independence from Spain.
In 1909, New York's Queensboro Bridge was formally dedicated, more than two months after it had opened to the public.
In 1929, Holocaust diarist Anne Frank was born in Frankfurt.
In 1939, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum was dedicated in Cooperstown, N.Y.
In 1963, civil rights lawyer Medgar Evers is shot dead in the driveway of his home in Philadelphia, Mississippi. The assassin, a Klansman named Byron De La Beckwith, dodges prison when two all-white juries return hung verdicts, but is finally convicted of the crime in 1994.
In 1967, the Supreme Court, in Loving v. Virginia, struck down state laws prohibiting interracial marriages.
In 1978, David Berkowitz is sentenced to 365 consecutive years in prison without the possibility of parole. Berkowitz killed six New Yorkers between 1976 and 1977, known collectively as the Son of Sam murders.
In 1979, 26-year-old cyclist Bryan Allen flew the manpowered Gossamer Albatross across the English Channel.
In 1987, President Ronald Reagan, during a visit to a divided Berlin, publicly challenged Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev to "tear down this wall."
In 1991, after 500 years of silence, Mount Pinatubo erupts, making an estimated 100,000 homeless and killing 300. Two U.S. military bases, Clark Air Force Base and Subic Bay Naval Base, are abandoned. The blast is ten times larger than the eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980.
In 1994, Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman were slashed to death outside her Los Angeles home; her former husband, football Hall of Famer O.J. Simpson, was later acquitted of the killings in a criminal trial, but held liable in a civil action.
In 1999, thousands of NATO peacekeeping troops poured into Kosovo by air and by land; but in a surprising move, a Russian armored column entered Pristina before dawn to a heroes' welcome from Serb residents.
In 2004, Former President Ronald Reagan's body was sealed inside a tomb at his presidential library in Simi Valley, Calif., following a week of mourning and remembrance by world leaders and regular Americans.
In 2008, in a stinging rebuke to President George W. Bush's anti-terror policies, a deeply divided Supreme Court ruled that foreign detainees held for years at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba had the right to appeal to U.S. civilian courts to challenge their indefinite imprisonment without charges. Three heavily armed robbers stole two Pablo Picasso prints, "The Painter and the Model" and "Minotaur, Drinker and Women," from a museum in Sao Paulo, Brazil. (The prints were later recovered.) Taiwan and China agreed to set up permanent offices in each other's territory for the first time in nearly six decades.