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June 7th
1982: Graceland opens to the public
Priscilla Presley allowed public tours into Graceland for the first time today, almost five years after Elvis' death. "Graceland officials readied the 14-acre estate for 21,000 visitors to take the two-hour tour this week, with peeks at the living, dining, jungle and television rooms, and on to the trophy room, where Presley's awards are housed," explained the Syracuse Herald Journal on June 7, 1982. "The tour ends in the meditation garden where the singer, his parents and grandmother are buried."
1966: Reagan receives nomination for California governor
"Actor Ronald Reagan won the Republican gubernatorial nomination in a landslide in his first try for political office and prepared today to battle California's two-term Democratic Gov. Edmund G. Brown in November," informed the Bucks County Courier on June 8, 1966. "Reagan, one of Hollywood's leading men in the 1940's and more recently a television personality, crushed former San Francisco Mayor George Christopher under a wave of votes from populous Southern California in Tuesday's primary." NOTE: Reagan went on to win the election, serving as the governor of California until 1975.
1965: Supreme Court recognizes contraceptive rights
In the case of Griswold v. Connecticut, the Supreme Court today struck down the Connecticut anti-birth control law, which disallowed all contraceptive use. "The vote was 7 to 2, with Justice William O. Douglas speaking for the majority. Douglas based his reasoning on the principle that 'a governmental purpose to control or prevent activities constitutionally subject to state regulation may not be achieved by means which sweep unnecessarily broadly and thereby invade the area of protected freedom,'" reported the Oshkosh Daily Northwestern on June 7, 1965.
1942: Battle of Midway ends
American planes defeated a Japanese fleet that was headed to invade the Midway Islands today. "The victory off Midway, ranking with the greatest in United States naval history, undoubtedly brought greatly nearer the zero hour for an all-out attack against Japan by the Allied Nations. This was made certain by crippling blows to the enemy fleet and its air arm. As in the battle of the Coral Sea, which opened the second phase of the war in the Pacific, air power played the principal part in repelling the attempted invasion of Midway," explained The Gleaner on June 9, 1942.
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