Today in History

[goofywife]

1968: Robert Kennedy is shot

Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, U.S. presidential candidate, was shot in the head and neck at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California, today. Kennedy was leaving a campaign rally when assassin Sirhan Sirhan fired the shots.

"The 42-year-old brother of the late President Kennedy was shot from about three feet away by a swarthy man in his 20's who was subdued by three Kennedy aides but not until he had emptied all eight bullets from a .22 caliber revolver toward the senator," reported the Bucks County Courier Times on June 5, 1968. "Kennedy's wife Ethel, who is expecting their 11th child, was not hurt."

NOTE: Kennedy died the day after the shooting occurred, and Sirhan was convicted in 1969 and sentenced to life in prison. After Kennedy's death, the U.S. Secret Service extended its protection to include presidential candidates.

2004: Ronald Reagan dies

"Ronald Reagan, the cheerful crusader who devoted his presidency to winning the Cold War, trying to scale back government and making people believe it was 'morning again in America,' died Saturday after a long twilight struggle with Alzheimer's disease," informed The Intelligencer on June 6, 2004. NOTE: Since Reagan’s death, his widow Nancy Reagan has been a staunch advocate of stem-cell research, stating that she believes that it could lead to a cure for Alzheimer’s disease.

1981: Report introduces first recognized AIDS case

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a report today announcing that rare cases of pneumonia were found among five homosexual men in Los Angeles, California. "The AIDS epidemic - a wave of death spread by sex, blood, birth and dirty drug needles - officially began," explained North Hills News Record on June 5, 1996, referring to the report that was issued 15 years earlier. "And social observers were making bold predictions. The sexual revolution was over, early marriage and premarital virginity would come back into vogue and the drug war would be transformed."

1967: Six-Day War begins in Mideast

"For the third time in 20 years, war broke out today in the Middle East and gunfire sounded in Israel and in three of its Arab neighbors - Egypt, Jordan and Syria. The Arabs, sworn to destroy Israel, were battling the Jewish state's forces on two fronts, at Egypt's Sinai frontier and on the Syria and Jordan borders. Each side accused the other of lighting the fuse for the explosion which, as in 1956, threatened to involve the major powers," reported the Oshkosh Daily Northwestern on June 5, 1967. NOTE: By the end of the war, Israel had gained control of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, two areas under disputed ownership to this day.

1947: Marshall Plan speech is given

U.S. Secretary of State George Marshall gave a speech at Harvard University today asking for economic aid to be sent to war-torn Europe. On June 5, 1947, the Middletown Times Herald reported, "Secretary of State George C. Marshall, in a thinly-veiled attack on communist tactics, warned today that the United States would oppose firmly any governments or groups that sought to 'perpetuate human misery' for political purposes. At the same time, Marshall declared that this country must extend Europe additional financial help for the next three or four years to prevent crises of 'grave character.'"

[Janet]

You know Michelle, I love these posts so much. Some things of course, I remember, but they just don't seem like they happened soooo long ago. Other things seemed like just a few weeks.

[goofywife]

I totally agree. As I posted the one on the Bombing, it seems like it was just last year. I am getting old!

Originally Posted by Janet

You know Michelle, I love these posts so much. Some things of course, I remember, but they just don't seem like they happened soooo long ago. Other things seemed like just a few weeks.

[goofywife]

1944: D-Day
Allied forces launched one of the largest amphibious assaults in history on the northern coast of France today, beginning the final chapter in the World War II defeat of Nazi Germany. The military operation (named Overlord) was postponed on June 5 due to poor weather.

"The British, Canadian and American assault forces which stormed the beaches of Normandy were being reinforced constantly by hundreds of gliders and by surface craft sailing in to the coast from which the Germans had been driven," reported the Winnipeg Free Press on June 7, 1944.

NOTE: The 130,000 troop Normandy landing was the largest single-day invasion in history. By August 25, Allied forces liberated Paris.

1985: Nazi "Angel of Death" found in Brazil
Police in Brazil reported today that they unearthed a body in Embu, 17 miles from Sao Paulo, which they believe is Josef Mengele, the Nazi "Angel of Death" during World War II. "Robert Mengele, 41, broke years of silence last week to announce that his father, implicated in the death of more than 400,000 concentration camp inmates, had died in 1979. He said he was certain that remains exhumed June 6 near Sao Paulo, Brazil, are his father's," explained The Daily Intelligencer on June 19, 1985. NOTE: In 1992, DNA tests confirmed the conclusions of the police report.

1971: The Ed Sullivan Show ends
The Ed Sullivan Show ended today with a re-run, but not without a few personal comments from Ed Sullivan before the show's close. "Not for its artistic quality, but for its historical interest, The Ed Sullivan Show is worth seeing. It's the last. Ed exits, smiling, with a repeat of a typical Ed Sullivan mish-mash of acts, perhaps a bit better than usual but still the same old vaudeville turns," informed The Odessa American on June 6, 1971.


1968: Robert Kennedy dies
Senator Robert F. Kennedy died at 1:44 a.m. PDT today, a little more than 24 hours after he was shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. "Robert Kennedy, 42, never regained consciousness, never showed signs of recovery after a savage burst of revolver fire sent a bullet plunging into his brain – at the pinnacle of his own campaign for the White House," reported the Panama City Herald on June 6, 1968. NOTE: President Johnson called for a national day of mourning, while Gov. Ronald Reagan proclaimed a state of mourning in California.

1966: Meredith is shot during civil rights march
James Meredith, the first African-American to attend the University of Mississippi, was shot during a civil rights march from Memphis to Jackson today. "An unemployed white hardware clerk from Memphis, Aubrey James Norvell, 40, was trapped in the woods with a shotgun in his hand and admitted to the shooting. He was jailed overnight and was scheduled for a hearing today on charges of assault and battery with intent to murder," The Valley Independent reported on June 7, 1966. NOTE: The photograph of Meredith after being shot won the Pulitzer Prize for Photography in 1967. Meredith fully recovered.

[DianaB]

Today is Dae Lynn's birthday (26) and the anniversary of my Dad's death (2 years ago).

[Janet]

Well tell Dae Lynn ..Happy Birthday. Hopefully I'll be able to meet her and her mother someday. It's hard to believe but my dad has been gone 34 years come this August. I still miss him so much. He would be so amazed with the technology today. He didn't even like 'dialing' the phone..he would always ask me to do it for him.

[goofywife]

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.