Today is Friday, June 12, the 164th day of 2020. There are 202 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On June 12, 1994, Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman were slashed to death outside her Los Angeles home. (O.J. Simpson was later acquitted of the killings in a criminal trial but was eventually held liable in a civil action.)
On this date:
In 1630, Englishman John Winthrop, leading a fleet carrying Puritan refugees, arrived at the Massachusetts Bay Colony, where he became its governor.
In 1898, Philippine nationalists declared independence from Spain.
In 1942, Anne Frank, a German-born Jewish girl living in Amsterdam, received a diary for her 13th birthday, less than a month before she and her family went into hiding from the Nazis.
In 1963, civil rights leader Medgar Evers, 37, was shot and killed outside his home in Jackson, Mississippi. (In 1994, Byron De La Beckwith was convicted of murdering Evers and sentenced to life in prison; he died in 2001.)
In 1964, South African black nationalist Nelson Mandela was sentenced to life in prison along with seven other people, including Walter Sisulu, for committing sabotage against the apartheid regime (all were eventually released, Mandela in 1990).
In 1967, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Loving v. Virginia, unanimously struck down state laws prohibiting interracial marriages.
In 1978, David Berkowitz was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for each of the six “Son of Sam” .44-caliber killings that terrified New Yorkers.
In 1981, major league baseball players began a 49-day strike over the issue of free-agent compensation. (The season did not resume until Aug. 10.) “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones, was first released.
In 1987, President Ronald Reagan, during a visit to the divided German city of Berlin, exhorted Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev to “tear down this wall.”
In 1997, baseball began regular-season interleague play, ending a 126-year tradition of separating the major leagues until the World Series. (In the first game played under this arrangement, the San Francisco Giants defeated the Texas Rangers 4-3.)
In 2004, former President Ronald Reagan’s body was sealed inside a tomb at his presidential library in Simi Valley, California, following a week of mourning and remembrance by world leaders and regular Americans.
In 2016, an American-born Muslim opened fire at the Pulse nightclub, a gay establishment in Orlando, Florida, leaving 49 people dead and 53 wounded before being shot dead by police.
Ten years ago: A French fishing vessel rescued 16-year-old Abby Sunderland from her crippled sailboat in the turbulent southern Indian Ocean, ending the California teen’s attempt to sail around the world solo. Ethnic riots wracked southern Kyrgyzstan, forcing thousands of Uzbeks to flee their homes. Daniel Nava hit the first pitch he saw as a big leaguer for a grand slam — only the second player to do it — leading the Boston Red Sox to a 10-2 rout of the Philadelphia Phillies.
Five years ago: Joyce Mitchell, a worker at the maximum-security Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York, was arrested on charges of helping two convicted killers escape; Mitchell later pleaded guilty to promoting prison contraband and was sentenced to 2-1/3 to seven years in prison.
One year ago: President Donald Trump said if a foreign power offered dirt on his 2020 opponent, he’d be open to accepting it, telling ABC News, “There’s nothing wrong with listening.” (Two days later, Trump shifted gears, saying that “of course” he would go to the FBI or the attorney general to report such an offer.) Maine Gov. Janet Mills signed legislation that legalized medically assisted suicide; Maine became the eighth state to allow terminally ill people to end their lives with prescribed medication. U.S. Catholic bishops voted to create a new national sex-abuse hotline run by an independent entity; it would field allegations that bishops committed abuse or covered it up. The St. Louis Blues won their first Stanley Cup, beating the Boston Bruins 4-1 in Game 7 of the NHL finals.
Today’s Birthdays: Songwriter Richard M. Sherman is 92. Jazz musician Chick Corea is 79. Sportscaster Marv Albert is 79. Singer Roy Harper is 79. Pop singer Len Barry is 78. Actor Roger Aaron Brown is 71. Actress Sonia Manzano is 70. Rock musician Bun E. Carlos (Cheap Trick) is 69. Country singer-musician Junior Brown is 68. Singer-songwriter Rocky Burnette is 67. Actor Timothy Busfield is 63. Singer Meredith Brooks is 62. Actress Jenilee Harrison is 62. Rock musician John Linnell (They Might Be Giants) is 61. Actor John Enos is 58. Rapper Grandmaster Dee (Whodini) is 58. Actor Paul Schulze is 58. Actor Eamonn Walker is 58. Actress Paula Marshall is 56. Actress Frances O’Connor is 53. Rock musician Bardi Martin is 51. Actor Rick Hoffman is 50. Actor-comedian Finesse Mitchell is 48. Actor Mel Rodriguez is 47. Actor Jason Mewes is 46. Actor Michael Muhney is 45. Blues musician Kenny Wayne Shepherd is 43. Actor Timothy Simons is 42. Actor Wil Horneff is 41. Singer Robyn is 41. Rock singer-musician John Gourley (Portugal. The Man) is 39. Actor Dave Franco is 35. Country singer Chris Young is 35. Actor Luke Youngblood is 34. Actor Ryan Malgarini is 28.
Thought for Today: “It is easier to love humanity as a whole than to love one’s neighbor.” — Eric Hoffer, American philosopher (1902-1983).
