Wednesday, June 8

This Day In History

• 632   The prophet Mohammed died.
• 1786   Commercial ice cream was manufactured for the first time -- in New York City.
• 1845   Andrew Jackson, the seventh president of the United States, died in Nashville, Tenn., at age 78.
• 1861   Tennessee seceded from the Union.
• 1872   A little-remembered piece of history happened on this day: The U.S. Congress authorized the penny postal card.
• 1915   Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan resigned in a disagreement over U.S. handling of the sinking of the Lusitania.
• 1948   The ''Texaco Star Theater'' made its debut on NBC-TV with Milton Berle as guest host.
• 1953   The Supreme Court ruled that restaurants in the District of Columbia could not refuse to serve blacks.
• 1967   Israeli forces raided the Liberty, a U.S. Navy ship stationed in the Mediterranean, killing 34. Israel called the attack a tragic mistake.
• 1969   The New York Yankees retired Mickey Mantle's uniform No. 7 during ''Mickey Mantle Day'' at Yankee Stadium.
• 1978   A jury in Clark County, Nev., ruled the so-called ''Mormon will,'' purportedly written by the late billionaire Howard Hughes, was a forgery.
• 1982   in the first speech by an American president to a joint session of the British Parliament, President Reagan predicted that Marxism-Leninism would wind up "on the ash heap of history."
• 1987   Fawn Hall, secretary to national security aide Oliver L. North, testified at the Iran-Contra hearings, saying she had helped to shred some documents.
• 1995   U.S. Marines rescued Capt. Scott O'Grady, whose F16-C fighter jet had been shot down by Bosnian Serbs on June 2.
• 1998   The National Rifle Association elected actor Charlton Heston its president.
• 2001   A knife-wielding man killed eight children at a Japanese elementary school.
• 2001   British Prime Minister Tony Blair was elected to a second term in a landslide.

Happy Birthday To

• May 26, 1907)
• 1867   Frank Lloyd Wright (architect
• 1918   Robert Preston (Meservey)
• 1925   Barbara Bush (Pierce) (First Lady: wife of 41st President of the U.S., George Bush)
• 1933   Joan Rivers (Joan Alexandra Molinsky) (comedienne)
• 1940   Nancy Sinatra
• 1944   Don Grady (Agrati) (actor: My Three Sons, Mickey Mouse Club)