Sunday, June 12

This Day In History

• 1665   England installed a municipal government in New York, formerly the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam.
• 1776   Virginia's colonial legislature became the first to adopt a Bill of Rights.
• 1838   The Iowa Territory was organized.
• 1839   According to legend, Abner Doubleday, who later became a major name in book publishing, created the game we know as baseball. It happened in Cooperstown, NY which, coincidentally, is the present home of the Baseball Hall of Fame.
• 1880   Baseball’s first El Perfecto, a perfect game, was recorded. A perfect game is when no batter reaches a base during a complete game of at least nine innings. A southpaw, left-handed Lee Richmond of the Worcester (Massachusetts) Ruby Legs, pitched himself to perfection with a 1-0 shutout of the Cleveland Spiders in a National League game. Five days later, on June 17, the second, official perfect game was pitched by John Ward in another National League game between Providence and Buffalo. It was two and a half decades later before this feat was accomplished again.
• 1898   Philippine nationalists declared independence from Spain.
• 1923   Harry Houdini, while in a straitjacket, suspended 40 feet in the air, amazed a large and quite disbelieving audience as he freed himself of the constraints.
• 1937   The Soviet Union executed eight army leaders during a purge under Josef Stalin.
• 1939   The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum was dedicated in Cooperstown, N.Y.
• 1963   Civil rights activist Medgar Evers was fatally shot in front of his home in Jackson, Miss.
• 1967   The Supreme Court struck down state laws prohibiting interracial marriages.
• 1971   Tricia Nixon and Edward F. Cox were married in the White House Rose Garden.
• 1978   David Berkowitz was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for each of the six ''Son of Sam'' .44-caliber killings that had terrified New Yorkers.
• 1987   President Ronald Reagan delivered a now-famous speech at the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin, “General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” Destruction began November 9, 1989 on the Berlin Wall that had divided the city for some 28 years.
• 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 held liable in a civil action.
• 1996   Senate Republicans chose Trent Lott of Mississippi to succeed Bob Dole as majority leader.
• 1997   Major league baseball began interleague play.
• 1997   The Treasury Department unveiled a new $50 bill meant to be more counterfeit-resistant.
• 1998   A jury in Hattiesburg, Miss., convicted 17-year-old Luke Woodham of killing two students and wounding seven others at Pearl High School.
• 1999   Thousands of NATO peacekeeping troops poured into Kosovo by air and by land; in a surprising move, a Russian armored column entered Pristina before dawn to a hero's welcome from Serb residents.
• 2002   Fashion designer Bill Blass died at age 79.

Happy Birthday To

• 1924   George (Herbert Walker) Bush (41st U.S. President [1989-1993]; married to Barbara Pierce [four sons, two daughters]; nickname: Poppy; VicePresident under President Reagan, U.S. Congressman from Texas, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N.; father of 43rd U.S. President George W. (Walker) Bush)
• 1928   Vic Damone (Vito Rocco Farinola) (singer)
• 1933   Jim Nabors (actor: Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C., The Andy Griffith Show)