Today in History: June 25th
Today is Thursday, June 25, the 176th day of 2009. There are 189 days left in the year.
Today's Highlight in History:
On June 25, 1950, war broke out in Korea as forces from the communist North invaded the South.
On this date:
In 1788, Virginia ratified the U.S. Constitution.
In 1868, Congress passed an Omnibus Act allowing for the readmission of Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina to the Union.
In 1876, Lt. Col. Colonel George A. Custer and his Seventh Cavalry were wiped out by Sioux and Cheyenne Indians in the Battle of the Little Bighorn in Montana.
In 1906, architect Stanford White was shot to death atop New York's Madison Square Garden, which he had designed, by millionaire Harry K. Thaw, the jealous husband of Evelyn Nesbit. (Thaw was acquitted of murder by reason of insanity.)
In 1938, the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 was enacted.
In 1942, some 1,000 British Royal Air Force bombers raided Bremen, Germany, during World War II.
In 1959, spree killer Charles Starkweather, 20, was put to death in Nebraska's electric chair. Eamon de Valera was inaugurated as president of Ireland.
In 1962, the Supreme Court, in Engel v. Vitale, ruled that recital of a state-sponsored prayer in New York State public schools was unconstitutional.
In 1973, former White House Counsel John W. Dean began testifying before the Senate Watergate Committee.
In 1996, a truck bomb killed 19 Americans and injured hundreds at a U.S. military housing complex in Saudi Arabia.
Ten years ago: During a news conference, President Bill Clinton said the people of Serbia had to "get out of denial" about the atrocities blamed on Slobodan Milosevic and decide if he was fit to remain president of Yugoslavia. The San Antonio Spurs won their first NBA title as they defeated the New York Knicks, 78-77, in Game 5 of their championship series.
Five years ago: Republican Jack Ryan withdrew from the U.S. Senate race in Illinois after allegations of sex-club visits with his then-wife, actress Jeri Ryan. President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, opened a European trip as they arrived in Ireland. Taliban fighters killed up to 16 men after learning they had registered for Afghanistan's U.S.-backed national elections.
One year ago: A divided Supreme Court struck down a Louisiana law that allowed capital punishment for people convicted of raping children under 12; the ruling also invalidated laws in five other states that allowed executions for child rape that did not result in the death of the victim. A jury in Woburn, Mass., convicted Neil Entwistle of first-degree murder in the deaths of his wife, Rachel, 27, and their 9-month-old baby, Lillian Rose. (Entwistle was sentenced the next day to two life prison terms without possibility of parole.) Wesley N. Higdon, 25, shot and killed five workers and himself at a western Kentucky plastics plant; a sixth victim survived.
Today's Birthdays:
* Movie director Sidney Lumet is 85.
* Actress June Lockhart is 84.
* Rhythm-and-blues singer Eddie Floyd is 72.
* Actress Barbara Montgomery is 70.
* Basketball Hall-of-Famer Willis Reed is 67.
* Writer-producer-director Gary David Goldberg is 65.
* Singer Carly Simon is 64.
* Rock musician Allen Lanier (Blue Oyster Cult) is 63.
* Rock musician Ian McDonald (Foreigner; King Crimson) is 63.
* Actor-comedian Jimmie Walker is 62.
* Actor-director Michael Lembeck is 61.
* TV personality Phyllis George is 60.
* Rock singer Tim Finn is 57.
* Rock musician David Paich (Toto) is 55.
* Actor Michael Sabatino is 54.
* Actor-writer-director Ricky Gervais is 48.
* Actor John Benjamin Hickey is 46.
* Rock singer George Michael is 46.
* Actress Erica Gimpel is 45.
* Basketball player Dikembe Mutombo is 43.
* Rapper-producer Richie Rich is 42.
* Rapper Candyman is 41.
* Contemporary Christian musician Sean Kelly (Sixpence None the Richer) is 38.
* Actress Angela Kinsey (TV: "The Office") is 38.
* Rock musician Mike Kroeger (Nickelback) is 37.
* Rock musician Mario Calire is 35.
* Actress Linda Cardellini is 34.
* Actress Busy Philipps is 30.
Famous Deaths on this Day in History
635 - Emperor Gaozu, first emperor of the Chinese Tang Dynasty (b. 566)
1134 - King Niels of Denmark
1142 - Gulielmus of Vercelli, Italian hermit/monastery founder/saint, dies
1212 - Simon de Montfort, a leader of the crusades, dies at 67
1218 - Simon de Montfort, 5th Earl of Leicester, French crusader (b. 1160)
1423 - Reinald IV, duke of Gelre & Gulik (Reinoud I), dies
1483 - Edward V, king of England (Apr 9-Jun 25, 1483), murdered
1483 - Anthony Woodville, 2nd Earl Rivers, English writer
1514 - Berta Jacobsdr, [Suster Bertken], Dutch hermit, dies at 87
1522 - Franchinus Gaffurius, composer, dies at 71
1533 - Mary Tudor, queen consort of Louis XII of France (b. 1496)
1579 - Hatano Hideharu, Japanese warlord and samurai (b. 1541)
1593 - Michele Mercati, Italian physician and gardener (b. 1541)
1634 - John Marston, English playwright (b. 1576)
1665 - Archduke Sigismund Francis of Austria (b. 1630)
1669 - François de Vendôme, duc de Beaufort, French soldier (b. 1616)
1671 - Giovanni Battista Riccioli, Italian astronomer (b. 1598)
1673 - Charles de Batz-Castelmore, Comte d'Artagnan, Captain of the Musketeers under Louis XIV of France (b. 1611)
1686 - Simon Ushakov, Russian painter (b. 1626)
1710 - Antonius Matthaeus, Dutch lawyer/historian, dies at 74
1715 - Jean du Casse, French admiral (b. 1646)
1767 - Georg Philipp Telemann, German late-barok composer, dies at 86
1785 - Pierre Talon, composer, dies at 63
1785 - Pieter Kintsius, VOC-supercarga/chief on Macau, dies at 53
1792 - Thomas Peters, Early Sierra Leonean founder (b. 1738)
1798 - Thomas Sandby, English architect (b. 1721)
1822 - Ernst T Amadeus Hoffmann, German writer/judge/composer, dies at 46
1838 - François Nicolas Benoît, Baron Haxo, French general (b. 1774)
1840 - Leopold count of Limburg Stirum, Dutch general/politician, dies at 82
1861 - Abd-ul-Mejid, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1823)
1866 - Alexander von Nordmann, Finnish zoologist (b. 1803)
1868 - Carlo Matteucci, Italian physicist (b. 1811)
1875 - Antoine-Louis Barye, French sculptor (b. 1796)
1876 - Boston Custer, brother of George Custer, dies at Little Bighorn
1876 - George A Custer, US general (Little Bighorn), dies at 36
1876 - John Patton, trumpeter, dies at Little Bighorn
1876 - Lame White Man, Cheyenne, dies at Little Bighorn
1876 - Myles Keogh, US officer, dies at Little Bighorn
1876 - Thomas W Custer, brother of George Custer, dies at Little Bighorn
1882 - François Jouffroy, French sculptor (b. 1806)
1884 - Hans Rott, composer, dies at 25
1896 - Emile AH Seipgens, Dutch priest/beer brewer/man of letters, dies at 58
1898 - Ferdinand J Cohn, German botanist/publicist, dies at 70
1906 - Stanford White, Architect, shot dead atop Madison Square Garden which he designed by Harry Thaw jealous husband of Evelyn Nesbit
1912 - Louis Antoine, Belgian miner/sect leader, dies at about 65
1916 - Thomas Eakins, American artist (b. 1844)
1918 - Jake Beckley, baseball player (b. 1867)
1926 - Symon Petljoera, pres Ukraine (pogroms), murdered in Paris
1929 - Georges Courteline [Moineaux], French playwright, dies
1937 - Colin Clive, actor (Bride of Frankenstein, Jane Eyre), dies at 39
1942 - Hans Lietzman, German theologist/church historian, dies at 67
1943 - Spencer Charters, actor (Big Town Girl, St Louis Kid), dies at 68
1944 - Lucha Reyes, Mexican singer (b. 1906)
1948 - William C. Lee, U.S. general (b. 1895)
1949 - Buck Freeman, baseball player (b. 1871)
1953 - Algy Gehrs, cricketer (6 Tests for Australia 1904-11), dies
1954 - Eduard M Meijers, Dutch lawyer (Civil Code), dies at 74
1956 - Alfred C Kinsey, US zoologist/sexologist, dies at 62
1956 - Ernest J King, US fleet admiral/Chief of Naval Operations, dies at 77
1959 - Charles Starkwether, murderer, executed
1959 - Charles Starkweather, spree killer (b. 1938)
1960 - WH Walter Baade, German/US astronomer (Andromeda), dies at 67
1962 - Ephraim Lisitsky, Hebrew poet, dies
1964 - Gerrit T Rietveld, Dutch architect (Sonsbeekpaviljoen), dies at 76
1968 - Tony Hancock, actor/writer (Call Me Genius, Rebel), dies at 43
1971 - Charles Vildrac, Paris France, poet/playwright, dies at 88
1971 - John Boyd Orr, Scottish physician, Nobel laureate (b. 1880)
1974 - Cornelius Lanczos, Hungarian mathematician (b. 1893)
1976 - Johnny Mercer, US songwriter (That old Black Magic), dies at 66
1977 - Endre Szervanszky, composer, dies at 65
1977 - Petko Staynov, composer, dies at 80
1978 - Hussein al-Ghasjmi, president of North-Yemen, murdered
1979 - Philippe Halsman, American photographer (b. 1906)
1983 - Alberto Evaristo Ginastera, Argentine composer (Panambi), dies at 67
1984 - Michel Foucault, philosoph (History of Sexuality), dies of AIDs at 57
1985 - Morris Mason, American murderer (b. 1954)
1986 - Gery Florizoone, Flemish poet, dies at 63
1987 - Boudleaux Bryant, song writer (for Everly Bros), dies at 67
1988 - Axis Sally, [Mildred E Gillars], US nazi propagandist (WW II), dies
1988 - Hillel Slovak, Israeli-born musician (Anthym/What Is This?, Red Hot Chili Peppers) (b. 1962)
1990 - Peggy Glanville-Hicks, Australian composer (Triad), dies at 77
1992 - James Stirling, Scottish D-Day parachutist/architect, dies
1992 - Jerome Brown, defensive tackle (Phila Eagle), dies in car crash at 27
1992 - William E Harris, entertainer, dies
1994 - Louis-Robert Casterman, Belgian publisher (Kuifje), dies at 74
1994 - Robert Millar, journalist, dies at 72
1995 - Warren Earl Burger, Supreme Court Justice, dies of heart failure at 78
1996 - Nicholas John, dramaturge, dies at 43
1996 - Ray Howard-Jones, artist, dies at 93
1996 - Sir Arthur Snelling, British Ambassador (b. 1914)
1997 - Jacques-Yves Cousteau, Fren oceanographer, dies of heart attack at 87
1997 - William Lyle Woratzeck, convicted killer, executed in Ariz at 51
1998 - Lounès Matoub, a famous Berber Kabyle singer (b. 1956)
1999 - Fred Feast, English actor (b. 1929)
2002 - Jean Corbeil, Canadian politician (b. 1934)
2003 - Lester Maddox, American businessman, one-time segregationist and Governor of Georgia (b. 1915)
2005 - John Fiedler, American Actor (b. 1925)
2006 - Jaap Penraat, Dutch architect (b. 1918)
2007 - Mahasti, Persian singer (b. 1946)
2007 - J. Fred Duckett, American sports announcer and teacher (b. 1933)
