Today is Saturday, June 15th, the 167th day of 2024. There are 199 days left this year.
Today’s History Highlights:
On June 15, 1996, “The First Lady of Song,” Ella Fitzgerald, died in Beverly Hills, California, at the age of 79.
On this date:
In 1215, King John of England signed Magna Carta (the “Greater Charter”) at Runnymede.
In 1775, the Second Continental Congress unanimously appointed George Washington commander in chief of the Continental Army.
In 1864, Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton signed an order establishing a military cemetery that would become Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.
In 1904, a fire broke out aboard the steamship General Slocum in New York’s East River, killing over 1,000 people.
In 1934, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a law making the National Guard part of the United States Army in times of war or national emergency.
In 1938, Johnny Vander Meer threw back-to-back no-hitters, leading the Cincinnati Reds to a 6-0 victory over the Brooklyn Dodgers in the first night game at Ebbets Field after a 3-0 no-hitter against the Boston Bees four days earlier.
In 1944, during World War II, American forces successfully invaded the island of Saipan. B-29 Superfortresses carried out the first air raid on Japan.
In 1960, Billy Wilder’s film The Apartment, starring Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine, premiered in New York.
In 1985, Shiite Muslim hijackers of a TWA Boeing 727 beat and shot one of their hostages, U.S. Navy diver Robert Stethem, 23, before throwing him from the plane to his death on the tarmac at Beirut airport.
In 1991, Mount Pinatubo in the northern Philippines suffered one of the most powerful eruptions of the 20th century, killing around 800 people.
In 2002, an asteroid measuring 50 to 120 yards in diameter grazed 75,000 miles from Earth (less than one-third the distance to the Moon).
In 2018, former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was jailed awaiting two criminal trials after a federal judge revoked his house arrest for alleged witness tampering in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. (Manafort was sentenced to more than seven years in prison for federal violations but was eventually pardoned by then-President Donald Trump.)
In 2020, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that the landmark civil rights law protects gay, lesbian and transgender people from discrimination in employment.
In 2022, John Hinckley Jr., who shot and wounded President Ronald Reagan in 1981, will be released from court supervision, officially ending decades of monitoring by legal and mental health professionals.
Today’s birthdays: R&B singer Ruby Nash Garnett (Ruby and the Romantics) is 90. Funk musician Leo Nocentelli (The Meters) is 78. Actor Simon Callow is 75. Singer Russell Hitchcock (Air Supply) is 75. Rock singer Steve Walsh is 73. Chinese President Xi Jinping is 71. Actor and comedian Jim Belushi is 70. Country singer Terry Gibbs is 70. Actor Julie Hagerty is 69. Actor Polly Draper is 69. Rock musician Brad Gillis (Night Ranger) is 67. Baseball Hall of Famer Wade Boggs is 66. Actor Eileen Davidson is 65. Actor Helen Hunt is 61 years old. Rock musician Scott Rockenfield (Queensryche) is 61 years old. Actor and rapper Ice Cube is 55 years old. Actress Leah Remini is 54 years old. Actor Jake Busey is 53 years old. Actor Neil Patrick Harris is 51 years old. Actor Greg Vaughan is 51 years old. Actor Elizabeth Reaser is 49 years old. Rock singer Dryden Mitchell (Alien Ant Farm) is 48 years old. Former child actor Christopher Castile is 44 years old. Rock musician Billy Martin (Good Charlotte) is 43 years old. Actor Jordi Vilasuso is 43 years old. Rock musician Wayne Salmon (Imagine Dragons) is 40 years old. Actor Denzel Whittaker is 34 years old. Olympic gold medalist gymnast Madison Kocian is 27 years old. Actor Sterling Jerins is 20 years old.
