Today is Saturday, June 29th, the 181st day of 2024. There are 185 days left this year.
Today’s History Highlights:
The first version of the iPhone was released to the public on June 29, 2007, and to date, over 2.3 billion iPhones have been sold.
This day too:
In 1520, Montezuma II, the ninth and last Aztec emperor, died in Tenochtitlan under unclear circumstances (some say he was killed by his own subjects, others by the Spanish).
In 1613, the former Globe Theatre in London, where many of Shakespeare’s plays were performed, was destroyed by fire caused by cannon fire during a performance of “Henry VIII.”
In 1767, Britain passed the Townshend Revenue Act, which imposed import duties on glass, paint, oil, lead, paper, and tea shipped to the American colonies. (The colonists protested fiercely, and Parliament repealed the duties except on tea.)
In 1776, the Virginia Constitution was adopted and Patrick Henry became governor.
In 1946, the British Palestinian Authority arrested more than 2,700 Jews in an effort to stamp out extremism.
In 1967, Israel removed the barricades separating the Old City from Israeli territory and Jerusalem was reunited.
In 1970, the United States ended a two-month military offensive into Cambodia.
In 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated three death sentences for constituting cruel and unusual punishment (effectively putting a moratorium on executions in states until states could reform their death penalty laws).
In 1978, actor Bob Crane, famous for “Hogan’s Heroes,” was found bludgeoned to death in his Scottsdale, Arizona apartment while performing in a play. He was 49 years old.
In 2006, the Supreme Court ruled 5-3 that President George W. Bush’s plan to try Guantanamo Bay detainees in military tribunals violated U.S. and international law.
In 2009, notorious financier Bernard Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison for a multi-billion dollar fraud. (Madoff died in prison in April 2021.)
In 2018, the Annapolis Capital Gazette, a Maryland newspaper, kept its promise to publish a daily newspaper even though five people had been shot and killed in its offices the previous day.
In 2021, former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld died in New Mexico at the age of 88. Rumsfeld served as head of the Pentagon during the US invasion of Afghanistan that toppled the Taliban regime after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and at the start of the long and costly Iraq War in 2003.
In 2022, R. Kelly was sentenced to 30 years in prison for using his status as an R&B superstar to sexually abuse young fans. The singer-songwriter was convicted the previous year on racketeering and sex trafficking charges.
Today’s birthdays: Songwriter L. Russell Brown is 84. Singer-songwriter Garland Jeffries is 81. Actor Gary Busey is 80. Former actor and politician Fred Grundy is 76. Rock musician Ian Paice (Deep Purple) is 76. Singer Don Dokken is 71. Rock singer Colin Hay (Men at Work) is 71. Actor Maria Conchita Alonso is 69. Actor Sharon Lawrence (NYPD Blue) is 63. Actor Amanda Donohoe is 62. Actor Judith Hogg is 61. Violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter is 61. Producer and writer Matthew Weiner is 59. Actor Melora Hardin is 57. Actor Brian d’Arcy James is 56. Rap DJ and record producer DJ Shadow is 52. Actor Zuleikha Robinson is 47. Rock musician Sam Farah (Maroon 5) is 46. Actor Luke Kirby is 46. Singer and TV personality Nicole Scherzinger is 46. Comedian and author Colin Jost is 42. Actress Lily Rabe is 42. NBA forward Kawhi Leonard is 33. Actress Camila Mendes (TV’s Riverdale) is 30. Soccer player Jude Bellingham is 21.
