Today is Thursday, June 27th, the 179th day of 2024. There are 187 days left this year.
Today’s History Highlights:
On June 27, 1957, Hurricane Audrey struck the coasts of Louisiana and Texas as a Category 4 storm. The initial official death toll from the storm was listed as 390, but various state, federal, and local sources estimate the death toll to be between 400 and 600.
In 1844, Mormon leader Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum were murdered by a mob in Carthage, Illinois.
In 1880, Helen Keller, an author and speaker who lived most of her life without sight or hearing, was born in Tuscumbia, Alabama.
In 1942, the FBI announced the arrest of eight Nazi saboteurs who had landed in Florida and Long Island, New York. (All were tried and sentenced to death; six were executed, but two were spared by turning themselves in and cooperating with U.S. authorities.)
In 1944, during World War II, American forces liberated the French port city of Cherbourg (SHEHR’-boorg) from German forces.
In 1950, the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution calling on member states to assist South Korea in repelling a North Korean invasion.
In 1974, President Richard Nixon began a state visit to the Soviet Union.
In 1991, Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, the first black justice to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court, announced his retirement.
In 2005, BTK serial killer Dennis Rader pleaded guilty to 10 murders that spread terror throughout Wichita, Kansas, beginning in the 1970s.
In 2006, a constitutional amendment banning the desecration of the American flag failed in the Senate, one vote short of the 67 needed to be ratified by the states.
In 2011, former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich (blah-GOY’-uh-vich) was convicted by a federal jury in Chicago on a wide range of corruption charges, including allegations that he tried to sell or trade President Barack Obama’s U.S. Senate seat. (Blagojevich was later sentenced to 14 years in prison, but his sentence was commuted by President Donald Trump in February 2020.)
In 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a widely copied Texas rule that had drastically reduced the number of abortion clinics, handing down its strongest pro-abortion rights ruling in a quarter century.
In 2018, Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, who was often the voting voice in cases on abortion, gay rights and other contentious issues, announced his retirement.
In 2022, the Supreme Court ruled that a high school football coach who wanted to kneel and pray on the field after a game was protected by the Constitution. Critics argued that the decision opened the door to “more mandatory prayer” in public schools.
Today’s birthdays: Former Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt is 86. Singer and musician Bruce Johnston (The Beach Boys) is 82. Fashion designer Norma Kamali is 79. Fashion designer Vera Wang is 75. Actress Julia Duffy is 73. Actress Isabelle Adjani is 69. Country singer Lorrie Morgan is 65. Writer-producer-director JJ Abrams is 58. Former Senator Kelly Ayotte, R.N.H. is 56. Olympic gold and bronze medal figure skater Viktor Petrenko (Petrenko) is 55. Latin singer Draco Rosa is 55. TV personality Joe Frost (Supernanny) is 54. Actor Tobey Maguire is 49. Reality TV star Khloe Kardashian (kar-DASH’-ee-uhn) is 40. Actor Drake Bell is 38. Actor Sam Claflin is 38. Actor India de Beaufort is 37. Actor Ed Westwick is 37. Actor Matthew Lewis (Harry Potter film series) is 35. Actor Madilyn Sweeton (Everybody Loves Raymond) is 33. Pop singer Lauren Jauregui (Fifth Harmony) is 28. Singer-songwriter HER is 27. Actor Chandler Riggs (The Walking Dead) is 25.
