Today in history
Highlight in history
On June 17, 1963, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Abington School District v. Schempp, struck down, 8-1, rules requiring the recitation of the Lord's Prayer or reading of Biblical verses in public schools.
On this date
- 1775, the Revolutionary War Battle of Bunker Hill resulted in a costly victory for the British, who suffered heavy losses.
- 1885, the Statue of Liberty arrived in New York Harbor aboard the French ship Isere.
- 1928, Amelia Earhart embarked on a trans-Atlantic flight from Newfoundland to Wales with pilots Wilmer Stultz and Louis Gordon, becoming the first woman to make the trip as a passenger.
- 1930, President Herbert Hoover signed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, which boosted U.S. tariffs to historically high levels, prompting foreign retaliation.
- 1933, the "Kansas City Massacre" took place outside Union Station in Kansas City, Mo., as a group of gunmen attacked law enforcement officers escorting federal prisoner Frank Nash; four of the officers were killed, along with Nash.
- 1940, France asked Germany for terms of surrender in World War II.
- 1953, residents of East Berlin rebelled against the communist East German government, which forcefully suppressed the uprising.