Today is Thursday, June 1, the 152nd day of 2017. There are 213 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlights in History:
It was 50 years ago today — June 1, 1967 — that the Beatles album “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” was released, as was David Bowie’s debut album, eponymously titled “David Bowie.”
On this date:
In 1792, Kentucky became the 15th state.
In 1796, Tennessee became the 16th state.
In 1813, the mortally wounded commander of the USS Chesapeake, Capt. James Lawrence, gave the order, “Don’t give up the ship” during a losing battle with the British frigate HMS Shannon in the War of 1812.
In 1868, James Buchanan, the 15th president of the United States, died near Lancaster, Pennsylvania, at age 77.
In 1917, the song “Over There” by George M. Cohan was published by William Jerome Publishing Corp. of New York.
In 1927, Lizzie Borden, accused but acquitted of the 1892 ax murders of her father, Andrew, and her stepmother, Abby, died in Fall River, Massachusetts, at age 66.
In 1943, a civilian flight from Portugal to England was shot down by Germany during World War II, killing all 17 people aboard, including actor Leslie Howard.
In 1957, Don Bowden, a student at the University of California at Berkeley, became the first American to break the four-minute mile during a meet in Stockton, California, in a time of 3:58.7.
In 1977, the Soviet Union formally charged Jewish human rights activist Anatoly Shcharansky with treason. (Shcharansky was imprisoned, then released in 1986; he’s now known by the name Natan Sharansky.)
In 1980, Cable News Network made its debut.
In 1997, Betty Shabazz, the widow of Malcolm X, was severely burned in a fire set by her 12-year-old grandson in her Yonkers, New York, apartment (she died three weeks later). The Chicago Tribune published a make-believe commencement speech by columnist Mary Schmich (shmeech) which urged graduates to, among other things, “wear sunscreen” (the essay ended up being wrongly attributed online to author Kurt Vonnegut).
In 2009, Air France Flight 447, an Airbus A330 carrying 228 people from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, crashed into the Atlantic Ocean with the loss of everyone on board.
Ten years ago: The FDA warned consumers to avoid using toothpaste made in China because it might contain a poisonous chemical used in antifreeze. Kidnapped British journalist Alan Johnston appeared in a videotape posted on an Islamic website, the first time he was seen since being abducted nearly three months earlier in Gaza. (Johnston was freed July 4, 2007.) Assisted suicide advocate Jack Kevorkian walked out of a Michigan prison, where he’d spent eight years for ending the life of a man suffering from Lou Gehrig’s disease.
Five years ago: A judge in Sanford, Florida, revoked the bond of the neighborhood watch volunteer charged with murdering Trayvon Martin and ordered him returned to jail within 48 hours, saying George Zimmerman and his wife had misled the court about how much money they had available when his bond was set at $150,000. (George Zimmerman was ultimately acquitted of the murder charge; Shellie Zimmerman pleaded guilty to perjury and was sentenced to a year’s probation and community service.) The U.N.’s top human rights body voted overwhelmingly to condemn Syria over the slaughter of more than 100 civilians; Syria’s most important ally and protector, Russia, voted against the measure by the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva. Johan Santana pitched the first no-hitter in New York Mets history in an 8-0 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals.
One year ago: After killing his estranged wife in a Minneapolis suburb, a former UCLA student drove from Minnesota to Los Angeles, where he shot and killed his former professor before taking his own life. Ken Starr resigned as Baylor University’s chancellor, a week after the former prosecutor who’d led the investigation of the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky scandal was removed as the school’s president over its handling of sexual assault complaints against football players.
Today’s Birthdays: Actor Richard Erdman is 92. Singer Pat Boone is 83. Actor-writer-director Peter Masterson is 83. Actor Morgan Freeman is 80. Actor Rene Auberjonois (oh-behr-juh-NWAH’) is 77. Opera singer Frederica von Stade is 72. Actor Brian Cox is 71. Rock musician Ronnie Wood is 70. Actor Jonathan Pryce is 70. Actress Gemma Craven is 67. Blues-rock musician Tom Principato is 65. Country singer Ronnie Dunn is 64. Actress Lisa Hartman Black is 61. Actor Tom Irwin is 61. Singer-musician Alan Wilder is 58. Rock musician Simon Gallup (The Cure) is 57. Country musician Richard Comeaux (River Road) is 56. Actor-comedian Mark Curry is 56. Actor-singer Jason Donovan is 49. Actress Teri Polo is 48. Basketball player-turned-coach Tony Bennett is 48. Actor Rick Gomez is 45. Model-actress Heidi Klum is 44. Singer Alanis Morissette is 43. Actress Sarah Wayne Callies is 40. TV personality Damien Fahey is 37. Pop singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile is 36. Actor Johnny Pemberton is 36. Actress-writer Amy Schumer (TV: “Inside Amy Schumer”) is 36. Tennis player Justine Henin is 35. Actor Taylor Handley is 33. Actress Willow Shields is 17.
Thought for Today: “The past is our only real possession in life. It is the one piece of property of which time cannot deprive us; it is our own in a way that nothing else in life is. In a word, we are our past; we do not cling to it, it clings to us.” — Grace King, American author (1852-1932).
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