Today is Sunday, June 18, the 169th day of 2006. There are 196 days left in the year. This is Father’s Day.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On June 18, 1942, former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney was born in Liverpool, England. The writer of the song “When I’m 64” turns 64 today.
On this date:
In 1778, American forces entered Philadelphia as the British withdrew during the Revolutionary War.
In 1812, the United States declared war against Britain.
In 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte met his Waterloo as British and Prussian troops defeated the French in Belgium.
In 1928, aviator Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean as she completed a flight from Newfoundland to Wales in about 21 hours.
In 1940, during World War II, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill urged his countrymen to conduct themselves in a manner that would prompt future generations to say, “This was their finest hour.”
In 1948, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights adopted its International Declaration of Human Rights.
In 1979, President Carter and Soviet President Leonid I. Brezhnev signed the SALT II strategic arms limitation treaty in Vienna.
In 1981, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart announced his retirement; his departure paved the way for Sandra Day O’Connor to become the first female associate justice.
In 1983, astronaut Sally K. Ride became America’s first woman in space as she and four colleagues blasted off aboard the space shuttle Challenger.
In 1986, 25 people were killed when a twin-engine plane and helicopter carrying sightseers collided over the Grand Canyon.
Ten years ago: Federal prosecutors in California charged Theodore Kaczynski in four of the Unabomber attacks. Richard Allen Davis was convicted in San Jose, Calif., of the 1993 kidnap-murder of 12-year-old Polly Klaas of Petaluma. Two Army transport helicopters collided and crashed during training exercises near Fort Campbell, Ky., killing six and injuring 33.
Five years ago: A judge in Golden, Colo., sentenced two therapists to 16 years in prison each in the death of a 10-year-old girl who had suffocated while wrapped in blankets during a “rebirthing” session. (Connell Watkins and Julie Ponder were convicted of reckless child abuse in the death of Candace Newmaker.) Retief Goosen won the U.S. Open in an 18-hole playoff with Mark Brooks.
One year ago: U.S. Marines and Iraqi forces battled insurgents in a restive western Iraqi province, killing about 50 militants in the military’s latest campaign to stop foreign fighters infiltrating from neighboring Syria. In his Saturday radio address, President Bush said pulling out of Iraq immediately was not an option. Former Texas Congressman J.J. “Jake” Pickle died in Austin at age 91.
Today’s Birthdays: Actor Ian Carmichael is 86. Columnist Tom Wicker is 80. Movie critic Roger Ebert is 64. Actress Constance McCashin is 59. Actress Linda Thorson is 59. Actress Isabella Rossellini is 54. Actress Carol Kane is 54. Rock singer Alison Moyet is 45. Country singer-musician Tim Hunt is 39. Rock singer-musician Sice (The Boo Radleys) is 37. Rhythm-and-blues singer Nathan Morris (Boyz II Men) is 35. Actress Mara Hobel is 35. Rapper Silkk the Shocker is 31. Country singer Blake Shelton is 30. Actress Renee Olstead (“Still Standing”) is 17.
Thought for Today: “The way of a superior man is threefold; virtuous, he is free from anxieties; wise, he is free from perplexities; bold, he is free from fear.” ) Confucius, Chinese philosopher (551-479 B.C.).