Today is Saturday, June 18, the 169th day of 2005. There are 196 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On June 18, 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte met his Waterloo as British and Prussian troops defeated the French in Belgium.
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 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 1945, General Dwight D. Eisenhower received a tumultuous welcome in Washington, D.C., where he addressed a joint session of Congress.
In 1945, William Joyce, known as “Lord Haw-Haw,” was charged in London with high treason for his English-language wartime broadcasts on German radio. (He was hanged the following January.)
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 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 1984, Alan Berg, a Denver radio talk show host, was shot to death outside his home. (Two white supremacists were later convicted of civil rights violations in the slaying.)
Ten years ago: A private plane carrying the Angolan soccer team crashed in Luanda, Angola, killing 48 people. About 300 inmates trashed an immigration detention center in Elizabeth, N.J. Serbs released the last 26 U.N. hostages held since NATO airstrikes.
Five years ago: Tiger Woods won the U.S. Open by a record 15 strokes. Ethiopia and Eritrea agreed to cease hostilities in a two-year-old border war. Emmy-winning actress Nancy Marchand died in Stratford, Conn., a day before her 72nd birthday.
One year ago: An al-Qaida cell in Saudi Arabia beheaded American engineer Paul M. Johnson Jr., posting grisly photographs of his severed head; hours later, Saudi security forces tracked down and killed the alleged mastermind of the kidnapping and murder. European Union leaders agreed on the first constitution for the bloc’s 25 members.
Today’s Birthdays: Actor Ian Carmichael is 85. Columnist Tom Wicker is 79. Rock singer-composer-musician Sir Paul McCartney is 63. Movie critic Roger Ebert is 63. Actress Constance McCashin is 58. Actress Linda Thorson is 58. Actress Isabella Rossellini is 53. Actress Carol Kane is 53. Singer Tom Bailey (The Thompson Twins) is 48. Rock singer Alison Moyet is 44. Country singer-musician Tim Hunt is 38. Rock singer-musician Sice (The Boo Radleys) is 36. Rhythm-and-blues singer Nathan Morris (Boyz II Men) is 34. Actress Mara Hobel is 34. Country singer Blake Shelton is 29. Actress Renee Olstead (“Still Standing”) is 16.
Thought for Today: “The basic discovery about any people is the discovery of the relationship between its men and women.” — Pearl S. Buck, American author (1892-1973).