Today In History: June 8

[Seneca]

June 8, 2005

Today in history

On this date:

• In A.D. 632, the prophet Mohammed died.

• In 1845, Andrew Jackson, seventh president of the United States, died in Nashville, Tenn.

• In 1861, Tennessee seceded from the Union.

• In 1905, 100 years ago, President Theodore Roosevelt offered to act as a mediator in the Russo-Japanese War.

• In 1915, Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan resigned in a disagreement over U.S. handling of the sinking of the Lusitania.

• In 1953, the Supreme Court ruled that restaurants in the District of Columbia could not refuse to serve blacks.

• In 1967, 34 U.S. servicemen were killed when Israeli forces raided the Liberty, a Navy ship stationed in the Mediterranean. (Israel called the attack a tragic mistake.)

• In 1968, authorities announced the capture in London of James Earl Ray, the suspected assassin of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

• In 1978, a jury in Clark County, Nev., ruled the so-called "Mormon will," purportedly written by the late billionaire Howard Hughes, was a forgery.

• In 1982, President Reagan became the first American chief executive to address a joint session of the British Parliament.

[NoPasaran]

1. Capture of James Earl Ray

I remember hearing that. We were travelling between Virginia nd Connecticut, listening to Bobbie Kennedy's funeral on the radio. At the very end they broke in with the bulletin about Ray.

[suegeo]

2. Orwell's book 1984 was published.

Eric Blair was only about 20 years late on that one, as far as the USA goes.