Today is Tuesday, June 25 the 177th day of the year 2024. There are 189 days left in the year.
Today’s highlight of the story: On June 25, 1950, war broke out in Korea when forces from the communist North invaded the South.
In 1938, the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 was passed.
In 1942, General Dwight D. Eisenhower was appointed commanding general of the European Theater of Operations during World War II. About 1,000 bombers from the British Royal Air Force raided Bremen, Germany.
In 1947, The Diary of Anne Frank was first published, the personal diary of the German-born Jewish woman who hid from the Nazis with her family in Amsterdam during World War II.
In 1962, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the recitation of a state-sponsored prayer in New York State public schools was unconstitutional.
In 1973, former White House Counsel John W. Dean began testifying before the Senate Watergate Committee, implicating high-ranking government officials—including President Richard Nixon himself—in the Watergate scandal and its cover-up.
In 1990, the US Supreme Court ruled in its first “right to die” decision that family members could be prohibited from ending the life of a relative in a coma if the relative had not clearly expressed his or her wishes.
In 1993, Kim Campbell was sworn in as Canada’s 19th Prime Minister, the first woman to hold the office.
In 1996, a car bomb in a US military housing complex in Saudi Arabia killed 19 Americans and injured hundreds.
In 2009, the “King of Pop” Michael Jackson died at the age of 50 in Los Angeles and the actress Farrah Fawcett died at the age of 62 in Santa Monica, California.
In 2013, President Barack Obama declared the debate about climate change and its causes obsolete when he announced a comprehensive plan to combat pollution and prepare the population for global warming at Georgetown University.
In 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld federal tax subsidies under President Barack Obama’s health care reform bill in a 6-3 ruling, securing health insurance for millions of Americans.
In 2016, Pope Francis visited Armenia and recognized the massacre of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as genocide, whereupon Turkey strongly rejected his statements.
In 2021, former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was sentenced to 22 ½ years in prison for the murder of George Floyd, whose final gasps beneath Chauvin’s knee sparked the largest outcry against racism in the United States in generations.
Today’s birthdays: Actress June Lockhart is 99. Civil rights activist James Meredith is 91. R&B singer Eddie Floyd (“Knock on Wood”) is 87. Actress Barbara Montgomery is 85. Singer Carly Simon is 81. Actor and comedian Jimmie Walker is 77. Rock musician Tim Finn is 72. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor is 70. Actor, screenwriter and director Ricky Gervais (jer-VAYZ’) is 63. Author Yann Martel (“Life of Pi”) is 61. Actress Erica Gimpel is 60. Basketball Hall of Fame member Dikembe Mutombo (dih-KEHM’-bay moo-TAHM’-boh) is 58. Actress Angela Kinsey (“The Office”) is 53. Actress Linda Cardellini is 49. Actor Busy Philipps is 45.
