Today in History

1805 1st recorded tornado in “Tornado Alley” (Southern Illinois)

1876 Bananas become popular in US, at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia

1873 Sultan Bargash bin Said under British pressure closes the infamous slave market of Zanzibar in modern day Tanzania

1888 US Democrats nominate Grover Cleveland for president

1933 US drops the Gold Standard when Congress enacts a joint resolution nullifying creditors right to demand payment in gold

1937 Henry Ford initiates a 32 hour work week

1940 A synthetic rubber tire exhibited in Akron, Ohio by Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company

1944 As part of Operation Tonga, the 1st British gliders touch down on French soil to prepare for the D-Day invasion

1944 After receiving favorable weather reports, General Eisenhower decides to proceed with the D-Day invasion on June 6

1947 US Secretary of State George Marshall outlines the “Marshall Plan” to rebuild Western Europe

1951 Anti-slavery novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” by Harriet Beecher Stowe first published in serial form in “The National Era”

1963 State of siege proclaimed in Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini arrested

1967 Six-day war begins between Israel and the neighboring Arab states of Egypt, Jordan and Syria

1968 Palestinian Sirhan Sirhan shoots Robert F. Kennedy three times, who dies the next day and wounds 5 others at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California

1975 Egyptian president Anwar Sadat reopens Suez Canal (closed since 1967)

1981 AIDS Epidemic officially begins when US Centers for Disease Control reports on pneumonia affecting five homosexual men in Los Angeles

1981 World’s first today in history program with editable data “TODAY”, invented by Michael Butler runs for the first time on a mainframe computer

1984 Indira Gandhi orders an attack on Sikh’s holiest site, the Golden Temple in Amritsar

2001 U.S. Senator Jim Jeffords leaves the Republican Party, an act which shifts control of the United States Senate from the Republicans to the Democratic Party

2013 The first article based on NSA leaked documents by Edward Snowden is published by the Guardian Newspaper in the UK

2018 Harvey Weinstein pleads not guilty to rape and sexual assault charges in court in New York

2018 Miss America pageant announces an end to its swimsuit competition

2019 Average person ingests 50,000 pieces of microplastic a year and breathes in similar amount according to first-ever such study published in journal “Environmental Science and Technology”

Movies & TV

1987 “Nightline” presents its 1st “Town Meeting” the subject is AIDS & the show runs until 3:47 AM

1998 “The Truman Show”, starring Jim Carrey, Laura Linney, and Ed Harris, is released

2018 “Ocean’s 8” film premieres, directed by Gary Ross starring Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway and Rihanna

Music

1948 “(Ghost) Riders in the Sky: A Cowboy Legend” single released by Stan Jones

1964 Davie Jones & King Bees debut “I Can’t Help Thinking About Me”; group disbands but Davie Jones goes on to success as David Bowie

1965 “Wooly Bully” by Sam the Sham & Pharaohs hits #2

1981 George Harrison releases “Somewhere in England”

1989 Paul McCartney releases “Flowers in the Dirt”

Sports

1952 Jersey Joe Walcott beats Ezzard Charles in 15 for heavyweight boxing title

1955 NY Yankee Mickey Mantle hits 550-ft. homerun off Chicago’s Billy Pierce

1982 French Open Women’s Tennis: Martina Navratilova beats American teenager Andrea Jaeger 7-6, 6-1 for her first French singles crown

2018 American boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. named 2017 top earning sportsperson by Forbes with $285 million

Birthdays

1953 Kathleen Kennedy, American film producer (E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Jurassic Park) President of Lucasfilm (2012-), born in Berkeley, California

1956 Kenny G, saxophonist (Duotones)

1959 Michael Winans, gospel singer (Winans)

1971 Mark Wahlberg, rap singer (Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch) and actor (Boogie Nights, The Departed), born in Boston, Massachusetts