Today in History

Today is Tuesday, June 18, the 169th day of 2013. There are 196 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On June 18, 1983, astronaut Sally K. Ride, 32, became America's first woman in space as she and four colleagues (commander Robert L. Crippen, pilot Frederick H. Hauck and Ride's fellow mission specialists John M. Fabian and Norman E. Thagard) blasted off aboard the space shuttle Challenger on a six-day mission.

On this date:

In 1778, American forces entered Philadelphia as the British withdrew during the Revolutionary War.

In 1812, the War of 1812 began as the United States Congress approved, and President James Madison signed, a declaration of war against Britain.

In 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte met his Waterloo as British and Prussian troops defeated the French in Belgium.

In 1873, suffragist Susan B. Anthony was found guilty by a judge in Canandaigua, N.Y., of breaking the law by casting a vote in the 1872 presidential election. (The judge fined Anthony $100, but she never paid the penalty.)

In 1908, William Howard Taft was nominated for president by the Republican National Convention in Chicago.

In 1912, the Republican National Convention, which would nominate President William Howard Taft for another term of office, opened in Chicago.

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, 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 in January 1946.)

In 1953, a U.S. Air Force Douglas C-124 Globemaster II crashed near Tokyo, killing all 129 people on board. Egypt's 148-year-old Muhammad Ali Dynasty came to an end with the overthrow of the monarchy and the proclamation of a republic.

In 1972, 118 people were killed in the crash of a Brussels-bound British European Airways Hawker Siddeley Trident 1C shortly after takeoff from London Heathrow Airport.

In 1979, President Jimmy Carter and Soviet President Leonid I. Brezhnev signed the SALT II strategic arms limitation treaty in Vienna.

In 1992, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Georgia v. McCollum, ruled that criminal defendants could not use race as a basis for excluding potential jurors from their trials. Entertainer Peter Allen died in San Diego County, Calif., at age 48.

Ten years ago: Convicted rapist Andrew Luster, heir to the Max Factor fortune, was arrested in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, after five months on the run. (Luster had been found guilty in absentia of drugging and raping three women and was sentenced to 124 years in prison; in 2013, a judge resentenced him to 50 years.) Baseball Hall-of-Famer Larry Doby, who broke the American League's color barrier in 1947, died in Montclair, N.J., at age 79.

Five years ago: With gasoline topping $4 a gallon, President George W. Bush urged Congress to lift its long-standing ban on offshore oil and gas drilling, saying the United States needed to increase its energy production; Democrats quickly rejected the idea. French filmmaker Jean Delannoy died in in Guainville, France, at age 100.

One year ago: In a scene captured on cellphone video, Karen Klein, a school bus monitor from Rochester, N.Y., was verbally abused by seventh-graders, prompting outrage as well as donations to the 68-year-old grandmother. Former baseball star Roger Clemens was acquitted in Washington, D.C., on all charges that he'd obstructed and lied to Congress when he denied using performance-enhancing drugs. R.A. Dickey became the first major league pitcher in 24 years to throw consecutive one-hitters in the New York Mets' 5-0 victory over the Baltimore Orioles. (The previous pitcher to throw consecutive one-hitters was Dave Stieb for Toronto in September 1988.)

Today's Birthdays: Rock singer-composer-musician Sir Paul McCartney is 71. Actress Constance McCashin is 66. Actress Linda Thorson is 66. Rock musician John Evans (The Box Tops) is 65. Actress Isabella Rossellini is 61. Actress Carol Kane is 61. Actor Brian Benben is 57. Actress Andrea Evans is 56. Rock singer Alison Moyet is 52. Rock musician Dizzy Reed (Guns N' Roses) is 50. Country singer-musician Tim Hunt is 46. Rock singer-musician Sice (The Boo Radleys) is 44. Rhythm-and-blues singer Nathan Morris (Boyz II Men) is 42. Actress Mara Hobel is 42. Rapper Silkk the Shocker is 38. Actress Alana de la Garza is 37. Country singer Blake Shelton is 37. Rock musician Steven Chen (Airborne Toxic Event) is 35. Actor David Giuntoli is 33. Actress Renee Olstead is 24. Actress Willa Holland is 22.

Thought for Today: "Every great dream begins with a dreamer." -- Harriet Tubman, American abolitionist (1820-1913).

Copyright 2013, The Associated Press. All rights reserved.