Today in History

Today is Wednesday, June 21, the 172nd day of 2023. There are 193 days left in the year. Summer begins today.

Today's Highlight in History:

On June 21, 1788, the United States Constitution went into effect as New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify it.

On this date:

In 1377, King Edward III died after ruling England for 50 years; he was succeeded by his grandson, Richard II.

In 1834, Cyrus Hall McCormick received a patent for his reaping machine.

In 1942, an Imperial Japanese submarine fired shells at Fort Stevens on the Oregon coast, causing little damage.

In 1954, the American Cancer Society presented a study to the American Medical Association meeting in San Francisco which found that men who regularly smoked cigarettes died at a considerably higher rate than non-smokers.

In 1964, civil rights workers Michael H. Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James E. Chaney were slain in Philadelphia, Mississippi; their bodies were found buried in an earthen dam six weeks later. (Forty-one years later on this date in 2005, Edgar Ray Killen, an 80-year-old former Ku Klux Klansman, was found guilty of manslaughter; he was sentenced to 60 years in prison, where he died in January 2018.)

In 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Miller v. California, ruled that states may ban materials found to be obscene according to local standards.

In 1977, Menachem Begin of the Likud bloc became Israel's sixth prime minister.

In 1982, a jury in Washington, D.C. found John Hinckley Jr. not guilty by reason of insanity in the shootings of President Ronald Reagan and three other men.

In 1989, a sharply divided Supreme Court ruled that burning the American flag as a form of political protest was protected by the First Amendment.

In 1997, the WNBA made its debut as the New York Liberty defeated the host Los Angeles Sparks 67-57.

In 2010, Faisal Shahzad, a Pakistan-born U.S. citizen, pleaded guilty to charges of plotting a failed car bombing in New York's Times Square. (Shahzad was later sentenced to life in prison.)

In 2011, the Food and Drug Administration announced that cigarette packs in the U.S. would have to carry macabre images that included rotting teeth and gums, diseased lungs and a sewn-up corpse of a smoker as part of a graphic campaign aimed at discouraging Americans from lighting up.

Ten years ago: A one-page criminal complaint unsealed in federal court accused former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden of espionage and theft of government property in the NSA surveillance case. President Barack Obama nominated James Comey, a top Bush-era Justice official, to head the FBI, succeeding Robert Mueller. The Food Network said it was dropping Paula Deen, barely an hour after the celebrity cook posted the first of two videotaped apologies online begging forgiveness from fans and critics troubled by her admission to having used racial slurs in the past.

Five years ago: First lady Melania Trump visited with migrant children during a brief stop at a Texas facility housing some children separated from their parents at the border; she caused a stir when she left Washington wearing a green, hooded military jacket with lettering that said, "I REALLY DON'T CARE, DO U?" Pulitzer Prize-winning conservative columnist and pundit Charles Krauthammer died at 68; he had said a year earlier that he was being treated for a tumor in his abdomen.

One year ago: The House Jan. 6 committee heard testimony that Donald Trump's relentless pressure to overturn the 2020 presidential election led to widespread threats against local workers and state officials. A month after the Uvalde, Texas school massacre, the state's public safety chief testified that police had enough officers on the scene to have stopped a gunman three minutes after he entered the building and killed 19 students and two teachers. Officers with rifles instead stood and waited in a hallway for more than an hour before they finally stormed the classroom and killed the gunman. J--zef Walaszczyk, a member of the Polish resistance who rescued dozens of Jews during the Nazi German occupation of Poland during World War II, died at age 102.

Today's Birthdays: Composer Lalo Schifrin is 91. Actor Bernie Kopell is 90. Actor Monte Markham is 88. Songwriter Don Black is 85. Actor Mariette Hartley is 83. Comedian Joe Flaherty is 82. Rock singer-musician Ray Davies (The Kinks) is 79. Actor Meredith Baxter is 76. Actor Michael Gross (Baxter's co-star on the sitcom "Family Ties") is 76. Rock musician Joe Molland (Badfinger) is 76. Rock musician Don Airey (Deep Purple) is 75. Rock musician Joey Kramer (Aerosmith) is 73. Rock musician Nils Lofgren is 72. Actor Robyn Douglass is 71. Actor Leigh McCloskey is 68. Cartoonist Berke Breathed is 66. Actor Josh Pais is 65. Country singer Kathy Mattea is 64. Oregon Gov. Kate Brown is 63. Actor Marc Copage is 61. Actor Sammi Davis is 59. Actor Doug Savant is 59. Country musician Porter Howell is 59. Actor Michael Dolan is 58. Writer-director Lana Wachowski is 58. Actor Carrie Preston is 56. Rapper/producer Pete Rock is 53. Country singer Allison Moorer is 51. Actor Juliette Lewis is 50. Actor Maggie Siff is 49. Musician Justin Cary is 48. Rock musician Mike Einziger (Incubus) is 47. Actor Chris Pratt is 44. Rock singer Brandon Flowers is 42. Britain's Prince William is 41. Actor Jussie Smollett is 41. Actor Benjamin Walker is 41. Actor Michael Malarkey is 40. Pop singer Kris Allen (TV: "American Idol") is 38. Pop/rock singer Lana Del Rey is 38. Actor Jascha Washington is 34. Country musician Chandler Baldwin (LANCO) is 31. Pop singer Rebecca Black is 26.