Today in History: June 8

Today is Saturday, June 8, the 160th day of 2024. There are 206 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On June 8, in A.D. 632, the prophet Muhammad died in Medina.

On this date:

In 1864, Abraham Lincoln was nominated for another term as president during the National Union (Republican) Party’s convention in Baltimore.

In 1867, modern American architect Frank Lloyd Wright was born in Richland Center, Wisconsin.

In 1953, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that restaurants in the District of Columbia could not refuse to serve Blacks.

In 1966, a merger was announced between the National and American Football Leagues, to take effect in 1970.

In 1967, during the six-day Middle East war, 34 American servicemen were killed when Israel attacked the USS Liberty, a Navy intelligence-gathering ship in the Mediterranean Sea. (Israel later said the Liberty had been mistaken for an Egyptian vessel.)

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, Nevada, ruled the so-called “Mormon will,” purportedly written by the late billionaire Howard Hughes, was a forgery.

In 1995, U.S. Marines rescued Capt. Scott O’Grady, whose F-16C fighter jet had been shot down by Bosnian Serbs on June 2.

In 2008, the average price of regular gas crept up to $4 a gallon.

In 2009, North Korea’s highest court sentenced American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee to 12 years’ hard labor for trespassing and “hostile acts.” (The women were pardoned in early August 2009 after a trip to Pyongyang by former President Bill Clinton.)

In 2015, siding with the White House in a foreign-policy power struggle with Congress, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that Americans born in the disputed city of Jerusalem could not list Israel as their birthplace on passports.

In 2017, former FBI Director James Comey, testifying before Congress, asserted that President Donald Trump fired him to interfere with his investigation of Russia’s ties to the Trump campaign.

In 2018, celebrity chef, author and CNN host Anthony Bourdain was found dead in his hotel room in eastern France in what authorities determined was a suicide.

In 2020, thousands of mourners gathered at a church in Houston for a service for George Floyd, as his death during an arrest in Minneapolis stoked protests in America and beyond over racial injustice.

In 2021, Ratko Mladic, the military chief known as the “Butcher of Bosnia” for orchestrating genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in the Balkan nation’s 1992-95 war, lost his final legal battle when U.N. judges affirmed his life sentence.

Today’s Birthdays: Actor Millicent Martin is 90. Actor James Darren is 88. Singer Nancy Sinatra is 84. Singer Chuck Negron is 82. Musician Boz Scaggs is 80. Author Sara Paretsky is 77. Actor Sonia Braga is 74. Actor Kathy Baker is 74. Rock singer Bonnie Tyler is 73. Actor Griffin Dunne is 69. “Dilbert” creator Scott Adams is 67. Actor-director Keenen Ivory Wayans is 66. Singer Mick Hucknall (Simply Red) is 64. Musician Nick Rhodes (Duran Duran) is 62. R&B singer Doris Pearson (Five Star) is 58. Actor Julianna Margulies is 57. Actor Dan Futterman is 57. Actor David Sutcliffe is 55. Actor Kent Faulcon is 54. R&B singer Nicci Gilbert is 54. Actor Kelli Williams is 54. Former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., is 54. Actor Mark Feuerstein is 53. Contemporary Christian musician Mike Scheuchzer (MercyMe) is 49. Actor Eion Bailey is 48. Former tennis player Lindsay Davenport is 48. Rapper Ye (formerly Kanye West) is 47. TV personality-actress Maria Menounos is 46. Country singer-songwriter Sturgill Simpson is 46. Blues-rock musician Derek Trucks (The Derek Trucks Band) is 45. Rock singer Alex Band (The Calling) is 43. Folk-bluegrass singer-musician Sara Watkins (Nickel Creek, I’m With Her) is 43. Former tennis player Kim Clijsters is 41. Actor Torrey DeVitto is 40. Tennis player Jelena Ostapenko is 27. U.S. Olympic track gold medalist Athing Mu is 22.