06/06/2025
Today's Highlight in History:
On June 6, 1944, during World War II, four years and two days after they evacuated from the European mainland Allied forces stormed the beaches of Normandy, France, It was the largest amphibious military assault in history. By the end of the day known as "D-Day", 5,000 vessels landed 160,000 troops on the French coastline, launching the push to liberate German-occupied Western Europe.
On this date:
In 1816, a snowstorm struck the northeastern U.S., heralding what would become known as the “Year Without a Summer.”
In 1844, the Young Men's Christian Association was founded in London. Founder George Williams a young man from a rural area drawn to the big city by the industrial boom, was shocked by the decadence of city life and opened the (YMCA) to give other Industrial Revolution laborers a wholesome alternative to taverns and brothels
In 1933, the first drive-in movie theater was opened in Camden County, New Jersey featuring 400 car slots, a 40-x-50-foot screen, and three 6-foot speakers. The feature at the first US drive-in theater is 'Wives Beware,' with admission costing a quarter per car and customer.
n 1939, the first Little League game was played as Lundy Lumber defeated Lycoming Dairy 23-8 in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
In 1968, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy died at Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles, 25 1/2 hours after he was shot by Sirhan Bishara Sirhan.
Thought for Today: "Liberty? Independence? Are they to remain only words? Gentlemen, let us make them fighting words!" Nathan Hale, American Patriot, soldier and spy for the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. Born on this day in 1755
Today's Highlight in History:
In 1917, the Lions Clubs service organization was founded in Chicago after Melvin Jones, a Chicago business leader, told members of his local business club they should reach beyond business issues and address the betterment of their communities and the world.
In 1929, the sovereign state of Vatican City came into existence as copies of the Lateran Treaty were exchanged in Rome.
In 1938, the Chinese government, hoping to halt a rapid Japanese army advance during the Second Sino-Japanese War, destroyed dikes on the Yellow River near Zhengzhou. The resulting catastrophic flood two days later temporarily stopped the Japanese, but also killed 500,000 Chinese and left 3 million homeless. It has been called the "largest act of environmental warfare in history."
In 1942, a ferocious three-day battle a thousand miles west of Hawaii ended in a rout of the Japanese navy by an underestimated American defense. Pearl Harbor was partly avenged on its six-month anniversary, and the Battle of Midway turned the tide towards Allied victory in the Pacific
In 1977, Britons thronged London to celebrate the silver jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, who was marking the 25th year of her reign.
In 1986, the Kansas City Royals drafted Bo Jackson, who had played college baseball and football at Auburn University, but decided to play professional baseball after a dispute with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Jackson went on to star in both sports, playing eight MLB seasons and four for the Los Angeles Raiders.
In 2004, a steady, near-silent stream of people circled through the rotunda of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, where the body of the nation's 40th president lay in repose before traveling to Washington two days later for a state funeral.
Thought for Today: "That would be a good thing for them to cut on my tombstone: 'Wherever she went, including here, it was against her better judgment.'" _ Dorothy Parker, American writer (born 1893, died this date in 1967).
Today's Highlight in History:
On June 8, 1949, George Orwell's vision of a dystopian future '1984'was published. Newspeak, thought crimes, and Big Brother are introduced as 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' was seen as both a great literary work and an accurate warning of the "double plus ungood" rise of totalitarianism and surveillance.
On this date:
In 793, the Vikings invaded England with a shocking raid on Lindisfarne, an island off of England's northeast coast. What these 'Northmen' did there, including destroying the abbey and killing its monks, jolted Europe and earned the Vikings a fierce reputation for the ages.
In 1917, during World War I, Maj. Gen. John J. Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Force, arrived in Liverpool, England, while en route to France; also, the 1st Expeditionary Division (later the 1st Infantry Division) was organized at Fort Jay in New York.
In 1939, Britain's King George VI and his consort, Queen Elizabeth, arrived in Washington, D.C., where they were received at the White House by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Thought for Today: “A doctor can bury his mistakes, but an architect can only advise his clients to plant vines.” Frank Lloyd Wright, American Architect Born on this day in 1867
