Today is Sunday, June 14, the 166th day of 2020. There are 200 days left in the year. This is Flag Day.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On June 14, 1940, German troops entered Paris during World War II; the same day, the Nazis began transporting prisoners to the Auschwitz (OWSH’-vitz) concentration camp in German-occupied Poland.
On this date:
In 1775, the Continental Army, forerunner of the United States Army, was created.
In 1777, the Second Continental Congress approved the design of the original American flag.
In 1811, Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” was born in Litchfield, Conn.
In 1846, a group of U.S. settlers in Sonoma proclaimed the Republic of California.
In 1919, John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown embarked on the first non-stop flight across the Atlantic Ocean. (Flying a Vickers Vimy ((VIH’-mee)) biplane bomber, they took off from St. Johns, Newfoundland, Canada and arrived 16 1/2 hours later in Clifden, Ireland.)
In 1943, the U.S. Supreme Court, in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, ruled 6-3 that public school students could not be forced to salute the flag of the United States.
In 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a measure adding the phrase “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance.
In 1982, Argentine forces surrendered to British troops on the disputed Falkland Islands.
In 1985, the 17-day hijack ordeal of TWA Flight 847 began as a pair of Lebanese Shiite (SHEE’-eyet) Muslim extremists seized the jetliner shortly after takeoff from Athens, Greece.
In 1990, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld, 6-3, police checkpoints that examined drivers for signs of intoxication.
In 1993, President Bill Clinton nominated Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court.
In 2017, a rifle-wielding gunman opened fire on Republican lawmakers at a congressional baseball practice in Alexandria, Virginia, wounding House Whip Steve Scalise (skuh-LEES’) and several others; the assailant died in a battle with police. Fire ripped through the 24-story Grenfell Tower in West London, killing 71 people.
