Today is Thursday, June 14, the 165th day of 2018.
On June 14, 1777, the Second Continental Congress approved the design of the original American flag, declaring: “Resolved, that the Flag of the thirteen United States shall be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the Union be thirteen stars, white on a blue field, representing a new constellation.”
On this date:
In 1775: The Continental Army, forerunner of the United States Army, was created.
In 1801: Former American Revolutionary War general and notorious turncoat Benedict Arnold died in London.
In 1922: Warren G. Harding became the first president heard on radio, as Baltimore station WEAR broadcast his speech dedicating the Francis Scott Key memorial at Fort McHenry.
In 1934: Max Baer defeated Primo Carnera with an 11th round TKO to win the world heavyweight boxing championship in Long Island City, New York.
In 1940: German troops entered Paris during World War II; the same day, the Nazis began transporting prisoners to the Auschwitz concentration camp in German-occupied Poland.
In 1943: The U.S. Supreme Court, in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, ruled 6-3 that children in public schools 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 1967: The space probe Mariner 5 was launched from Cape Kennedy on a flight that took it past Venus. California Gov. Ronald Reagan signed a bill liberalizing his state’s abortion law. The movie “To Sir, with Love,” starring Sidney Poitier, was released by Columbia Pictures.
In 1972: The Environmental Protection Agency ordered a ban on domestic use of the pesticide DDT, to take effect at year’s end.
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 extremists seized the jetliner shortly after takeoff from Athens, Greece.
In 1992: Mona Van Duyn became the first woman to be named the nation’s Poet Laureate by the Library of Congress.
