Today is Thursday, June 8, the 159th day of 2017. There are 206 days left in the year.
Today's Highlight in History:
On June 8, 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.)
On this date:
In A.D. 632, the prophet Muhammad died in Medina.
In 1042, Edward the Confessor became King of England, beginning a reign of 23 1/2 years.
In 1845, Andrew Jackson, seventh president of the United States, died in Nashville, Tennessee.
In 1867, modern American architect Frank Lloyd Wright was born in Richland Center, Wisconsin.
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 1920, the Republican National Convention opened in Chicago; its delegates would end up nominating Warren G. Harding for president.
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.
In 1942, Bing Crosby recorded "Silent Night" and "Adeste Fideles" (O Come All Ye Faithful) in Los Angeles for Decca Records.
In 1953, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that restaurants in the District of Columbia could not refuse to serve blacks. Eight tornadoes struck Michigan's Lower Peninsula, killing 126 people.
In 1972, during the Vietnam War, an Associated Press photographer took a picture of a screaming 9-year-old girl, Phan Thi Kim Phuc (fahn thee kihm fook), as she ran naked and severely burned from the scene of a South Vietnamese napalm attack.
In 1987, Fawn Hall began testifying at the Iran-Contra hearings, describing how, as secretary to National Security aide Oliver L. North, she had helped to shred some documents and spirit away others.
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. Mickey Mantle received a liver transplant at a Dallas hospital; however, the baseball great died two months later.