Today is Wednesday, June 16, the 167th day of 2021.
There are 198 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On June 16, 1858, accepting the Illinois Republican Party’s nomination for the U.S. Senate, Abraham Lincoln said the slavery issue had to be resolved, declaring, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”
On this date:
In 1897, the government signed a treaty of annexation with Hawaii.
In 1903, Ford Motor Co. was incorporated.
In 1911, IBM had its beginnings as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Co. which was incorporated in New York State.
In 1933, the National Industrial Recovery Act became law with President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s signature. (The Act was later struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court.) The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was founded as President Roosevelt signed the Banking Act of 1933.
In 1955, members of Argentina’s military bombarded the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires in a failed attempt to assassinate President Juan Domingo Peron and his Cabinet, causing hundreds of civilian deaths, the same day Peron was excommunicated by Pope Pius XII for expelling two bishops from his country (however, the ban was effectively lifted in 1963).
In 1959, actor George Reeves, TV’s “Superman,” was found dead of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound in the bedroom of his Beverly Hills, California, home; he was 45.
In 1963, the world’s first female space traveler, Valentina Tereshkova (teh-ruhsh-KOH’-vuh), 26, was launched into orbit by the Soviet Union aboard Vostok 6; Tereshkova spent 71 hours in flight, circling the Earth 48 times before returning safely.
In 1970, Kenneth A. Gibson of Newark, N.J., became the first Black politician elected mayor of a major Northeast city. Chicago Bears running back Brian Piccolo, 26, died at a New York hospital after battling cancer.
In 1976, riots broke out in the Black South African township of Soweto.
In 1978, President Jimmy Carter and Panamanian leader Omar Torrijos (toh-REE’-ohs) signed the instruments of ratification for the Panama Canal treaties during a ceremony in Panama City.
In 1999, Kathleen Ann Soliah (SOH’-lee-ah), a fugitive member of the Symbionese Liberation Army, was captured in St. Paul, Minnesota, where she had made a new life under the name Sara Jane Olson. Thabo Mbeki (TAH’-boh um-BEH’-kee) took the oath as president of South Africa, succeeding Nelson Mandela.
In 2015, real estate mogul Donald Trump launched his successful campaign to become president of the United States with a speech at Trump Tower in Manhattan.