Today is Wednesday, June 8, the 160th day of 2016. There are 206 days left in the year.
Today's Highlights in History:
On June 8, 1966, the strongest of a series of tornadoes struck the Topeka, Kansas, area, killing 17 people. A merger was announced between the National and American Football Leagues, to take effect in 1970.
On this date:
In A.D. 632, the prophet Muhammad died in Medina.
In 1845, Andrew Jackson, seventh president of the United States, died in Nashville, Tennessee.
In 1864, Abraham Lincoln was nominated for another term as president during the National Union (Republican) Party's convention in Baltimore.
In 1912, the ballet "Daphnis et Chloe" was premiered by the Ballets Russes in Paris.
In 1915, U.S. Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan resigned over what he viewed as President Woodrow Wilson's overly bellicose attitude toward Germany following the sinking of the RMS Lusitania.
In 1948, the "Texaco Star Theater" made its debut on NBC-TV with Milton Berle guest-hosting the first program. (Berle was later named the show's permanent host.)
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 1967, 34 U.S. servicemen were killed when Israel attacked the USS Liberty, a Navy intelligence-gathering ship in the Mediterranean. (Israel later said the Liberty had been mistaken for an Egyptian vessel.)
In 1972, during the Vietnam War, an Associated Press photographer captured the haunting image of 9-year-old 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 1978, a jury in Clark County, Nevada, ruled the so-called "Mormon will," purportedly written by the late billionaire Howard Hughes, was a forgery.
In 1982, President Ronald Reagan became the first American chief executive to address a joint session of the British Parliament.
In 1996, China set off an underground nuclear test blast.
Ten years ago: The Food and Drug Administration approved Gardasil, a vaccine against HPV, the virus that causes cervical cancer. Sheikha Haya Al Khalifa (SHAY'-kah HY'-ah al hah-LEE'-fah), a lawyer from Bahrain, was elected U.N. General Assembly president, the first woman from the Middle East to take the post.
Five years ago: Rep. Allyson Schwartz of Pennsylvania became the first Democratic House colleague to call for Rep. Anthony Weiner of New York to resign after he admitted sending a lewd photo of himself to a woman via Twitter and lying about it. OPEC unexpectedly left its production levels unchanged, causing oil prices to jump as senior officials reported their meeting in Vienna had ended in disarray. Meredith Vieira ended her five-year run as co-anchor of NBC's "Today" show, telling viewers her decision to go was "right, but it's hard."
One year ago: Acknowledging setbacks, President Barack Obama said at the close of a G-7 summit in Germany that the United States still lacked a "complete strategy" for training Iraqi forces to fight the Islamic State. Siding with the White House in a foreign-policy power struggle with Congress, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that Americans born in the disputed city of Jerusalem could not list Israel as their birthplace on passports. The NCAA approved multiple rule changes to men's basketball for the 2015-16 season, including a 30-second shot clock and fewer timeouts for each team.
