HISTORY FOR JUNE 16

Today is Monday, June 16, the 168th day of 2008. There are 198 days left in the year.
Associated Press
Article Last Updated: 06/16/2008 09:00:52 AM PDT


Today's Highlight in History:

Associated Press Today's Highlight in History:

On June 16, 1858, as he accepted the Illinois Republican Party's nomination for 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 1883, baseball's first ''Ladies' Day'' took place as the New York Gothams offered women free admission to a game against the Cleveland Spiders. (New York won, 5-2.)
In 1897, the government signed a treaty of annexation with Hawaii.
In 1903, Ford Motor Co. was incorporated.
In 1932, President Hoover and Vice President Charles Curtis were renominated at the Republican national convention in Chicago.
In 1933, the National Industrial Recovery Act became law. (It was later struck down by the Supreme Court.)
In 1955, Pope Pius XII excommunicated Argentine President Juan Domingo Peron for expelling two priests from his country. (However, the ban was effectively lifted in 1963 when the Catholic Church declared that Peron had merely been threatened with excommunication).
In 1958, the Supreme Court, in Kent v. Dulles, ruled that artist Rockwell Kent could not be denied a passport because of his communist affiliations.
In 1963, the world's first female space traveler, Valentina Tereshkova, was launched into orbit by the Soviet Union aboard Vostok 6.
In 1976, riots broke out in the black South African township of SOWETO.
In 1978, President Carter and Panamanian leader Omar Torrijos exchanged the instruments of ratification for the Panama Canal treaties.

Ten years ago: Massachusetts' highest court cleared the way for Louise Woodward to return home to England, upholding a judge's ruling that freed the au pair convicted of killing a baby. The Detroit Red Wings took home the Stanley Cup for the second consecutive year after completing a sweep of the Washington Capitals with a 4-1 victory in Game 4.

Five years ago: Twelve people sent to prison as the result of a Tulia, Texas, drug bust were released on bail by a judge who said they'd been railroaded by an undercover agent. (A total of 35 people were later pardoned by Texas Gov. Rick Perry.) A divided Supreme Court said the government can force medication on mentally ill criminal defendants only in the rarest of circumstances.

One year ago: A North Carolina State Bar disciplinary committee said disgraced prosecutor Mike Nifong would be disbarred for his disastrous prosecution of three Duke University lacrosse players falsely accused of rape. Six people were killed, 22 injured, when a car driven by Australian-born professional drag racer Troy Critchley plowed into a parade crowd in Selmer, Tenn. U.S. astronaut Sunita ''Suni'' Williams set a record aboard the international space station for the longest single spaceflight by any woman, surpassing the record of 188 days set by astronaut Shannon Lucid at the Mir space station in 1996.

Today's Birthdays: Actor Bill Cobbs is 73. Author Erich Segal is 71. Author Joyce Carol Oates is 70. Country singer Billy ''Crash'' Craddock is 69. Songwriter Lamont Dozier is 67. Rhythm-and-blues singer Eddie Levert is 66. Actress Joan Van Ark is 65. Rhythm-and-blues singer James Smith (The Stylistics) is 58. Boxer Roberto Duran is 57. Pop singer Gino Vannelli is 56. Actress Laurie Metcalf is 53. Model-actress Jenny Shimizu is 41. Actor James Patrick Stuart is 40. Actor Eddie Cibrian is 35. Actress China Shavers is 31. Actress Missy Peregrym is 26. Actress Olivia Hack is 25. Singer Diana DeGarmo (''American Idol'') is 21.

Thought for Today: ''We fear something before we hate it. A child who fears noises becomes a man who hates noise.'' - Cyril Connolly, British critic (1903-1974).