HISTORY FOR FRIDAY, JUNE 18

Friday June 18, 2010

Today is Friday, June 18, the 169th day of 2010 with 196 to follow.

The moon is waning. The morning stars are Neptune, Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus. The evening stars are Venus and Mars.

This Day in History, June 18
On June 18th, 1928, Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean.

Other Notable Events, June 18
In 1812, the United States declared war on Britain.

In 1815, England's Duke of Wellington and Prussian Field Marshal Gebhard von Blucher defeated Napoleon at Waterloo in Belgium.

In 1975, Saudi Arabian Prince Museid was publicly beheaded in Riyadh for the assassination of King Faisal.

In 1979, U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev signed a strategic arms control treaty in Vienna, Austria.

In 1983, Sally Ride became the first American woman in space as the space shuttle Challenger was launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla.

In 1990, James Edward Pough, 42, whose car had been repossessed, killed eight people and wounded five more before committing suicide at a General Motors Acceptance Corp. loan office in Jacksonville, Fla. He was believed to have killed two others a day earlier.

In 1996, the U.S. Senate issued its Whitewater reports. The Republican report accused first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton of obstruction of justice.

Also in 1996, Unabomber suspect Theodore Kaczynski was charged with two killings in California; he pleaded innocent. Charges from New Jersey would come later.

In 1997, Turkish Premier Necmettin Erbakan resigned under pressure after his governing coalition lost its majority in parliament.

In 2000, Ethiopia and Eritrea signed a cease-fire, ending their monthlong war.

In 2002, a suicide bomber killed himself and 19 others when he detonated explosives aboard a bus in Jerusalem.

In 2004, U.S. hostage Paul Johnson Jr., 49, was killed by his Saudi captors despite pleas from senior Muslim clerics.

In 2006, some 800 U.S. National Guard troops began working along the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border as part of a federal plan to slow illegal immigration.

In 2007, the United States and the European Union announced they would resume aid to Palestinians. Meanwhile, hundreds of Palestinians waited at the Israeli border trying to escape from Hamas-controlled Gaza.

In 2008, the U.S. Congress overrode a presidential veto of the $290 billion farm bill, providing agricultural subsidies, federal food stamps, foreign food aid and other programs for a 5-year period.

Also in 2008, U.S. President George W. Bush urged Congress to rescind a law, signed by his father, President George H.W. Bush, that prohibits offshore drilling for oil.

In 2009, Texas billionaire R. Allen Stanford surrendered to the FBI after federal grand jury indicted him on charges of running a Ponzi scheme that allegedly defrauded some 30,000 investors out of $7 billion.

Also in 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision that prisoners have no right to a DNA test to prove their innocence long after they are convicted of a crime.


Notable Birthdays for June 18
Those born on this date include:
- Cyrus Curtis, founder and publisher of the Ladies' Home Journal, in 1850
- Journalist and publisher Edward Scripps in 1854
- British mountain climber George Mallory in 1886
- Singer-actor Jeanette MacDonald in 1903
- Actor E.G. Marshall in 1910
- Actor Richard Boone in 1917
- Legendary Tin Pan Alley composer Sammy Cahn in 1913
- Financial journalist Sylvia Porter in 1913
- Baseball Hall of Fame member Lou Brock in 1939 (age 71)
- Singer/composer Paul McCartney in 1942 (age 68)
- Film critic Roger Ebert in 1942 (age 68)
- Actors Carol Kane in 1952 (age 58)
- Actress Isabella Rossellini in 1952 (age 58)
- Singer Jemma Griffiths in 1975 (age 35)


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