Associated Press
On June 19, 1953, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed at Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, N.Y. They had been convicted of conspiring to pass U.S. atomic secrets to the Soviet Union.
1586 English colonists sailed from Roanoke Island, N.C., after failing to establish England’s first permanent settlement in America.
1862 Slavery was outlawed in U.S. territories.
1903 Baseball Hall of Famer Lou Gehrig was born in New York City.
1910 Father’s Day was celebrated for the first time, in Spokane, Wash.
1917 During World War I, King George V changed the British royal family’s German-sounding surname, Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, to Windsor.
1934 The Federal Communications Commission was created.
1961 The Supreme Court struck down a provision in Maryland’s constitution requiring state officeholders to profess a belief in God.
1964 The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was approved after an 83-day filibuster in the U.S. Senate.
1987 The Supreme Court struck down a Louisiana law requiring any public school teaching the theory of evolution to teach creation science as well.
1999 Britain’s Prince Edward married commoner Sophie Rhys-Jones in Windsor, England.
2000 The Supreme Court, in a 6-3 ruling, barred officials from letting students lead stadium crowds in prayer before football games.
2007 A truck bomb struck a Shiite mosque in central Baghdad, killing at least 87 people.
2008 Democrat Barack Obama announced he would bypass public financing for the presidential election, even though Republican John McCain was accepting it.
Today’s Birthdays:
Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi turns 70 years old today.
Gena Rowlands, Actress, 85
Salman Rushdie, Author, 68
Phylicia Rashad, Actress (“The Cosby Show”), 67
Ann Wilson, Rock singer (Heart), 65
Kathleen Turner, Actress, 61
Paula Abdul, Singer, TV personality (“American Idol”), 53
Michael Trucco, Actor (“Battlestar Galactica”), 45
Jean Dujardin, Actor (“The Artist”), 43
Robin Tunney, Actress, 43
Poppy Montgomery, Actress, 40
Zoe Saldana, Actress (“Avatar”), 37
Lauren Lee Smith, Actress (“CSI”), 35
Macklemore, Rapper, 32
Atticus Shaffer, Actor (“The Middle”), 17
Dallas Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki turns 37 years old today.