June 21
1527
Italian statesman, diplomat, and author of “The Prince,” Niccolo Machiavelli died.
1788
The U.S. Constitution went into effect when New Hampshire became the 9th state to ratify it.
1834
Cyrus McCormick’s mechanical reaper was patented.
1964
Three civil rights workers—James E. Chaney, 21; Andrew Goodman, 21; and Michael Schwerner, 24—disappeared in Philadelphia, Miss. In 2005, 41 years after the disappearance, Edgar Killen was convicted of their murders.
1982
John Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity for the attempted murder of President Ronald Reagan.
1989
The U.S. Supreme Court decided that burning the U.S. flag was protected under the First Amendment.
1997
The WNBA made its debut.
2004
Michael Melvill pilots the first privately-developed spacecraft,SpaceShipOne, into space.
Birthdays
Jean-Paul Sartre
1905–80, French existential philosopher, playwright, and novelist.
Reinhold Niebuhr
religious and social thinker (1892)
Al Hirschfeld
cartoonist (1903)
Mary McCarthy
novelist (1912)
Benazir Bhutto
prime minister (1953)
Prince William
prince (1982)