Today is Thursday, June 16, the 167th day of 2005. There are 198 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On June 16, 1858, in a speech in Springfield, Ill., Senate candidate Abraham Lincoln said the slavery issue had to be resolved, declaring, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”
On this date:
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 1943, comedian Charles Chaplin married his fourth wife, 18-year-old Oona O’Neill, daughter of playwright Eugene O’Neill, in Carpenteria, Calif.
In 1955, Pope Pius XII excommunicated Argentine President Juan Domingo Peron — a ban that was lifted eight years later.
In 1961, Soviet ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev defected to the West while his troupe was in Paris.
In 1963, the world’s first female space traveler, Valentina Tereshkova, was launched into orbit by the Soviet Union aboard Vostok 6.
In 1977, Soviet Communist Party General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev was named president, becoming the first person to hold both posts simultaneously.
In 1978, President Carter and Panamanian leader Omar Torrijos exchanged the instruments of ratification for the Panama Canal treaties.
Ten years ago: Bosnian government forces aided by Bosnian Croats unleashed a major offensive in hopes of breaking the Serb stranglehold on Sarajevo. Salt Lake City was awarded the 2002 Winter Olympic Games.
Five years ago: Federal regulators approved the merger of Bell Atlantic and GTE Corp., creating the nation’s largest local phone company. Raynard Johnson, 17, was found hanging from a tree in Marion County, Miss.; investigators later ruled it a suicide, not a lynching. Empress dowager Nagako, widow of Japan’s Emperor Hirohito, died in Tokyo at age 97.
One year ago: Rebuffing Bush administration claims, the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks said no evidence existed that al-Qaida had strong ties to Saddam Hussein. Al Lapin Jr., co-founder of the International House of Pancakes in 1958, died in Los Angeles at age 76.
Today’s Birthdays: Author Erich Segal is 68. Author Joyce Carol Oates is 67. Country singer Billy “Crash” Craddock is 66. Songwriter Lamont Dozier is 64. Rhythm-and-blues singer Eddie Levert is 63. Actress Joan Van Ark is 62. Rhythm-and-blues singer James Smith (The Stylistics) is 55. Boxer Roberto Duran is 54. Pop singer Gino Vannelli is 53. Actress Laurie Metcalf is 50. Model-actress Jenny Shimizu is 38. Actor Eddie Cibrian is 32. Actress China Shavers is 28. Actress Olivia Hack is 22. Singer Diana DeGarmo (“American Idol”) is 18.
Thought for Today: “Not to know is bad. Not to want to know is worse. Not to hope is unthinkable. Not to care is unforgivable.” — Nigerian saying.
