Today in History

AP News
Posted: Jun 07, 2014 12:00 AM

Today is Saturday, June 7, the 158th day of 2014. There are 207 days left in the year.

Today's Highlights in History:

On June 7, 1939, King George VI and his wife, Queen Elizabeth, arrived at Niagara Falls, New York, from Canada on the first visit to the United States by a reigning British monarch.

On this date:


In 1769, frontiersman Daniel Boone first began to explore present-day Kentucky.


In 1892, Homer Plessy, a "Creole of color," was fined for refusing to leave a whites-only car of the East Louisiana Railroad. (Ruling on his case, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld "separate but equal" racial segregation, which it overturned in 1954.)

In 1929, the sovereign state of Vatican City came into existence as copies of the Lateran Treaty were exchanged in Rome.




In 1972, the musical "Grease" opened on Broadway, having already been performed in lower Manhattan.


In 1984, the occult comedy "Ghostbusters," released by Columbia Pictures, had its world premiere in Westwood, California.


Ten years ago: A steady, near-silent stream of people circled through the rotunda of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, where the body of the nation's 40th president lay in repose before traveling to Washington two days later for a state funeral. The Tampa Bay Lightning held off the Calgary Flames 2-1 in Game 7 to win their first Stanley Cup.

Five years ago: Extreme-right parties gained in European Parliament elections, including the first seats won by the all-white British National Party. Roger Federer completed a career Grand Slam, winning his first French Open title by sweeping surprise finalist Robin Soderling 6-1, 7-6 (1), 6-4. The British musical "Billy Elliot" won 10 Tony Awards, including best musical and a unique best actor prize for the three young performers who shared the title character: David Alvarez, Trent Kowalik and Kiril Kulish. Pop vocalist, musician, songwriter Kenny Rankin died in Los Angeles at 69.

One year ago: President Barack Obama vigorously defended the government's just-disclosed collection of massive amounts of information from phone and Internet records as a necessary defense against terrorism, and assured Americans, "Nobody is listening to your telephone calls." President Obama opened a two-day summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Rancho Mirage, California. A gunman killed five people in Santa Monica, California, before police shot him to death. Former French Prime Minister Pierre Mauroy, 84, died in suburban Paris. Death row inmate Richard Ramirez, 53, the serial killer known as California's "Night Stalker," died in a hospital.

Today's Birthdays: Movie director James Ivory is 86. Former Canadian Prime Minister John Turner is 85. Actress Virginia McKenna is 83. Singer Tom Jones is 74. Poet Nikki Giovanni is 71. Actor Ken Osmond ("Leave It to Beaver") is 71. Former talk show host Jenny Jones is 68. Actress Anne Twomey is 63. Actor Liam Neeson is 62. Actress Colleen Camp is 61. Singer-songwriter Johnny Clegg is 61. Author Louise Erdrich (UR'-drihk) is 60. Actor William Forsythe is 59. Record producer L.A. Reid is 58. Latin pop singer Juan Luis Guerra is 57. Singer-songwriter Prince is 56. Rock singer-musician Gordon Gano (The Violent Femmes) is 51. Rapper Ecstasy (Whodini) is 50. Rock musician Eric Kretz (Stone Temple Pilots) is 48. Rock musician Dave Navarro is 47. Actress Helen Baxendale is 44. Actor Karl Urban is 42. TV personality Bear Grylls is 40. Rock musician Eric Johnson (The Shins) is 38. Actress Adrienne Frantz is 36. Actor-comedian Bill Hader is 36. Actress Anna Torv is 35. Actress Larisa Oleynik (oh-LAY'-nihk) is 33. Tennis player Anna Kournikova is 33. Actor Michael Cera is 26. Actress Shelley Buckner is 25.

Thought for Today: "The history of the world shows that when a mean thing was done, man did it; when a good thing was done, man did it." — Robert G. Ingersoll, American lawyer and statesman (1833-1899).

(Above Advance for Use Saturday, June 7)

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