This Day in History — June 17
Today is the 169th day of 2020. There are 197 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT
1999: Nelson Mandela bids farewell to the country he led into democracy and hands over power of South Africa to its second freely elected president, Thabo Mbeki.
OTHER EVENTS
1567: Mary Queen of Scots is imprisoned by Scottish rebels in Lochleven Castle in Scotland.
1885: The Statue of Liberty arrives in New York harbour aboard the French ship Isere.
1928: Amelia Earhart embarks on a transatlantic flight from Newfoundland to Wales with pilots Wilmer Stultz and Louis Gordon, becoming the first woman to make the trip as a passenger.
1940: France asks Germany for terms of surrender in World War II.
1972: Five men hired by the Republican Party are arrested while breaking in at the Democratic Party headquarters in the Watergate building in Washington, DC. The scandal ultimately leads to the resignation of President Richard Nixon.
1991: South Africa’s Parliament abolishes the last major apartheid law.
1994: After leading police on a slow-speed chase on Southern California freeways, O J Simpson is arrested and charged with murder in the slayings of his ex-wife, Nicole, and her friend, Ronald Goldman. (Simpson was later acquitted in a criminal trial, but held liable in a civil trial.)
1996: After pushing their dispute to the brink of a trade war, the United States and China reach a deal to stamp out rampant Chinese copyright piracy.
1997: Fighting erupts in Phnom Penh between police and bodyguards loyal to Cambodia’s feuding prime ministers Norodom Ranariddh and Hun Sen. At least one person is killed.
2003: The British House of Commons Select Committee on Foreign Affairs holds its first public hearing on the government’s use of intelligence leading up to a US-led invasion of Iraq in March.
2011: The United Nations endorses the rights of gay, lesbian and transgender people for the first time ever, passing a resolution hailed as historic by the US and other backers, and decried by some African and Muslim countries.
2015: Nine people are shot to death in a historic African-American church in Charleston, South Carolina; a suspect, Dylann Roof, was arrested the following morning.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS
Singer Barry Manilow (1943- ); Latin pop singer Paulina Rubio (1971- ); rapper Kendrik Lamar (1987)
— AP
