Today is the 170th day of 2023. There are 195 days left in the year

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

1910: The first Father’s Day is celebrated, in Spokane, Washington.

OTHER EVENTS

1205: Pope Innocent III fires Adolf I as archbishop of Cologne.

1269: King Louis IX of France decrees all Jews must wear a yellow badge in public or be fined 10 livres of silver

1603: Merga Bien is arrested for witchcraft in Fulda, Germany, as part of the Fulda witch trials; she and about 250 people are later burned at the stake.

1741: Russian mathematician Leonhard Euler leaves St Petersburg for a position at the Berlin Academy, offered to him by Frederick the Great of Prussia.

1790: The National Assembly issues a decree abolishing the titles, orders and other privileges of the French nobility.

1819: HMS Kite chases the steamship SS Savannah on its historic voyage across the Atlantic for three hours off the coast of Ireland, believing it to be on fire.

1829: Robert Peel introduces the Metropolitan Police Act 1829 into Parliament to establish a unified police force for London, the city’s first modern police force.

1846: Alexander Joy Cartwright arranges a baseball game between the New York Knickerbockers and the New York Nine at Hoboken, New Jersey — the first baseball game to use the set of rules on which today’s game is based.

1862: Slavery is outlawed in US territories.

1865: With the arrival of Union soldiers in Galveston, Texas, the state’s residents finally learn about the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863; the day becomes the annual holiday known as Juneteenth, commemorating the end of slavery in the United States.

1867: The emperor of Mexico, Maximilian, is executed by a firing squad.

1917: The British Royal Family, which had strong German ties since George I, renounces its German names and titles and adopts the name of Windsor.

1933: The Museum of Science and Industry opens in Chicago, endowed by philanthropist Julius Rosenwald, chairman of Sears, Roebuck, and Company.

1937: Governor George Earle of Pennsylvania declares martial law in the Johnstown steel strike area and orders the Bethlehem Steel Corporation to close its Cambria plant; one person is killed and 11 are injured.

1939: The explosion of a bomb in the market of Haifa kills 18 Arabs, in renewed terrorism.

1946: An Egyptian communique discloses that Haj Amin el Husseini, exiled grand mufti of Jerusalem, has fled to Egypt where it is reported he will receive asylum.

1947: Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin says British “appeasement” of Russia has ended and that Britain is determined to work for European reconstruction — with or without the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).

1950: Israel formally apologises to Sweden for the assassination of Count Folke Bernadotte, UN mediator in Palestine.

1953: After the failure of court appeals and a worldwide campaign for mercy, husband and wife Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are put to death, becoming the first American civilians to be executed for espionage.

1956: Egyptian Premier Gamal Abdel Nasser proclaims the end of martial law and press censorship, which were in effect since the overthrow of King Farouk in 1952.

1958: Both Houses of US Congress unanimously condemn Soviet “barbarism and perfidy” shown by the executions of Imre Nagy and other leaders of the Hungarian revolt.

1961: The independence of Kuwait, Persian gulf sheikhdom, is recognised by Great Britain and announced by Edward Heath, British lord privy seal; under a treaty of friendship Britain would continue to provide military protection.

1963: Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman to travel in space, returns to Earth in the spacecraft Vostok 6.

1966: The Inter-American Economic and Social Council, meeting in Washington, unanimously approves proposals for reforms in the Charter of the Organization of American States, resolving an earlier dispute between the US and Latin-American countries.

1967: President Gamal Abdel Nasser names himself prime minister of the United Arab Republic and takes charge of the nation’s sole political party.

1968: President Johnson signs a Bill authorising US participation in the international “paper gold” plan to supplement the world’s gold and foreign exchange resources.

1973: USSR Communist Party General Secretary Brezhnev, in the USA on a State visit, and President Richard M Nixon sign Soviet-US executive agreements on transportation, oceanography, agricultural research, and cultural exchange. Edward Heath of the Conservative Party becomes British prime minister; in 1973 he oversees the country’s entrance into the European Economic Community (now the European Union).

1982: Italian banker Roberto Calvi — dubbed God’s banker because of his work with the Vatican — is found hanging from scaffolding under Blackfriars Bridge in London; bricks and lumps of concrete are recovered from the pockets and inside the crotch of his trousers, and from the pockets of his jacket.

1987: A packed bus collides with a train at a railroad crossing some 50 kilometres (31 miles) west of Pretoria, South Africa; 18 persons are killed and 84 others injured, 13 of them seriously.

1988: A truck crashes into a passenger bus near Meerut, India, causing 15 deaths and 25 injuries.

1991: Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar surrenders to the police.

1997: With its 6,138th performance, Lord Lloyd-Webber”s musical Cats becomes the longest-running Broadway production, surpassing A Chorus Line.

2009: Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, declares the presidential election results valid and orders an end to demonstrations opposing the reported results.

2010: Backup dancer Dean Sheremet divorces Grammy Award-winning singer LeAnn Rimes after nearly eight years of marriage.

2013: American actor James Gandolfini, who was best known for his portrayal of Mafia boss and family man Tony Soprano in the HBO drama series The Sopranos (1999–2007), dies of a heart attack while vacationing in Rome.

2016: The Cleveland Cavaliers, led by MVP LeBron James, defeat the Golden State Warriors in a thrilling game seven to claim the franchise’s first NBA title; the Cavaliers by this feat become the first team to overcome a 3-1 deficit.

2017: The UN Refugee Agency reports that a record 65.6 million people around the world were displaced in 2016.

2018: Canada’s Senate votes to legalise recreational marijuana use, the first major economy to do so.

2019: The first debate to take place for a decade in Congress over reparations for slavery unfolds with Danny Glover as one of the witnesses.

2020: The Australian Government and companies suffer a months-long, State-based cyber attack, according to Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

2022: Colombia elects its first leftist president, former member of the M-19 guerrilla movement Gustavo Petro.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

James I and VI, King of England, Ireland and King of Scotland, respectively (1566-1625); Blaise Pascal, French mathematician, physicist, inventor, philosopher, and Catholic writer (1623-1662); José Rizal (José Protasio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda), Filipino nationalist, writer and polymath active and considered national hero of the Philippines (1861-1896); Moe Howard, American comedian and actor (1897-1975); Boris Johnson, British politician, journalist, and former UK prime minister (1964- ); Lou Gehrig (the “Iron Horse”) American professional baseball player and one of its great hitters (1903-1941); Ernest “Ernie” Ranglin, Jamaican guitar maestro and composer (1932- )

— AP/Jamaica Observer