Today In History

June 18, 2009 08:46 am

— Today is Thursday, June 18, the 169th day of 2009. There are 196 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On June 18, 1940, during World War II, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill urged his countrymen to conduct themselves in a manner that would prompt future generations to say, “This was their finest hour.”
On this date:
In 1778, American forces entered Philadelphia as the British withdrew during the Revolutionary War.
In 1812, the United States declared war against Britain.
In 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte met his Waterloo as British and Prussian troops defeated the French in Belgium.
In 1873, suffragist Susan B. Anthony was found guilty by a judge in Canandaigua, N.Y., of breaking the law by casting a vote in the 1872 presidential election. (The judge fined Anthony $100, but she never paid the penalty.)
In 1908, William Howard Taft was nominated for president by the Republican national convention in Chicago.
In 1979, President Jimmy Carter and Soviet President Leonid I. Brezhnev signed the SALT II strategic arms limitation treaty in Vienna.
In 1983, astronaut Sally K. Ride became America’s first woman in space as she and four colleagues blasted off aboard the space shuttle Challenger.
Today’s Birthdays: Actor Ian Carmichael is 89. Rock singer-composer-musician Paul McCartney is 67. Movie critic Roger Ebert is 67. R&B singer Nathan Morris (Boyz II Men) is 38. Actress Mara Hobel is 38. Rapper Silkk the Shocker is 34. Actress Alana de la Garza is 33. Country singer Blake Shelton is 33. San Diego Chargers tight end Antonio Gates is 29. Actress Renee Olstead is 20.

Thought for Today: “The basic discovery about any people is the discovery of the relationship between its men and women.” — Pearl S. Buck, American author (1892-1973).