On This Day in History - June 7th - Almanac

Today is Wednesday, June 7, the 158th day of 2023 with 207 to follow.

The moon is waning. Morning stars are Jupiter, Mercury, Neptune and Saturn. Evening stars are Mars and Venus.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Gemini. They include Pope Gregory XIII in 1502; British fashion plate George "Beau" Brummell in 1778; French post-Impressionist painter Paul Gauguin in 1848; actor Jessica Tandy in 1909; actor/singer Dean Martin in 1917; Gwendolyn Brooks, the first black woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for poetry, in 1917; singer Tom Jones in 1940 (age 83); Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 1942; former talk-show host Jenny Jones in 1946 (age 77); Bahamian Prime Minister Philip Davis in 1951 (age 72); Turkish author Orhan Pamuk in 1952 (age 71); actor Liam Neeson in 1952 (age 71); singer/songwriter Prince in 1958; former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence in 1959 (age 64); actor Lance Reddick in 1962; guitarist Dave Navarro in 1967 (age 56); TV personality Michael "Bear" Grylls in 1974 (age 49); basketball hall of fame member Allen Iverson in 1975 (age 48); actor Bill Hader in 1978 (age 45); former pro tennis player Anna Kournikova in 1981 (age 42); actor Michael Cera in 1988 (age 35); rapper Iggy Azalea, born Amethyst Amelia Kelly, in 1990 (age 33); actor/model Emily Ratajkowski in 1991 (age 32); rapper Fetty Wap, born Willie Maxwell II, in 1991 (age 32); actor Aaron Pierre in 1994 (age 29); actor Gavin Leatherwood in 1994 (age 29).

On this date in history:

In 1776, the Lee Resolution, which led to the U.S. Declaration of Independence, was introduced in the Continental Congress.

In 1864, Republican delegates meeting in Baltimore nominated Abraham Lincoln for his second term as president. His running mate was Andrew Johnson.

In 1942, Japanese forces occupied Attu and Kiska in the Aleutian Islands. U.S. forces retook the islands one year later.

In 1965, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Connecticut law banning contraceptives.

In 1967, Israeli troops captured Jerusalem during the Six-Day War.

In 1975, the first videocassette recorder went on sale to the public.

In 1983, one day after Nicaragua expelled three U.S. diplomats, the Reagan administration ordered six Nicaraguan consulates closed and expelled six of the country's diplomats.

In 1990, South African President F.W. de Klerk lifted a 4-year-old nationwide state of emergency in all but the strife-torn Indian Ocean province of Natal.

In 1998, three white supremacists killed James Byrd Jr. by dragging him for 3 miles behind a pickup truck in Jasper, Texas. The three men were convicted of murder -- one was executed in 2011, another is on death row and a third was sentenced to life in prison. The lynching spurred a Texas hate crime law as well as the federal Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act.

In 2002, U.S. missionary Martin Burnham, captured in the Philippines by a Muslim group more than a year earlier, was fatally shot during a rescue attempt.

In 2008, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., officially ended her campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination and endorsed Sen. Barack Obama for president.

In 2013, an arsonist set fire to a bus in Xiamen, China, killing 42 people and injuring 30 others.

In 2013, six people were killed and five injured in a Santa Monica, Calif., shooting rampage that started at a private home and ended on a college campus. The dead included the 23-year-old gunman, who was shot by police.

In 2021, two express trains collided in southern Pakistan, killing at least 40 people and injuring dozens.

A thought for the day: "I've stayed in the front yard all my life. "I want a peek at the back "Where it's rough and untended and hungry weed grows. "A girl gets sick of a rose." -- American Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Gwendolyn Brooks