On This Day, June 8: USS Liberty attacked off Egypt

On this date in history:

In 1789, James Madison proposed the Bill of Rights, which led to the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

In 1869, Ives McGaffney of Chicago obtained a patent for a "sweeping machine," the first vacuum cleaner.

In 1949, an FBI report identified several Hollywood figures -- including Frederic March, Dalton Trumbo, John Garfield, Paul Muni and Edward G. Robinson -- as members of the Communist Party. The document's release came amid a so-called Red Scare in the United States.

In 1967, the USS Liberty, an intelligence ship sailing in international waters off Egypt, was attacked by Israeli jet planes and torpedo boats. Thirty-four Americans were killed in the attack, which Israel said was a case of mistaken identity.

In 1968, James Earl Ray, an escaped convict, was arrested in London and charged with the April 4 assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. Ray died in prison in 1998.

In 1986, Austrian voters elected Kurt Waldheim as president. The former U.N. secretary-general's campaign was plagued with allegations he was involved in Nazi war crimes.

First lady Nancy Reagan (C) is pictured with (L to R) Kurt Waldheim, Dagmar Koller, Thomas Klestil, President Robert Graf, Edith Klestil, and Robert Jundbluth attend Washington's Kennedy Center on May 9, 1984, for the Vienna Volksoper. UPI File Photo

In 1994, two of the major warring factions in Bosnia, the Muslim-Croat federation and the Bosnian Serbs, signed a cease-fire agreement.

In 1995, U.S. Marines rescued downed American pilot Scott O'Grady in Bosnia.

In 2006, the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and seven others were confirmed killed in an airstrike on a house north of Baquba.

In 2009, North Korea sentenced American journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling to 12 years in prison for "illegal entry." They were released after a visit by former U.S. President Bill Clinton.

File Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI

In 2012, U.S. Marine Gen. John Allen, commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, apologized to the Afghan people for the deaths of 18 civilians, including children, in an airstrike.

In 2013, Princess Madeleine of Sweden married British-American businessman Christopher O'Neill.

In 2022, Iman Vellani became the first on-screen Muslim superhero with the release of Ms. Marvel on Disney+.