Today in 1776, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia proposed to the Continental Congress a resolution calling for a Declaration of Independence.
Today in 1769, frontiersman Daniel Boone first began to explore the present-day Bluegrass State.
Today in 1892, Homer Plessy, a “Creole of color,” was arrested for refusing to leave a whites-only car of the East Louisiana Railroad. (Ruling on his case, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld “separate but equal” racial segregation, a concept it renounced in 1954.)
Today in 1929, the sovereign state of Vatican City came into existence as copies of the Lateran Treaty were exchanged in Rome.
Today in 1939, King George the Sixth and his wife, Queen Elizabeth, arrived at Niagara Falls, New York on the first visit to the United States by a reigning British monarch.
Today in 1965, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Connecticut law used to prosecute a Planned Parenthood clinic in New Haven for providing contraceptives to married couples. In the 7-2 decision, Justice William O. Douglas, ruled that the law violated the "right to marital privacy."
Today in 1993, the Supreme Court ruled that religious groups can sometimes meet on school property after hours. The justices also let stand, without comment, a federal appeals court ruling allowing student-led prayers at graduation ceremonies in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi.
Today in 1993, ground was broken for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.
Today in 1994, a 12-year-old sixth grader Vicki Van Meter became the youngest girl to pilot a plane to Europe – when she flew from Augusta, Maine to Glasgow, Scotland. Sadly, the pressure of fame and battles with depression saw Vicki take her own life in 2008. The ruling by Justice Elliott Wilk described Allen as “self-absorbed, untrustworthy and insensitive,” and undercut the claims that Dylan Farrow was “brainwashed” by her mother into inventing the tale of her sexual molestation.
Today in 1995,American astronaut Norman Thagard broke NASA's space endurance record of 84 days, one hour and 16 minutes, aboard the Russian space station "Mir."
Today in 1997, an 18-member presidential commission approved a report saying that cloning a human being was "morally unacceptable," but added that research using cells of humans and animals should be allowed.
Today in 1998, in a crime that shocked the nation, 49-year-old Black man James Byrd, Jr., was chained to a pickup truck and dragged to his death in Jasper, Texas. Medical examiners later confirmed that Byrd remained conscious throughout most of his ordeal – and was only killed about halfway through the dragging when his body hit the edge of a culvert, severing his right arm and head. In the trials that followed, two white men were later sentenced to death for the crime; a third received life in prison.
Today in 1998, CNN aired the "Operation Tailwind" story, which alleged that U.S. soldiers used nerve gas on deserters and enemy soldiers during the Vietnam War. The report made headlines around the world, but was later proven to be false. CNN retracted the story July 2nd.
Today in 2000, US District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson ordered the breakup of Microsoft Corporation, declaring the software giant should be split into two because it had "proved untrustworthy in the past." The order was overturned on appeal weeks later.
Today in 2013, President Barack Obama vigorously defended the government’s just-disclosed collection of massive amounts of information from phone and Internet records as a necessary defense against terrorism, and assured Americans, “Nobody is listening to your telephone calls.” Except that they have been…and still do.
Today in 2017, the earliest-ever evidence of Homo Sapiens – at 300-thousand-years old and found in Morocco – was published in "Nature.”