Today In History

June 29, 1070: The United States ended a two-month military offensive into Cambodia.

In 1767: The British Parliament approved the Townshend Revenue Acts, which imposed import duties on certain goods shipped to America. Colonists bitterly protested the Acts, which were repealed in 1770.

In 1776: The Virginia state constitution was adopted, and Patrick Henry made governor.

In 1941: Polish statesman, pianist and composer Ignace Jan Paderewski died in New York at age 80.

In 1946: British authorities arrested more than 2,700 Jews in Palestine in an attempt to stamp out alleged terrorism.

In 1949: The government of South Africa enacted a ban against racially-mixed marriages.

In 1954: The Atomic Energy Commission voted against re-instating Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer’s access to classified information.

In 1966: The United States bombed fuel-storage facilities near the North Vietnamese cities of Hanoi and Haiphong.

In 1972: In 1972, the Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty, as it was being meted out, could constitute “cruel and unusual punishment.” (The ruling prompted states to revise their capital punishment laws.