Flashback
Today is Saturday, June 11, the 162nd day of 2005. There are 203 days left in the year.
Today’s highlights in history:
On June 11, 1776, the Continental Congress formed a committee to draft a Declaration of Independence calling for freedom from Britain.
Ten years ago: In an unprecedented joint appearance, President Clinton and House Speaker Newt Gingrich sparred politely over Medicare and other issues before an audience of senior citizens in Claremont, N.H.
Five years ago: A day after the death of Syrian President Hafez Assad, his son, Bashar, was unanimously nominated by Syria’s ruling Baath Party to succeed his father. An unruly group of men doused women with water and groped them in New York’s Central Park; some of the assaults were captured on home video. Gustavo Kuerten of Brazil won his second French Open title, beating Magnus Norman 6-2, 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 (6).
One year ago: The nation bade a lingering goodbye to former President Ronald Reagan at a stately funeral in Washington, D.C., followed hours later by a hilltop burial ceremony in his beloved California. Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols was again spared the death penalty when jurors who’d convicted him of 161 murder counts deadlocked over his sentence. “Prince of high fashion” Egon von Furstenberg died in Rome at age 57.
On this date:
In 1509, England’s King Henry VIII married Catherine of Aragon.
In 1770, Captain James Cook, commander of the British ship Endeavour, discovered the Great Barrier Reef off Australia by running onto it.
In 1919, Sir Barton won the Belmont Stakes, becoming horse racing’s first Triple Crown winner.
In 1942, the United States and the Soviet Union signed a lend-lease agreement to aid the Soviet war effort in World War II.
In 1947, the government announced the end of household and institutional sugar rationing, to take effect the next day.
In 1963, Buddhist monk Quang Duc immolated himself on a Saigon street to protest the government of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem.
In 1970, the United States presence in Libya came to an end as the last detachment left Wheelus Air Base.
In 1977, Seattle Slew won the Belmont Stakes, capturing the Triple Crown.
In 1985, Karen Ann Quinlan, the comatose patient whose case prompted a historic right-to-die court decision, died in Morris Plains, N.J., at age 31.
In 2001, Timothy McVeigh was executed by injection at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind., for the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people.