27th June: Today In History

Today is Tuesday, June 27th, the 178th day of 2017. There are 187 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

Events:

1957:  Hurricane Audrey slammed into coastal Louisiana and Texas as a Category 4 storm; the official death toll from the storm was placed at 390, although a variety of state, federal and local sources have estimated the number of fatalities at between 400 and 600.

1787:  English historian Edward Gibbon completed work on his six-volume work, “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.”

1844:  Mormon leader Joseph Smith and his brother, Hyrum, were killed by a mob in Carthage, Illinois.

1864:  Confederate forces repelled a frontal assault by Union troops in the Civil War Battle of Kennesaw Mountain in Georgia.

1905:  The Industrial Workers of the World was founded in Chicago.

1922:  The first Newberry Medal, recognizing excellence in children’s literature, was awarded to “The Story of Mankind” by Hendrik Willem van Loon.

1944:  During World War II, American forces liberated the French port of Cherbourg from the Germans.

1966:  The Gothic soap opera “Dark Shadows” premiered on ABC-TV.

1974, President Richard Nixon opened an official visit to the Soviet Union.

1977:  The U.S. Supreme Court struck down state laws and bar association rules that prohibited lawyers from advertising their fees for routine services. The Republic of Djibouti became independent of France.

1986:  The International Court of Justice at The Hague ruled the United States had broken international law and violated the sovereignty of Nicaragua by aiding the contras. (The U.S. had already said it would not consider itself bound by the World Court decision.)

1990:  NASA announced that a flaw in the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope was preventing the instrument from achieving optimum focus. (The problem was traced to a mirror that had not been ground to exact specifications; corrective optics were later installed to fix the problem.)

1991:  Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, the first black jurist to sit on the nation’s highest court, announced his retirement. (His departure led to the contentious nomination of Clarence Thomas to succeed him.)

Birthdays:

Business executive Ross Perot is 87.

Former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt is 79.

Singer-musician Bruce Johnston (The Beach Boys) is 75.

Fashion designer Vera Wang is 68.

Actress Julia Duffy is 66.

Actress Isabelle Adjani is 62.

Country singer Lorrie Morgan is 58.

Actor Brian Drillinger is 57.

Writer-producer-director J.J. Abrams is 51.

Sen. Kelly Ayotte

Quotes Of The Day:

At the end of the day you can either focus on what's tearing you apart or what's keeping you together.

Don’t depend too much on anyone in this world because even your own shadow leaves you when you are in darkness.