Today is June 17. On this date in:
1579
Sir Francis Drake and his crew landed on the coast of California at Drakes Bay, and named the land New Albion.
1775
The Revolutionary War Battle of Bunker Hill resulted in a costly victory for the British, who suffered heavy losses.
1885
The disassembled Statue of Liberty arrived at New York Harbor in crates aboard the French steamer Isère.
1915
The League to Enforce Peace was formed at a convention in Philadelphia, with former President William Howard Taft presiding as president.
1928
Amelia Earhart embarked on a trans-Atlantic flight from Newfoundland to Wales with pilots Wilmer Stultz and Louis Gordon, becoming the first woman to make the trip as a passenger.
1930
President Herbert Hoover signed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, which boosted U.S. tariffs to historically high levels, prompting foreign retaliation.
1954
Heavyweight champion Rocky Marciano defends his title against Cincinnati boxer Ezzard Charles in an unanimous decision after 15 rounds.
1963
The U.S. Supreme Court, in Abington (Pa.) School District v. Schempp, struck down, 8-1, rules requiring the recitation of the Lord’s Prayer or reading of Biblical verses in public schools.
1967
China successfully tested its first thermonuclear (hydrogen) bomb.
1972
President Richard Nixon’s eventual downfall began with the arrest of five burglars inside Democratic national headquarters in Washington, D.C.’s Watergate complex.
1994
After leading police on a slow-speed chase on Southern California freeways, O.J. Simpson was arrested and charged with murder in the slayings of his ex-wife, Nicole, and her friend, Ronald Goldman. (Simpson was later acquitted in a criminal trial, but held liable in a civil trial.)
2013
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 7-2 that states can’t demand proof of citizenship from people registering to vote in federal elections unless they get federal or court approval to do so.
2015
Nine people were shot to death in a historic African-American church in Charleston, South Carolina; suspect Dylann Roof was arrested the following morning.
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