Today in History

[Fading Fast]

Ronald Reagan passed away June 5, 2004

 

[LizzieMaine]

I shed a tear watching his funeral. No matter what I thought of him politically, he always seemed, personally, like a decent man, and nobody deserved to die the way he did. I was never a fan of Nancy, but I thought she conducted herself thruout his decline with great dignity.

 

[Vera Godfrey]

Ray Bradbury also passed on this date in 2012.

In 1893 it was the start of Lizzie Borden's trial.

 

[scotrace]

June 4th, 1968, as a decade of violence and rapid change saw a particularly bloody year, Robert. F. Kennedy was shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. The shooter, Sirhan Bishara Sirhan, remains behind bars at age 75.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Two days later, Fred Rogers produced one of the most extraordinary half-hours ever seen on American television -- a sober, thoughtful program for children and their parents, discussing the impact of televised acts of violence on children, and helping parents to understand just how upsetting to young people the constant discussion of death and killing on TV and in the family circle can be. The program is best remembered today for the remarkable "Neighborhood of Make Believe" sequence, in which Betty Aberlin and Daniel Striped Tiger discussed the meaning of the word "assassination."

 

[Fading Fast]

I shed a tear watching his funeral. No matter what I thought of him politically, he always seemed, personally, like a decent man, and nobody deserved to die the way he did. I was never a fan of Nancy, but I thought she conducted herself thruout his decline with great dignity.

Ronan Tynan's singing of "Amazing Grace" was incredibly moving (says this agnostic).

 

[Peacoat]

Yep, today in 1944 was a biggie. 400,000 Allied forces landed on the beaches at Normandy.

 

[LizzieMaine]

About time they opened up that second front.

The complete NBC and CBS radio coverage of the day's events survives and is widely available online. It's a fine example of broadcast journalism at its best. NBC dropped all regular programming and offered continuous coverage from about 3AM onward, while CBS went back to its soap operas at 9AM -- a move that came in for considerable criticism. But at least you got to hear what Bachelor's Children and The Goldbergs and Ma Perkins were up to.

 

[MissMittens]

Of course, on this day in 1944, the beginning of the end of Hitler's occupation of Europe took place on the beaches of Normandy, in Northern France. However, also on this day...

in 1930, frozen food was sold commercially for the first time; and

in 1966 on this day, the shooting of James Meredith, the first Black man to attend the University of Mississippi, was shot by a sniper shortly after starting a civil rights march; and

on this day in 2013, Edward Snowden now infamously revealed to the American public that all of their private communication was being intercepted, recorded, and screened under the biggest modern assault on civil liberties

 

[3fingers]

But at least you got to hear what Bachelor's Children and The Goldbergs and Ma Perkins were up to.

I've always thought the most ironic show on that day that CBS didn't want you to miss was Portia Faces Life.
There were a whole bunch of kids on the coast of France who could have given Portia Blake a run for her money that day.

 

[Amy Jeanne]

My favourite actress died of Uremic Poisoning, June 7, 1937, age 26.

 

[Fading Fast]

My favourite actress died of Uremic Poisoning, June 7, 1937, age 26.
View attachment 171866

She deserved a better life than she had.

 

[Peacoat]

Uremic poisoning is now known as acute renal failure. After MGM bought her contract from Hughes, her fame was cemented in five (?) films she made in the thirties

 

[GHT]

on this day in 2013, Edward Snowden now infamously revealed to the American public that all of their private communication was being intercepted, recorded, and screened under the biggest modern assault on civil liberties

And now we all know that if you spend with a plastic card, use any social media or have loyalty cards, your personal information will be trawled, disseminated and sold on. We only have ourselves to blame.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Whenever the product is "convenience," just keep walking.

 

[3fingers]

We only have ourselves to blame.

Funny how that works isn't it. Same can be said for a lot of our miseries we would like to think are somebody else's fault.

 

[scotrace]

June 12 is the birthday of Anne Frank. She would be 90 now. On her thirteenth birthday, June 12, 1942, the gift was a diary.

 

[Fading Fast]

June 12 is the birthday of Anne Frank. She would be 90 now. On her thirteenth birthday, June 12, 1942, the gift was a diary.

That diary turned out to be an incredibly sad but valuable gift to the world (and to the gods of honest history).

 

[Peacoat]

June 12 is the birthday of Anne Frank. She would be 90 now. On her thirteenth birthday, June 12, 1942, the gift was a diary.

Hers is a sad story. Unfortunately it is a story that can be told millions of times over. If the allies had been a month or two earlier, her life may have been spared, as would have the lives of hundreds of others at Bergen-Belsen.

Ann Frank in a happier time.

 

[Peacoat]

In a post above, @scotrace noted Ann Frank's birthday on the 14th. Continuing in that theme, on today's date in 1952 her diary was published in the US. It has become one of the most widely read books in the world. Not bad for a girl who started writing it at age 13 and was 4 months from her 16th birthday when she died.