This Day in History
1944: D-Day , World War II : U.S. and Allied forces invade Europe at Normandy on the north coast of France, in the greatest amphibious landing in history.
1968: Sen. Robert F. Kennedy (D, NY), shot the previous night, dies.
1978: Voters in California approve Proposition 13, a state constitutional amendment slashing property taxes.
1982: Israeli forces invade Southern Lebanon, mounting an attack on PLO strongholds.
1984: In India, the army attacks and occupies the Golden Temple in Amritsar, the holiest shrine of the Sikhs and the headquarters of Sikh militants; hundreds are killed.
2002: Pres. George W. Bush proposes the combination of 22 existing federal agencies into a single Department of Homeland Security.
Today's Birthdays
1599: Diego Velázquez, painter (Spain; died 1660)
1755: Nathan Hale, Revolutionary War patriot (Coventry, CT; died 1776)
1799: Alexander Pushkin, poet/novelist (Moscow, Russia; died 1837)
1875: Thomas Mann, novelist/essayist (Germany; died 1955)
1901: Sukarno, Indonesian nationalist leader and first president (Surabaya, Java, Indonesia; died 1970)
1903: Aram Khachaturian, composer (Tbilisi, Georgia, USSR; died 1978)
1925: Maxine Kumin, poet/novelist/children's author (Philadelphia, PA)
1932: Billie Whitelaw, actress (Coventry, England)
1935: The Dalai Lama, Tibetan spiritual leader (Takster, China)
1939: Marian Wright Edelman, children's rights activist (Bennettsville, SC)
1945: David Bonior, former House minority whip (Detroit, MI)
1949: Robert Englund, actor (Glendale, CA)
1954: Harvey Fierstein, playwright/actor (Brooklyn, NY)
1955: Sandra Bernhard, actress/comedian (Flint, MI)
1956: Bjorn Borg, tennis champion (Sodertalje, Sweden)
