Today in History: June 12, Pulse nightclub shooting

Today in History

Today is Monday, June 12, the 163rd day of 2023. There are 202 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On June 12, 2016, a gunman opened fire at the Pulse nightclub, a gay establishment in Orlando, Florida, leaving 49 people dead and 53 wounded; Omar Mateen pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group during a three-hour standoff before being killed in a shootout with police.

On this date:

In 1630, Englishman John Winthrop, leading a fleet carrying Puritan refugees, arrived at the Massachusetts Bay Colony, where he became its governor.

In 1776, Virginia’s colonial legislature adopted a Declaration of Rights.

In 1942, Anne Frank, a German-born Jewish girl living in Amsterdam, received a diary for her 13th birthday, less than a month before she and her family went into hiding from the Nazis.

In 1963, civil rights leader Medgar Evers, 37, was shot and killed outside his home in Jackson, Mississippi. (In 1994, Byron De La Beckwith was convicted of murdering Evers and sentenced to life in prison; he died in 2001.)

In 1964, South African Black nationalist Nelson Mandela was sentenced to life in prison along with seven other people, including Walter Sisulu, for committing sabotage against the apartheid regime (all were eventually released, Mandela in 1990).

In 1967, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Loving v. Virginia, unanimously struck down state laws prohibiting interracial marriages.

In 1978, David Berkowitz was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for each of the six “Son of Sam” .44-caliber killings that terrified New Yorkers.

In 1987, President Ronald Reagan, during a visit to the divided German city of Berlin, exhorted Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev to “tear down this wall.”

In 1991, Russians went to the polls to elect Boris N. Yeltsin president of their republic.

In 1994, Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman were slashed to death outside her Los Angeles home. (O.J. Simpson was later acquitted of the killings in a criminal trial but was eventually held liable in a civil action.)

In 2004, former President Ronald Reagan’s body was sealed inside a tomb at his presidential library in Simi Valley, California, following a week of mourning and remembrance by world leaders and regular Americans.

In 2020, Rayshard Brooks, a 27-year-old Black man, was shot and killed by one of the two white officers who responded after he was found asleep in his car in the drive-thru lane of a Wendy’s restaurant in Atlanta; police body camera video showed Brooks struggling with the officers and grabbing a Taser from one of them, firing it as he fled.

Ten years ago: The director of the National Security Agency, Gen. Keith Alexander, vigorously defended once-secret surveillance programs before the Senate Intelligence Committee, saying that collecting Americans’ phone records and tapping into their Internet activity had disrupted dozens of terrorist attacks. Ariel Castro, 52, accused of holding three women captive in his Cleveland home for about a decade, pleaded not guilty to hundreds of rape and kidnapping charges. (Castro was later sentenced to life plus 1,000 years and soon after committed suicide in prison.) NASCAR driver Jason Leffler, 37, died after an accident during a dirt car event at Bridgeport Speedway in New Jersey.

Five years ago: After a five-hour summit in Singapore, President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed a joint statement agreeing to work toward a denuclearized Korean Peninsula, although the timeline and tactics were left unclear; Trump declared that he and Kim had developed “a very special bond.” Republican Rep. Mark Sanford, a vocal critic of Donald Trump, lost his South Carolina congressional seat in a primary, hours after Trump tweeted that Sanford was “very unhelpful” and “nothing but trouble.” Throngs of Golden State Warriors fans turned out for a second straight year to honor the NBA champions in a parade in downtown Oakland, California; in Washington, DC, the Stanley Cup champion Capitals were cheered by fans along Constitution Ave.

One year ago: Senate bargainers announced a bipartisan framework responding to a series of mass shootings, a modest breakthrough offering measured gun curbs and bolstered efforts to improve school safety and mental health programs. The proposal fell far short of tougher steps sought by President Joe Biden. Members of the House committee investigating the Capitol riot said they had uncovered enough evidence for the Justice Department to consider a criminal indictment against former President Donald Trump for seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 election. J. Joseph “Joe” Grandmaison, a larger-than-life Democratic operative who ran numerous campaigns and served as an appointee under three presidents, died at age 79.

Today’s Birthdays: Songwriter Richard M. Sherman is 95. Sportscaster Marv Albert is 82. Singer Roy Harper is 82. Actor Roger Aaron Brown is 74. Actor Sonia Manzano is 73. Rock musician Bun E. Carlos (Cheap Trick) is 72. Country singer-musician Junior Brown is 71. Singer-songwriter Rocky Burnette is 70. Actor Timothy Busfield is 66. Singer Meredith Brooks is 65. Actor Jenilee Harrison is 65. Rock musician John Linnell (They Might Be Giants) is 64. Actor John Enos is 61. Rapper Grandmaster Dee (Whodini) is 61. Actor Paul Schulze is 61. Actor Eamonn Walker is 61. Actor Paula Marshall is 59. Actor Frances O’Connor is 56. Actor Rick Hoffman is 53. Actor-comedian Finesse Mitchell is 51. Actor Mel Rodriguez is 50. Actor Jason Mewes is 49. Actor Michael Muhney is 48. Blues musician Kenny Wayne Shepherd is 46. Actor Timothy Simons is 45. Actor Wil Horneff is 44. Singer Robyn is 44. Rock singer-musician John Gourley (Portugal. The Man) is 42. Actor Dave Franco is 38. Country singer Chris Young is 38. Actor Luke Youngblood is 37. Actor Ryan Malgarini is 31.