June 12
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Featured Event
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On this day in 1964 Nelson Mandela and seven others were sentenced to life imprisonment for treason, sabotage, and conspiracy against South Africa’s apartheid government. Mandela’s long incarceration became a rallying point for the anti-apartheid movement and a powerful symbol of resistance. Released in 1990, he helped lead negotiations that ended apartheid and later became South Africa’s first democratically elected president. [Read today’s edition of Today in History > >]
Featured Biography
Featured Biography
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Anne Frank—a young Jewish girl whose diary of her family’s two years in hiding during the German occupation of the Netherlands became a classic of war literature—was born this day in 1929 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
Famous Birthdays
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2016
The deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history up to that time occurred when a gunman opened fire at Pulse, an LGBTQ+ nightclub in Orlando, Florida, killing 49 people and wounding more than 50. [Find out about mass shootings in the U.S.]
© 1962 Universal Pictures Company, Inc.
2003
American actor Gregory Peck—who often portrayed characters of honesty and integrity, most notably Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)—died at age 87. [Test your knowledge of Harper Lee’s beloved novel.]
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1991
Boris Yeltsin became the first popularly elected leader of Russia (then part of the Soviet Union). He remained president of Russia as it transitioned to an independent state until he resigned on the last day of 1999. [Find out why the Soviet Union collapsed.]
National Archives, Washington, D.C
1987
Speaking about the Berlin Wall as he stood at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, U.S. President Ronald Reagan famously entreated the Soviet leader, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” [Watch a video of Reagan’s speech.]
© 1981 Lucasfilm with Paramount Pictures Corporation
1981
The action-adventure film Raiders of the Lost Ark—directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones—was released in theaters; a huge success, it spawned numerous sequels.
AP Images
1967
In Loving v. Virginia the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously struck down a state law that banned interracial marriage, ruling that it was unconstitutional under the equal protection and due process clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. [Read about other notable decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court.]
© Archive Photos
1963
Activist Medgar Evers was fatally shot outside his home in Jackson, Mississippi; his murder received national attention and helped galvanize the American civil rights movement. [Learn about 10 milestones in the civil rights movement.]
Pictorial Parade
1939
The Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, held its first induction ceremony; Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, and Honus Wagner were among the inaugural class, which had been elected three years earlier. [Read our list of 10 of the greatest baseball players of all time.]
White House photo
1924
George H.W. Bush, who served as vice president (1981–89) and president of the United States (1989–93), was born in Massachusetts. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about U.S. presidents.]
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1898
The Philippines, under revolutionary leader Emilio Aguinaldo, declared its independence from Spain. This day is celebrated as Independence Day in the Philippines and by the Filipino diaspora.