Today in History

New Zealand suffers its worst mining disaster since 1914 when the first of four explosions occurs at the Pike River Mine; 29 people are killed.

US House of Representatives begins impeachment hearings against President Bill Clinton.

Canada’s Lt. Gen. Maurice Baril arrives in Africa to lead a multinational force policing Zaire.

Pop duo Milli Vanilli are stripped of their Grammy Award after it is learned they did not sing on their award-winning Girl You Know Its True album.

In the largest civil verdict in US history, Pennzoil wins $10.53 billion judgement against Texaco.

U.S. Steel agrees to pay $6.3 million for Marathon Oil.

Jack Dorsey, businessman; co-founder of Twitter.

New York stock market takes sharpest drop in 19 years.

Apollo 12 touches down on the moon.

Gail Devers, three-time Olympic champion in track and field (US team); won gold in 1992 (100 m) and two gold medals in 1996 (100 m, 4x100m relay).

Jodie Foster, actress, director, producer; came to fame at age 13 in the 1976 film Taxi Driver; won Academy Award for Best Actress (1989) for The Accused.

Ann Curry, journalist; co-anchor of Today, June 9, 2011–June 28, 2012; anchor of Dateline NBC 2005–2011.

General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, commander in chief of Egypt’s armed forces and minister of defense (2012– ); played leading role in July 2013 coup ousting President Mohamed Morsi.

Scandinavian Airlines opens a commercial route from Canada to Europe.

Prince Ranier III is crowned 30th Monarch of Monaco.

Sharon Olds, poet (The Dead and The Living, The Gold Cell).

Ted Turner, businessman; founder of Turner Broadcasting System.

Dick Cavett, host of TV talk shows The Tonight Show and The Dick Cavett Show.

Larry King, journalist and long-time talk show host.

Leon Trotsky is expelled from the Politburo in the Soviet Union.

The Oklahoma State Senate ousts Governor Walton for anti-Ku Klux Klan measures.

Roy Campanella, Hall of Fame baseball star.

Indira Gandhi, prime minister of India from 1967 to 1977 and 1978 to 1984 who was assassinated by her own guards.

Billy Strayhorn, composer, arranger and pianist who wrote “Take the A Train.”

New York receives first Marconi wireless transmission from Italy.

100 people drown in the English Channel as the steamer Hilda sinks.

Allen Tate, Southern novelist, poet and critic.

The Great “City Fire” in London.

Bulgarians, led by Stefan Stambolov, repulse a larger Serbian invasion force at Slivinitza.

James Reed and two accomplices rob the Watt Grayson family of $30,000 in the Choctaw Nation.

Lincoln delivers the “Gettysburg Address” at the dedication of the National Cemetery at the site of the Battle of Gettysburg.

Julia Ward Howe writes “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” while visiting Union troops near Washington.

James Garfield, 20th president of the United States.

In Vienna, Composer Franz Schubert dies of syphilis at age 31.

Sojourner Truth, abolitionist and women’s rights advocate.

The Pilgrims sight Cape Cod.

Charles I, King of England and Ireland.