Today in History: Graceland opens to the public
Today is Saturday, June 7, the 158th day of 2025. There are 207 days left in the year.
Today in history:
On June 7, 1982, Graceland, Elvis Presley's Memphis mansion, was opened to the public as a tourist destination, five years after Presley's death.
Also on this date:
In 1776, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia offered a resolution to the Continental Congress stating 'that these united colonies are and of right ought to be free and independent States.'
In 1892, Homer Plessy, a Creole of color, was arrested for refusing to leave a whites-only car of the East Louisiana Railroad. (Ruling on his case, Plessy v. Ferguson, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld 'separate but equal' racial segregation, a concept it renounced in 1954.)
In 1929, the sovereign state of Vatican City formally came into existence as the Italian Parliament ratified the Lateran Treaty in Rome.
In 1942, the Battle of Midway ended in a decisive victory for American naval forces over Imperial Japan, marking a turning point in the Pacific War.
In 1965, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Griswold v. Connecticut, struck down, 7-2, a Connecticut law used to prosecute a Planned Parenthood clinic in New Haven for providing contraceptives to married couples.
In 1976, New York magazine published an article by journalist Nik Cohn entitled 'The Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night,' which inspired the film 'Saturday Night Fever,' which in turn sparked a nationwide disco craze. (Cohn admitted in 1997 that the article was actually a work of fiction.)
In 1979, Texas became the first state to recognize Juneteenth as an official state holiday. (Juneteenth became a federal holiday in 2021.)
In 1998, in a crime that shocked the nation and led to stronger state and federal hate crime laws, James Byrd Jr., a 49-year-old Black man, was hooked by a chain to a pickup truck and dragged to his death in Jasper, Texas. (Two white men were later sentenced to death and executed for the crime; a third was sentenced to life in prison.)
In 2006, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the founder of al-Qaida in Iraq, was killed by a U.S. airstrike on his safe house.
In 2021, Maggie Murdaugh, 52, and her son Paul Murdaugh, 22, from a prominent South Carolina legal family, were found shot and killed on their family's property. (Alex Murdaugh, Maggie's husband and Paul's father, would be found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison.)
Today's Birthdays: Filmmaker James Ivory is 97. Singer Tom Jones is 85. Actor Liam Neeson is 73. Author Orhan Pamuk is 73. Author Louise Erdrich is 71. Music producer L.A. Reid is 69. Musician Juan Luis Guerra is 68. Former Vice President Mike Pence is 66. Rock musician-TV host Dave Navarro is 58. Sen. Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., is 53. Actor Karl Urban is 53. TV personality Bear Grylls is 51. Basketball Hall of Famer Allen Iverson is 50. Actor-comedian Bill Hader is 47. Actor Michael Cera is 37. Rapper Iggy Azalea is 35. Actor-model Emily Ratajkowski is 34. NFL running back Christian McCaffrey is 29.
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Miami Herald
an hour ago
- Miami Herald
New '1984' foreword includes warning about ‘problematic' characters
The 75th anniversary edition of George Orwell's novel 1984, which coined the term 'thoughtcrime' to describe the act of having thoughts that question the ruling party's ideology, has become an ironic lightning rod in debates over alleged trigger warnings and the role of historical context in classic literature. The introduction to the new edition, endorsed by Orwell's estate and written by the American author Dolen Perkins-Valdezm, is at the center of the storm, drawing fire from conservative commentators as well as public intellectuals, and prompting a wide spectrum of reaction from academics who study Orwell's work. Perkins-Valdez opens the introduction with a self-reflective exercise: imagining what it would be like to read 1984 for the first time today. She writes that 'a sliver of connection can be difficult for someone like me to find in a novel that does not speak much to race and ethnicity,' noting the complete absence of Black characters. She also describes her pause at the protagonist Winston Smith's 'despicable' misogyny, but ultimately chooses to continue reading, writing: 'I know the difference between a flawed character and a flawed story.' 'I'm enjoying the novel on its own terms, not as a classic but as a good story; that is, until Winston reveals himself to be a problematic character,' she writes. 'For example, we learn of him: 'He disliked nearly all women, and especially the young and pretty ones.' Whoa, wait a minute, Orwell.' That framing was enough to provoke sharp critique from novelist and essayist Walter Kirn on the podcast America This Week, co-hosted with journalist Matt Taibbi. Kirn characterized the foreword as a kind of ideological overreach. 'Thank you for your trigger warning for 1984,' he said. 'It is the most 1984ish thing I've ever f***ing read.' Later in the episode, which debuted on June 1, Kirn blasted what he saw as an imposed 'permission structure' by publishers and academic elites. 'It's a sort of Ministry of Truthism,' he said, referring to the Ministry of Truth that features prominently in the dystopian novel. 'They're giving you a little guidebook to say, 'Here's how you're supposed to feel when you read this.'' Conservative commentator such as Ed Morrissey described the foreword as part of 'an attempt to rob [Orwell's work] of meaning by denigrating it as 'problematic.'' Morrissey argued that trigger warnings on literary classics serve to 'distract readers at the start from its purpose with red herrings over issues of taste.' But not all responses aligned with that view. Academic rebuttal Peter Brian Rose-Barry, a philosophy professor at Saginaw Valley State University and author of George Orwell: The Ethics of Equality, disputed the entire premise. 'There just isn't [a trigger warning],' he told Newsweek in an email after examining the edition. 'She never accuses Orwell of thoughtcrime. She never calls for censorship or cancelling Orwell.' In Rose-Barry's view, the foreword is neither invasive nor ideological, but reflective. 'Perkins-Valdez suggests in her introduction that 'love and artistic beauty can act as healing forces in a totalitarian state,'' he noted. 'Now, I find that deeply suspect... but I'd use this introduction to generate a discussion in my class.' Taibbi and Kirn, by contrast, took issue with that exact line during the podcast. 'Love heals? In 1984?' Taibbi asked. 'The whole thing ends with Winston broken, saying he loves Big Brother,' the symbol of the totalitarian state at the heart of the book. Kirn laughed and added, 'It's the kind of revisionist uplift you get from a book club discussion after someone just watched The Handmaid's Tale.' Perkins-Valdez, a Black writer, Harvard graduate and professor of literature at American University, also noted the novel's lack of racial representation: 'That sliver of connection can be difficult for someone like me to find in a novel that does not speak much to race and ethnicity at all.' Kirn responded to that sentiment on the show by pointing out that Orwell was writing about midcentury Britain: 'When Orwell wrote the book, Black people made up maybe one percent of the population. It's like expecting white characters in every Nigerian novel.' Richard Keeble, former chair of the Orwell Society, argued that critiques of Orwell's treatment of race and gender have long been part of academic discourse. 'Questioning Orwell's representation of Blacks in 1984 can usefully lead us to consider the evolution of his ideas on race generally,' he told Newsweek. 'Yet Orwell struggled throughout his life, and not with complete success, to exorcise what Edward Said called 'Orientalism.'' Keeble added, 'Trigger warnings and interpretative forewords... join the rich firmament of Orwellian scholarship-being themselves open to critique and analysis.' Cultural overreach While critics like Kirn view Perkins-Valdez's new foreword as a symptom of virtue signaling run amok, others see it as part of a long-standing literary dialogue. Laura Beers, a historian at American University and author of Orwell's Ghosts: Wisdom and Warnings for the Twenty-First Century, acknowledged that such reactions reflect deeper political divides. But she defended the legitimacy of approaching Orwell through modern ethical and social lenses. 'What makes 1984 such a great novel is that it was written to transcend a specific historical context,' she told Newsweek. 'Although it has frequently been appropriated by the right as a critique of 'socialism,' it was never meant to be solely a critique of Stalin's Russia.' 'Rather,' she added, 'it was a commentary on how absolute power corrupts absolutely, and the risk to all societies, including democracies like Britain and the United States, of the unchecked concentration of power.' Beers also addressed the role of interpretive material in shaping the reading experience. 'Obviously, yes, in that 'interpretive forewords' give a reader an initial context in which to situate the texts that they are reading,' she said. 'That said, such forewords are more often a reflection on the attitudes and biases of their own time.' While the foreword has prompted the familiar battle lines playing out across the Trump-era culture wars, Beers sees the conversation itself as in keeping with Orwell's legacy. 'By attempting to place Orwell's work in conversation with changing values and historical understandings in the decades since he was writing,' she said, 'scholars like Perkins-Valdez are exercising the very freedom to express uncomfortable and difficult opinions that Orwell explicitly championed.' Related Articles Gabbard Links 'Ministry of Truth' to Obama Speech, Calls Biden 'Front Man'Tulsi Gabbard Compares Biden Admin to Dictatorship Over 'Ministry of Truth'Joe Biden's Disinformation Board Likened to Orwell's 'Ministry of Truth'Memory Holes, Mobs and Speaker Pelosi | Opinion 2025 NEWSWEEK DIGITAL LLC.
New York Post
11 hours ago
- New York Post
Coco Gauff gets French Open moment with Spike Lee hug after giving him ‘something to cheer for' after Knicks loss
No Knicks in the NBA Finals meant Spike Lee flew to Paris for a different American sports victory. The Academy Award-winning American filmmaker was in attendance for Coco Gauff's first Roland Garros title on Saturday morning, witnessing the 21-year-old take down world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka 6-7 (5), 6-2, 6-4. Dressed in all white with a Yankees hat and sunglasses, Lee, with the occasional seat twitching during the competitive, two-hour and 38-minute match, stood up and cheered on Gauff to her second Grand Slam win. Gauff, 21, eventually fell to the ground as tears rolled down her face in victory, and before going up to her family and coaches' box to greet them, she stopped to see Lee. The young American greeted Lee, giving him a hug and several high-fives before Gauff moved along with the French Open festivities. 5 Spike Lee and Coco Gauff during the Roland Garros 2025 tournament on June 7, 2025 in Paris, France. Zabulon Laurent/ABACA/Shutterstock 5 Spike Lee and Coco Gauff hug after she won the French Open on Saturday — her first major win in Paris. Zabulon Laurent/ABACA/Shutterstock Coco Gauff celebrated with Spike Lee after winning Roland-Garros 🤝🇺🇸#RolandGarros — TNT Sports (@tntsports) June 7, 2025 5 Spike Lee is seen on Day Fourteen of the French Open at Roland Garros on June 7, 2025 in Paris, France. WireImage Gauff, despite being a Georgia native, understood how much the Knicks-Pacers series meant to Lee. During the post-match press conference, she said she planned on saying something if she ended up winning the match. 'And when I saw him on the court, I was like 'If I win this match, the first person I'm gonna dab up is Spike Lee,' she said. 'So, once I won the match, I went to the ground and everything, I went straight to Spike Lee. I wanted to tell him, 'I had to do it. You know, even if the Knicks didn't win, I'm glad I gave him something to cheer for.' So, yeah, that was pretty cool. I haven't seen the video yet, but I'm excited to see it.' 5 Coco Gauff of United States greets Spike Lee after her victory over Aryna Sabalenka during the Women's Singles Final match. Getty Images 5 Coco Gauff and Spike Lee high-five at the French Open. Zabulon Laurent/ABACA/Shutterstock Although Lee is a frequent visitor to the U.S. Open — the last major of the season held in Flushing, Queens — Gauff admitted that the brief interaction was her first official meeting with him. 'That was the first time I really met him up close,' she said. 'I've seen him at my matches at the U.S. Open, and when I saw him on the court today, I saw him when I was warming up. They panned the camera to him in the gym when I was warming up and I was like, 'Oh my gosh, Spike Lee is here.' And then I kinda felt bad because I usually put my towel in that spot, which is why I feel like he sat there. But because you know the lower-ranked player gets the other box, I put my towel in the other box.' With the victory, Gauff became the first American woman in a decade to win the French Open, since Serena Williams did so in 2015. She is also the youngest American to win the women's singles title since 2002, when Williams — at 20 years old — won the first of her three career titles in Paris.
USA Today
11 hours ago
- USA Today
Best images from American Coco Gauff's French Open victory
Best images from American Coco Gauff's French Open victory Coco Gauff outlasted Aryna Sabalenka on Saturday in three sets to win the French Open women's single championship. She becomes the first American woman to win the title on the clay at Roland Garros since Serena Williams won in 2015. It wasn't easy as Sabalenka won the first set in a tiebreak 6-7 (5) before Gauff rallied to take the final two sets, 6-2, 6-4. This is the second major for Gauff, who won the US Open in 2023. 'I honestly didn't think I could do it,' she said during the trophy ceremony. 'But I'm going to quote Tyler the Creator who said, 'If I ever told you I had a doubt inside me, I must be lying.' I think I was lying to myself, and I definitely could do it.' Coco Gauff wins French Open Coco Gauff wins French Open Coco Gauff wins French Open Coco Gauff wins French Open Coco Gauff wins French Open Coco Gauff wins French Open Coco Gauff wins French Open Coco Gauff wins French Open Coco Gauff wins French Open Coco Gauff wins French Open Coco Gauff wins French Open Coco Gauff wins French Open Coco Gauff wins French Open Coco Gauff wins French Open Coco Gauff wins French Open Coco Gauff wins French Open Coco Gauff wins French Open Coco Gauff wins French Open Coco Gauff wins French Open Coco Gauff wins French Open Coco Gauff wins French Open Coco Gauff wins French Open Coco Gauff wins French Open Coco Gauff wins French Open
