17-06-2025
Today in History: June 17, O.J. Simpson charged with murder following highway chase
In 1775, 250 years ago, the Battle of Bunker Hill took place in Charlestown. Rebels, who had build a ramparts atop Breed's Hill, repulsed two waves of British army soldiers before running out of ammunition as the third wave breached their defenses and forced their withdrawal. Although a tactical defeat for the rebels, the battle became a rallying point showing the resolve and strength of the colonists.
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In 1825, a crowd of 100,000, including some Revolutionary War veterans, gathered to commemorate the placing of the cornerstone of the Bunker Hill Monument. It would take years of fund-raising, however, before it was completed, in 1843.
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In 1885, the Statue of Liberty, disassembled and packed into 214 separate crates, arrived in New York Harbor aboard the French frigate Isère.
In 1930, President Herbert Hoover signed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, which boosted US tariffs to historically high levels, prompting foreign retaliation.
In 1963, the US Supreme Court, in Abington School District v. Schempp, struck down, 8-1, rules requiring the recitation of the Lord's Prayer or reading of biblical verses in public schools.
In 1972, President Richard Nixon's eventual downfall began with the arrest of five burglars inside the Democratic headquarters in Washington, D.C.'s, Watergate complex.
Also that year, after extinguishing the flames of an extensive fire at the Hotel Vendome in Back Bay, nine firefighters were crushed to death when part of the building collapsed. It was the deadliest tragedy for the Boston Fire Department.
In 1994, after leading police on a slow-speed chase on Southern California freeways, O.J. Simpson was arrested and charged with murder in the deaths of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman. (Simpson was acquitted of the murders in a criminal trial in 1995, but held liable in a civil trial in 1997.)
In 2008, hundreds of same-sex couples got married across California on the first full day that same-sex marriage became legal by order of the state's highest court; an estimated 11,000 same-sex couples would be married under the California law in its first three months.
In 2015, nine Black worshippers were killed when a gunman opened fire during a Bible study gathering at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C. (Dylann Roof, a white supremacist, was captured the following day; he would be convicted on state and federal murder and hate crime charges and sentenced to death.)
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In 2021, the Supreme Court, in a 7-2 ruling, left intact the entire Affordable Care Act, rejecting a major Republican-led effort to kill the national health care law known informally as 'Obamacare.'
In 2021, President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law, creating the first new national holiday since the establishment of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Last year, the Boston Celtics won the NBA title, securing its record 18th banner, with a lopsided win over the Dallas Mavericks at the TD Garden. The win ended a dominating run through playoffs.
