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- San Francisco Chronicle
Today in History: June 19, Union troops arrive in Galveston on ‘Juneteenth'
Today is Thursday, June 19, the 170th day of 2025. There are 195 days left in the year. This is Juneteenth.
Today in history:
On June 19, 1865, Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, with news that the Civil War was over and that all remaining enslaved people in Texas were free — an event now celebrated nationwide as Juneteenth.
Also on this date:
In 1910, the first-ever Father's Day in the United States was celebrated in Spokane, Washington. (President Richard Nixon would make Father's Day a federally recognized annual observation through a proclamation in 1972.)
In 1953, Julius Rosenberg, 35, and his wife, Ethel, 37, convicted of conspiring to pass U.S. atomic secrets to the Soviet Union, were executed at Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, New York; they were the first American civilians to be executed for espionage.
In 1963, Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova completed her historic flight as the first woman in space, landing safely by parachute to conclude the Vostok 6 mission.
In 1964, the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 was approved by the U.S. Senate, 73-27, after surviving a lengthy filibuster.
In 1975, former Chicago organized crime boss Sam Giancana was shot to death in the basement of his home in Oak Park, Illinois; the killing has never been solved.
In 1986, University of Maryland basketball star Len Bias, the first draft pick of the Boston Celtics two days earlier, suffered a fatal cocaine-induced seizure.
In 1987, the U.S. Supreme Court, in the case Edwards v. Aguillard, struck down a Louisiana law requiring any public school teaching the theory of evolution to teach creation science as well.
Today's Birthdays: Hall of Fame auto racer Shirley Muldowney is 85. Nobel peace prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi is 80. Author Tobias Wolff is 80. Author Salman Rushdie is 78. Actor Phylicia Rashad is 77. Rock singer Ann Wilson (Heart) is 75. Actor Kathleen Turner is 71. Singer-choreographer-TV personality Paula Abdul is 63. TV host Lara Spencer is 56. Actor Jean Dujardin is 53. Actor Robin Tunney is 53. Basketball Hall of Famer Dirk Nowitzki is 47. Actor Zoe Saldaña is 47. Rapper Macklemore is 42. Actor Paul Dano is 41.
