June 18th

Today's Highlight in History:
On June 18th, 1940, during World War Two, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill urged his countrymen to conduct themselves in a manner that would prompt future generations to say, "This was their finest hour."

On this date:
In 1778, American forces entered Philadelphia as the British withdrew during the Revolutionary War.

In 1812, the United States declared war against Britain.

In 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte met his Waterloo as British and Prussian troops defeated the French in Belgium.

In 1873, suffragist Susan B. Anthony was fined 100 dollars for attempting to vote in the 1872 presidential election (however, the fine was never paid).

In 1928, aviator Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean as she completed a flight from Newfoundland to Wales in about 21 hours.

In 1945, William Joyce, known as "Lord Haw-Haw," was charged in London with high treason for his English-language wartime broadcasts on German radio. (He was hanged the following January.)

In 1948, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights adopted its International Declaration of Human Rights.

In 1979, President Carter and Soviet President Leonid I. Brezhnev signed the SALT Two strategic arms limitation treaty in Vienna.

In 1983, astronaut Sally K. Ride became America's first woman in space as she and four colleagues blasted off aboard the space shuttle "Challenger."

In 1984, Alan Berg, a Denver radio talk show host, was shot to death outside his home. (Two white supremacists were later convicted of civil rights violations in the slaying.)

Ten years ago: James Edward Pough went on a shooting rampage at an auto-financing company office in Jacksonville, Florida, fatally wounding nine people before killing himself.

Five years ago: A private plane carrying the Angolan soccer team crashed in Luanda, Angola, killing 48 people. About 300 inmates trashed an immigration detention center in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Serbs released the last 26 UN hostages held since NATO airstrikes.

One year ago: The House rejected gun control legislation, 280-to-147, with many Democrats rebelling against National Rifle Association-backed provisions in the bill. The Group of Seven nations opened a three-day summit in Cologne, Germany. Arsonists struck three synagogues in the Sacramento, California, area. (Two white supremacist brothers have pleaded innocent to federal charges of setting the fires.)

"Neither beg of him who has been a beggar, nor serve him who has been a servant."

-- Anonymous.