Updated June 12, 2014, 6:13 pm
On June 12, 1987, during a visit to the divided German city of Berlin, President Ronald Reagan publicly challenged Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev to ''tear down this wall.''
On June 12, 1897, Anthony Eden, the British statesman, was born. Following his death on Jan. 14, 1977, his obituary appeared in The Times.
Go to obituary » | Other birthdays »
On This Date
| 1776 | Virginia's colonial legislature became the first to adopt a Bill of Rights. |
|---|---|
| 1898 | Philippine nationalists declared independence from Spain. |
| 1937 | The Soviet Union under Josef Stalin executed eight army leaders during a purge. |
| 1939 | The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum was dedicated in Cooperstown, N.Y. |
| 1963 | Civil rights activist Medgar Evers was fatally shot in front of his home in Jackson, Miss. |
| 1971 | President Richard M. Nixon's daughter Tricia and Edward F. Cox were married in the White House Rose Garden. |
| 1978 | David Berkowitz was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for each of the six "Son of Sam" .44-caliber killings in New York City. |
| 1994 | Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman were slashed to death outside her Los Angeles home. (Her former husband, football Hall of Famer O.J. Simpson, was later acquitted of the killings in a criminal trial, but held liable in a civil action.) |
| 2002 | The Los Angeles Lakers won a third straight NBA title and Shaquille O'Neal was named MVP of the finals for the third straight year. |
| 2008 | A deeply divided Supreme Court ruled that foreign detainees held for years at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba had the right to appeal to U.S. civilian courts to challenge their indefinite imprisonment without charges. |
Historic Birthdays
Anthony Eden
6/12/1897 - 1/14/1977
British foreign secretary (1935-8, 1940-5 and 1951-5) and prime minister (1955-7).Go to obituary »
| 54 |
Cosimo I 6/12/1519 - 4/21/1574 Italian duke of Florence and Tuscany |
|---|---|
| 74 |
Harriet Martineau 6/12/1802 - 6/27/1876 English essayist and novelist |
| 55 |
Charles Kingsley 6/12/1819 - 1/23/1875 English Anglican clergyman, teacher and writer |
| 89 |
Sir Oliver Lodge 6/12/1851 - 8/22/1940 English physicist and parapsychologist |
| 73 |
Thomas Walsh 6/12/1859 - 3/2/1933 American politician; U.S. senator from Montana (1913-33) |
| 87 |
Fritz Lipmann 6/12/1899 - 7/24/1986 German-born American biochemist |
| 81 |
Bill Naughton 6/12/1910 - 1/9/1992 Irish-born English playwright |
| 83 |
Milovan Djilas 6/12/1911 - 4/20/1995 Yugoslav political writer |
| 15 |
Anne Frank 6/12/1929 - 3/?/1945 German Jewish girl killed in Holocaust; famous diarist |