18/06/2023
TODAY IN HISTORY
In 1778, American forces entered Philadelphia as the British
withdrew during the Revolutionary War.
In 1812, the War of 1812 began as the United States
Congress approved, and President James Madison signed,
a declaration of war against Britain.
In 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte met defeat at Waterloo as
British and Prussian troops defeated the French in Belgium.
In 1940, during World War II, 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.”
In 1971, Southwest Airlines began operations, with flights
between Dallas and San Antonio, and Dallas and Houston.
In 1979, President Jimmy Carter and Soviet President
Leonid I. Brezhnev signed the SALT II strategic arms
limitation treaty in Vienna.
In 1986, 25 people were killed when a twin-engine plane
and helicopter carrying sightseers collided over the Grand
Canyon.
In 1992, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Georgia v. McCollum,
ruled that criminal defendants could not use race as a
basis for excluding potential jurors from their trials.
In 2003, baseball Hall-of-Famer Larry Doby, who broke
the American League’s color barrier in 1947, died in
Montclair, New Jersey, at age 79.