Today in History
In 1863, the pivotal, three-day Civil War Battle of Gettysburg, resulting in a Union victory, began in Pennsylvania.
In 1916, during World War I, France and Britain launched the Somme Offensive against the German army; the 4 1/2-month battle resulted in heavy casualties and produced no clear winner.
In 1934, Hollywood began enforcing its Production Code subjecting motion pictures to censorship review.
In 1946, the United States exploded a 20-kiloton atomic bomb near Bikini Atoll in the Pacific.
In 1991, President George H.W. Bush nominated federal appeals court judge Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court, beginning an ultimately successful confirmation process marked by allegations of sexual harassment.
Thunderstorms forced NASA to call off the launch of Discovery, delaying the first space shuttle flight in a year.
(Discovery was launched three days later, on the Fourth of July.) A huge car bomb exploded at a bustling outdoor market in a Shiite (SHEE'-eyet) district of Baghdad, killing more than 60 people.
Six weeks after ex-California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger revealed that he'd fathered a child with a member of his household staff, Maria Shriver filed divorce papers seeking to end their 25-year marriage.
The Minnesota state government shut down after legislators could not agree on a budget; the shutdown lasted nearly three weeks.
After more than a half-century of hostility, the United States and Cuba declared they would reopen embassies in each other's capitals, marking a historic full restoration of diplomatic relations between the Cold War foes.
Episcopalians voted overwhelmingly at their General Convention in Salt Lake City to allow religious weddings for same-sex couples.
San Francisco resident Kate Steinle, 32, was fatally shot in the back while walking along the city's popular waterfront; shooting suspect Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, a Mexican national who was in the U.S. illegally, pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder in a case that rekindled the national debate over illegal immigration.
Olympic gold medal track star Carl Lewis is 55.