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Almanac for June 10, 2026

Today is Wednesday, June 10, the 161st day of 2026. There are 204 days left in the year. Today in history: In 2018, NASA's rover Opportunity sent its last message from the surface of Mars. Originally expected to serve a three-month mission, Opportunity functioned for more than 14 years, traveling over 28 miles across Mars and providing critical discoveries about the planet's geology. Also on this date: In 1692, the first execution resulting from the Salem witch trials in Massachusetts took place as Bridget Bishop was hanged. In 1854, the U.S. Naval Academy held its first ...

Which party will recover first from its current self-harm?

Tuesday saw the usual first-week-of-June gaggle of state primary elections. It's a feature of the American federal system that states choose when to hold primary and local elections. Back in the 1850s, as historian Roy Franklin Nichols notes, there was an election in all but one or two of the ...

GOP senators: Surveillance tool at risk over Trump pick

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans are warning the White House that a critical surveillance authority is likely to lapse this week amid bipartisan backlash over President Donald Trump's pick to lead the nation's intelligence community. Sen. Tom Cotton, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence ...

Almanac for June 9, 2026

Today is Tuesday, June 9, the 160th day of 2026. There are 205 days left in the year. Today in history: In 1973, Secretariat won the Belmont Stakes by 31 lengths, winning horse racing's Triple Crown and setting a still-standing record by running the 1 1/2-mile dirt course in 2 minutes, 24 seconds. Also on this date: In 1732, James Oglethorpe received a charter from Britain's King George II to establish the colony of Georgia. In 1954, during the Senate Army-McCarthy hearings, Army special counsel Joseph N. Welch berated Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy, a Republican from Wisconsin, ...

Gitmo and torture revisited

America's longest current criminal prosecution is in its 15th year, on its fifth judge, and still has no trial date. The defendants are Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and four alleged mass murder co-conspirators. Mohammed is the second person that the government has characterized as the ringleader of ...

GB official: Vance wrong to blame murder on immigration

LONDON (AP) — Britain's deputy prime minister said Sunday that he told U.S. Vice President JD Vance he was wrong to blame immigration for the death of a university student who was handcuffed as he lay dying from a stab wound. David Lammy, who is also the justice minister, said he ...