By The Associated Press

Today in History

Today is Monday, June 8, the 160th day of 2020. There are 206 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On June 8, 1967, during the six-day Middle East war, 34 American servicemen were killed when Israel attacked the USS Liberty, a Navy intelligence-gathering ship in the Mediterranean Sea. (Israel later said the Liberty had been mistaken for an Egyptian vessel.)

On this date:

In 1845, Andrew Jackson, seventh president of the United States, died in Nashville, Tennessee.

In 1864, Abraham Lincoln was nominated for another term as president during the National Union (Republican) Party’s convention in Baltimore.

In 1867, modern American architect Frank Lloyd Wright was born in Richland Center, Wisconsin.

In 1939, Britain’s King George VI and his consort, Queen Elizabeth, arrived in Washington, D.C., where they were received at the White House by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

In 1966, a merger was announced between the National and American Football Leagues, to take effect in 1970.

In 1968, authorities announced the capture in London of James Earl Ray, the suspected assassin of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

In 1972, during the Vietnam War, an Associated Press photographer took a picture of a screaming 9-year-old girl, Phan Thi Kim Phuc (fahn thee kihm fook), as she ran naked and severely burned from the scene of a South Vietnamese napalm attack.

In 1978, a jury in Clark County, Nevada, ruled the so-called “Mormon will,” purportedly written by the late billionaire Howard Hughes, was a forgery.

In 1995, U.S. Marines rescued Capt. Scott O’Grady, whose F-16C fighter jet had been shot down by Bosnian Serbs on June 2. Mickey Mantle received a liver transplant at a Dallas hospital; however, the baseball great died two months later.

In 1998, the National Rifle Association elected actor Charlton Heston to be its president.

In 2009, North Korea’s highest court sentenced American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee to 12 years’ hard labor for trespassing and “hostile acts.” (The women were pardoned in early August 2009 after a trip to Pyongyang by former President Bill Clinton.)

In 2018, celebrity chef, author and CNN host Anthony Bourdain was found dead in his hotel room in eastern France in what authorities determined was a suicide.

Ten years ago: In high-profile Republican state primaries, Meg Whitman won the nomination for California governor while Carly Fiorina got the nod to oppose three-term Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer; in Nevada, Sharron Angle won the right to oppose Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. (All three ended up losing their respective contests.) In South Carolina, political unknown Alvin Greene won the Democratic primary to challenge U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint (Greene lost in November).

Five years ago: Acknowledging setbacks, President Barack Obama said at the close of a G-7 summit in Germany that the United States still lacked a “complete strategy” for training Iraqi forces to fight the Islamic State. Siding with the White House in a foreign-policy power struggle with Congress, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that Americans born in the disputed city of Jerusalem could not list Israel as their birthplace on passports. The NCAA approved multiple rule changes to men’s basketball for the 2015-16 season, including a 30-second shot clock and fewer timeouts for each team.

One year ago: Eighth-seeded Ash Barty won her first major tennis championship, beating Marketa Vondrousova in the French Open womenís final.

Today’s Birthdays: Actress Millicent Martin is 86. Actor James Darren is 84. Singer Nancy Sinatra is 80. Singer Chuck Negron is 78.