By The Associated Press

Today in History

Today is Tuesday, June 8, the 159th day of 2021. There are 206 days left in the year.

Todayís Highlight in History:

On June 8, 1968, authorities announced the capture in London of James Earl Ray, the suspected assassin of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

On this date:

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

In 1915, U.S. Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan resigned over what he viewed as President Woodrow Wilsonís overly bellicose attitude toward Germany following the sinking of the RMS Lusitania.

In 1953, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that restaurants in the District of Columbia could not refuse to serve Blacks. Eight tornadoes struck Michiganís Lower Peninsula, killing 126 people.

In 1962, 20th Century Fox fired Marilyn Monroe from its production ìSomethingís Got to Give,î saying she was unreliable. (Fox later changed its mind, but Monroe died before filming could resume, and the movie was abandoned.)

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

In 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.)

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 ìMormon will,î purportedly written by the late billionaire Howard Hughes, was a forgery.