Today in History: June 1, GM enters bankruptcy protection

Today in History

Today is Wednesday, June 1, the 152nd day of 2022. There are 213 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On June 1, 1813, the mortally wounded commander of the USS Chesapeake, Capt. James Lawrence, gave the order, “Don’t give up the ship” during a losing battle with the British frigate HMS Shannon in the War of 1812.

On this date:

In 1533, Anne Boleyn, the second wife of King Henry VIII, was crowned as Queen Consort of England.

In 1792, Kentucky became the 15th state.

In 1796, Tennessee became the 16th state.

In 1812, President James Madison, in a message to Congress, recounted what he called Britain’s “series of acts hostile to the United States as an independent and neutral nation”; Congress ended up declaring war.

In 1916, Louis Brandeis took his seat as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, the first Jewish American to serve on the nation’s highest bench.

In 1943, a civilian flight from Portugal to England was shot down by Germany during World War II, killing all 17 people aboard, including actor Leslie Howard.

In 1957, Don Bowden, a student at the University of California at Berkeley, became the first American to break the four-minute mile during a meet in Stockton, California, in a time of 3:58.7.

In 1958, Charles de Gaulle became premier of France, marking the beginning of the end of the Fourth Republic.

In 1967, the Beatles album “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” was released.

In 1980, Cable News Network made its debut.

In 2009, General Motors filed for Chapter 11, becoming the largest U.S. industrial company to enter bankruptcy protection.

In 2020, police violently broke up a peaceful and legal protest by thousands of people in Lafayette Park across from the White House, using chemical agents, clubs and punches to send protesters fleeing; the protesters had gathered following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis a week earlier. President Donald Trump, after declaring himself “the president of law and order” and threatening to deploy the U.S. military in a Rose Garden speech, then walked across the empty park to be photographed holding a Bible in front of St. John’s Church, which had been damaged a night earlier in a protest fire. A Minneapolis medical examiner classified George Floyd’s death as a homicide, saying his heart stopped as police restrained him and compressed his neck.

Ten years ago: A judge in Sanford, Florida, revoked the bond of the neighborhood watch volunteer charged with murdering Trayvon Martin and ordered him returned to jail within 48 hours, saying George Zimmerman and his wife had misled the court about how much money they had available when his bond was set at $150,000. (Zimmerman was ultimately acquitted of the murder charge.)

Five years ago: President Donald Trump declared he was pulling the U.S. from the landmark Paris climate agreement. (President Joe Biden signed an order returning the U.S. to that accord on his first day in office.)

One year ago: Marking the 100th anniversary of the massacre that destroyed a thriving Black community in Tulsa, Oklahoma, President Joe Biden made a plea for sweeping legislation to protect the right to vote. The Biden administration suspended oil and gas leases in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, reversing a drilling program approved by the Trump administration. The Biden administration formally ended a Trump-era immigration policy that forced asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico for hearings in U.S. immigration court. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a measure making Florida the latest state to bar transgender girls and women from playing on public school teams intended for students identified as girls at birth. The Vatican released new provisions of Catholic Church law that explicitly criminalized the sexual abuse of adults by priests who abuse their authority.

Today’s Birthdays: Singer Pat Boone is 88. Actor Morgan Freeman is 85. Opera singer Frederica von Stade is 77. Actor Brian Cox is 76. Rock musician Ronnie Wood is 75. Actor Jonathan Pryce is 75. Actor Gemma Craven is 72. Actor John M. Jackson (TV: “JAG,” “NCIS: Los Angeles”) is 72. Blues-rock musician Tom Principato is 70. Country singer Ronnie Dunn is 69. Actor Lisa Hartman Black is 66. Actor Tom Irwin is 66. Singer-musician Alan Wilder is 63. Rock musician Simon Gallup (The Cure) is 62. Actor-comedian Mark Curry is 61. Actor-singer Jason Donovan is 54. Actor Teri Polo is 53. Basketball player-turned-coach Tony Bennett is 53. Actor Rick Gomez is 50. Model-actor Heidi Klum is 49. Singer Alanis Morissette is 48. Actor Sarah Wayne Callies is 45. Comedian Link Neal (Rhett & Link) is 44. TV personality Damien Fahey is 42. Americana singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile is 41. Actor Johnny Pemberton is 41. Actor-writer Amy Schumer is 41. Former tennis player Justine Henin is 40. Actor Taylor Handley is 38. Actor Zazie Beetz is 31. Actor Willow Shields is 22.

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