On June 9, 68, Roman Emperor Nero committed suicide.
In 1672 Russian Czar Peter I, who later became known as Peter the Great, was born in Moscow.
In 1903 the Chicago White Sox were incorporated under Illinois law with $5,000 in capital.
In 1915 Lester Polsfuss, who became known as guitarist Les Paul, was born in Waukesha, Wis.
In 1930 Jake Lingle, a Chicago Tribune police reporter who had been a middleman for those seeking favors from Al Capone and the city’s police commissioner, was killed at the Illinois Central train station at Randolph Street.
In 1940 Norway surrendered to the Nazis during World War II.
In 1954 Army counsel Joseph Welch confronted Sen. Joseph McCarthy during the Senate-Army Hearings over McCarthy’s attack on a member of Welch’s law firm, Frederick Fisher. Said Welch: “Have you no sense of decency, sir?”
In 1969 the Senate confirmed Warren Burger to succeed Earl Warren as chief justice of the United States.
In 1973 Secretariat won the Belmont Stakes by 31 1/2 lengths to become horse racing’s first Triple Crown winner in 25 years.
In 1978 leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints struck down a 148-year-old policy of excluding African-American men from the Mormon priesthood.
In 1980 comedian Richard Pryor suffered nearly fatal burns at his Southern California home when a mixture of ”free-base” cocaine exploded.
In 1986 the Rogers Commission released its report on the Challenger disaster, criticizing NASA and rocket builder Morton Thiokol for management problems leading to the explosion that claimed the lives of seven astronauts.
In 1997 Air Force Gen. Joseph Ralston, who had admitted that he had an adulterous affair years earlier, gave up his bid to become chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
In 1999, after 78 days of intense NATO air strikes, Yugoslav and Western generals signed a pact clearing the way for a Kosovo peace plan. Also in 1999 President Bill Clinton instructed federal law agencies to collect race and gender data on people they stop or arrest, in a move to end racial profiling by police.
In 2000 the Justice Department released a report saying an 18-month investigation had found no credible evidence that conspirators aided or framed James Earl Ray in the 1968 assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
