On June 13, 1892, actor Basil Rathbone, perhaps best known for his film portrayal of Sherlock Holmes, was born Philip St. John Basil Rathbone in Johannesburg.
In 1893 Dorothy Sayers, the writer behind the Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries, was born in Oxford, England.
In 1900 China’s Boxer Rebellion erupted, targeting foreigners as well as Chinese Christians.
In 1927 aviator Charles Lindbergh was honored with a ticker-tape parade in New York.
In 1944 Germany began launching flying-bomb attacks against Britain during World War II.
In 1965 religious philosopher Martin Buber, author of “I and Thou,” died in Jerusalem at 87.
In 1966 the Supreme Court issued its landmark Miranda decision, ruling that criminal suspects had to be informed of their constitutional rights prior to questioning by police.
In 1967 President Lyndon Johnson nominated Solicitor General Thurgood Marshall to become the first black justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.
In 1971 The New York Times began publishing the Pentagon Papers, a secret study of America’s involvement in Vietnam.
In 1977 James Earl Ray, who assassinated Martin Luther King Jr., was recaptured following his escape three days earlier from a Tennessee prison.
In 1981 a teenager fired six blank shots at Queen Elizabeth II during a London parade.
In 1983 the U.S. space probe Pioneer 10, launched in 1972, became the first spacecraft to leave the solar system.
In 1995 President Bill Clinton proposed a 10-year plan for balancing the federal budget, saying in a televised address his proposal would cut spending by $1.1 trillion. Also, France abandoned its 1992 moratorium on nuclear testing and said it would conduct eight more tests between September and May.
In 1996 the 81-day-old Freemen standoff ended as 16 remaining members of the anti-government group surrendered to the FBI and left their Montana ranch. Also, the Supreme Court placed greater limits on congressional districts intentionally drawn to get more minorities elected to Congress.
In 1998 cartoonist Reg Smythe, the creator of “Andy Capp,” died in Hartlepool, England at 80.
In 2000 Italy pardoned Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turkish gunman who had tried to kill Pope John Paul II in 1981.
In 2004 ex-President George H.W. Bush celebrated his 80th birthday with a 13,000-foot parachute jump over his presidential library in College Station, Texas.
In 2005 a jury in Santa Maria, Calif., acquitted entertainer Michael Jackson of molesting a 13-year-old cancer survivor at his Neverland ranch. Also, the Senate apologized for blocking anti-lynching legislation in the early 20th Century, when mob violence against blacks was commonplace.
