Today is Sunday, June 22, the 173rd day of 2025. There are 192 days left in the year.
Today in history:
On June 22, 1938, in a rematch that bore the weight of both geopolitical symbolism and African American representation, American Joe Louis knocked out German Max Schmeling in just two minutes and four seconds to retain his heavyweight boxing title in front of 70,000 spectators at New York’s Yankee Stadium.
Also on this date:
In 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte abdicated for a second time as Emperor of the French.
1941, Nazi Germany launched Operation Barbarossa, a massive and ultimately ill-fated invasion of the Soviet Union that would prove pivotal to the Allied victory over the Axis Powers.
In 1944, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, more popularly known as the “GI Bill of Rights,” which provided tuition coverage, unemployment support and low-interest home and business loans to returning veterans.
In 1945, the World War II Battle of Okinawa ended with an Allied victory.
In 1970, President Richard Nixon signed an extension of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that lowered the minimum voting age to 18.
In 1977, John N. Mitchell became the first former U.S. Attorney General to go to prison as he began serving a sentence for his role in the Watergate cover-up.
In 1981, Mark David Chapman pleaded guilty to killing rock star and former Beatle John Lennon.
In 1986, Argentine soccer player Diego Maradona scored the infamous “Hand of God” goal in the quarterfinals of the FIFA World Cup against England, giving Argentina a 1-0 lead. (Maradona would follow minutes later with a remarkable individual effort that become known as the “Goal of the Century,” and Argentina won 2-1.)
In 1992, the U.S. Supreme Court, in R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul, unanimously ruled that “hate crime” laws that banned cross burning and similar expressions of racial bias violated free-speech rights.
In 2011, after evading arrest for 16 years, mob boss James “Whitey” Bulger was captured in Santa Monica, California.
In 2012, former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky was convicted by a jury in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, on 45 counts of sexually assaulting 10 boys over 15 years. (Sandusky would later be sentenced to 30 to 60 years in prison.)
Today’s Birthdays:
- Actor Prunella Scales is 93.
- Actor Klaus Maria Brandauer is 82.
- Fox News analyst Brit Hume is 82.
- Musician-producer Peter Asher (Peter and Gordon) is 81.
- Musician-producer Todd Rundgren is 77.
- Actor Meryl Streep is 76.
- Actor Lindsay Wagner is 76.
- Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., is 76.
- Actor Graham Greene is 73.
- Singer-songwriter Cyndi Lauper is 72.
- Actor Bruce Campbell is 67.
- Environmental activist Erin Brockovich is 65.
- Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., is 65.
- Basketball Hall of Famer Clyde Drexler is 63.
- Actor Amy Brenneman is 61.
- Author Dan Brown is 61.
- Actor Mary Lynn Rajskub is 54.
- Football Hall of Famer Kurt Warner is 54.
- TV personality Carson Daly is 52.
- Actor Donald Faison is 51.
- Football Hall of Famer Champ Bailey is 47.
- Golfer Dustin Johnson is 41.