Today is Friday, June 6, the 157th day of 2025. There are 208 days left in the year.
Today in history:
On June 6, 1944, during World War II, nearly 160,000 Allied troops landed in Normandy, France, on D-Day as they launched Operation Overlord to liberate German-occupied Western Europe. More than 4,400 Allied troops were killed on D-Day, including 2,501 Americans.
Also on this date:
In 1844, the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) was founded in London.
In 1889, an industrial accident sparked a devastating fire in Seattle, Washington, destroying 120 acres of the city center, including the majority of the city’s commercial district and waterfront.
In 1912, Novarupta, a volcano on the Alaska peninsula, began a three-day eruption, sending ash nearly 19 miles high; it was the most powerful volcanic eruption of the 20th century and the largest ever recorded in North America.
In 1933, the first drive-in movie theater opened, in Camden, New Jersey.
In 1939, the first Little League Baseball game was played as Lundy Lumber defeated Lycoming Dairy 23-8 in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
In 1966, civil rights activist James Meredith was shot and wounded by a sniper on the second day of Meredith’s march from Memphis, Tennessee, to Jackson, Mississippi, which he began to raise awareness of ongoing racial oppression in the South. (Meredith would recover from his injuries and was able to rejoin the march, which had grown from a small group of supporters to 15,000 marchers, the day before the group arrived in Jackson.)
In 2015, American Pharoah became the first horse in 37 years to claim horse racing’s Triple Crown, winning the Belmont Stakes by 5 ½ lengths.
Today’s Birthdays:
- Singer-songwriter Gary U.S. Bonds is 86.
- Civil rights activist Marian Wright Edelman is 86.
- Country musician Joe Stampley is 82.
- Olympic track & field gold medalist Tommie Smith is 81.
- Actor Robert Englund is 78.
- Folk singer Holly Near is 76.
- Sen. Sandra Bernhard is 70.
- Tennis Hall of Famer Bjorn Borg is 69.
- Comedian Colin Quinn is 66.
- Music producer Jimmy Jam is 66.
- Filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda is 63.
- Actor Jason Isaacs is 62.
- Actor Paul Giamatti is 58.
- Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is 45.
- Actor Aubrey Anderson-Emmons (TV: “Modern Family”) is 18.