@rh18bold:Today in History

Today is Monday, June 14, the 165th day of 2010. There are 200 days left in the year.

On this date

In 1801, former North American rebel General and defector to the Loyalist cause, Benedict Arnold died in London.

In 1919, John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown embarked on the first non-stop flight across the Atlantic Ocean. Flying a Vickers Vimy biplane bomber, they took off from St. Johns, Newfoundland, Canada and arrived 16 ½ hours later in Clifden, Ireland.

In 1940, German troops entered Paris; the same day, the Nazis began transporting prisoners to the Auschwitz concentration camp in German-occupied Poland.

In 1943, the Supreme Court, in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, ruled that children in public schools could not be forced to salute the flag of the United States.

In 1954, the words "under God" were added to the US Pledge of Allegiance.

In 1967, the space probe Mariner 5 was launched from Cape Kennedy on a flight that took it past Venus.

In 1985, the 17-day hijack ordeal of TWA Flight 847 began as a pair of Lebanese Shiite Muslim extremists seized the jetliner shortly after takeoff from Athens, Greece.

In 2000, in the biggest step toward peace since the end of fighting in the Korean War, the leaders of North and South Korea signed an agreement pledging to work for reconciliation and eventual reunification. The Southern Baptist Convention declared that women should no longer serve as pastors.

In 2005, US Army deserter Charles Jenkins, who'd crossed into North Korea in 1965, arrived in the United States for his first visit in 40 years. Thought for Today

"The flag is the embodiment not of sentiment, but of history." — President Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924).