Today in HistoryToday is Tuesday, June 19, the 170th day of 2007. There are 195 days left in the year.

ON THIS DATE

In 1862, slavery was outlawed in US territories.

In 1865, two months after the Civil War ended, Union troops commanded by Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, with news the war was over, and that all slaves were free. This event is celebrated as “Juneteenth”.

In 1917, King George V ordered the British royal family to dispense with German titles and surnames; the family took the name Windsor.

In 1977, Pope Paul VI proclaimed a 19th-century Philadelphia bishop, John Neumann, the first male US saint.

In 1986, University of Maryland basketball star Len Bias, the first draft pick of the Boston Celtics, suffered a fatal cocaine-induced seizure.

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

“Our ignorance of history causes us to slander our own times.” — Gustave Flaubert, French author (1821-1880).