Today in HistoryToday is Tuesday, June 20, the 171st day of 2006. There are 194 days left in the year.

ON THIS DATE<$>

In 1756, a group of British soldiers was imprisoned in India in a suffocating cell that gained notoriety as the “Black Hole of Calcutta”; most died. (The exact circumstances of this incident — such as the number of prisoners, originally put at 146 — are a matter of historical dispute.)

In 1898, during the Spanish-American War, the US cruiser Charleston<$> captured the Spanish-ruled island of Guam.

In 1943, race-related rioting erupted in Detroit; US federal troops were sent in two days later to quell the violence that resulted in more than 30 deaths.

In 1963, the United States and Soviet Union signed an agreement to set up a “hot line” between the two superpowers.

In 1967, boxer Muhammad Ali was convicted in Houston of violating Selective Service laws by refusing to be drafted. (Ali’s conviction was ultimately overturned by the Supreme Court).

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

“‘History,’ Stephen said, ‘is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake’.” — From “Ulysses,” by James Joyce, Irish poet (1882-1941).