Friday, June 22, 2012

TODAY IN HISTORY

Galileo Galilei. Portrait by Ottavio Leoni. De...
Galileo Galilei. Portrait by Ottavio Leoni. Detail. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
JUNE 22

 1981:Mark David Chapman tells a New York City court that God instructed him to plead guilty in the murder of musician John Lennon on Dec. 8, 1980. Chapman would be convicted and sentenced to 20 years to life in prison for killing the former member of the Beatles. He remains in prison.

1633: Galileo Galilei is forced by the Roman Inquisition to renounce his heliocentric beliefs and say that the Earth is the center of the universe. The aging astronomer agrees to stop teaching what the church calls heresy and would live out the rest of his life under house arrest.

1945: Lt. Gen. Mitsuru Ushijima, commander of the Japanese defenses of Okinawa, and several other high-ranking military officers commit suicide as United States troops wipe out the remaining Japanese resistance on the island, ending the bloody 83-day-long battle.

1870:Congress creates the Department of Justice

1847:One of the tastiest confections ever created, the donut, is invented

1990:The most famous Berlin Wall checkpoint, Checkpoint Charlie, is disassembled.
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