Here is your Today in History -
June 14, 1648 -
Midwife Margaret Jones is hanged in Boston for witchcraft. It is the first such execution for the Massachusetts colony, but not the first in the colonies.
June 14, 1938 -
This must be a red letter day at Jerry Seinfeld's house: Action Comics issues the first Superman comic.
June 14, 1954 -
At the Lincoln Memorial, President Dwight Eisenhower signs a law inserting the words "under God" into the Pledge of Allegiance. Eisenhower declares: "From this day forward, the millions of our schoolchildren will daily proclaim in every city and town, every village and rural schoolhouse, the dedication of our nation and our people to the Almighty." Precisely which Almighty is left to the listener's imagination. I would like to think that Ike was thinking about the Zarathushtran god - Mazda.
Jun 14 1961 -
1980s pop music star Boy George is born in Kent, England. As he later comes to describe his childhood, "I had five brothers and I was brought up drinking the same water and being fed the same doctrine as my brothers, but somehow I turned out to be a fabulous homosexual."
Jun 14 1962 -
Albert DeSalvo murders Anna Slesersby by strangling her with the belt from her robe. She is only the first victim of "The Boston Strangler."
Jun 14 1966 -
The Vatican announces the abolition of its Index librorum prohibitum (Index of Prohibited Books), originally instituted in 1557 by Pope Paul IV. Notable novelists on the list were Laurence Sterne, Voltaire, Daniel Defoe, Honoré de Balzac, Jean-Paul Sartre.
Jun 14 1976 -
The Gong Show debuts on NBC. People with dubious talents perform their acts before a celebrity panel of judges, who are free to eject the performer at any time by banging a large gong. The best non-gonged performer each night wins $516.32. During the time the show is on the air, it's creator, Chuck Barris, suffered a complete mental breakdown, he says from the stress of being a secret CIA hit man. No really, I'm not kidding you.
Jun 14 1989 -
Zsa Zsa Gabor is arrested for slapping a Beverly Hills police officer and driving with an expired license. Afterwards Zsa Zsa complains to the press that the handling she received from the BHPD "was like Nazi Germany." Ultimately, Gabor is convicted and sentenced to 72 hours in jail. Francesca Hilton, Zsa Zsa's daughter, is Paris and Nicky Hilton's great aunt. I'll let you draw your own conclusions.
Jun 14 1993 -
During a weeklong Product Tampering scare, Pepsi-Cola suspends its advertising campaign after nationwide reports of customers discovering syringes in unopened cans of Diet Pepsi. In response, television host David Letterman suggests ten new slogans, including "200cc's of great taste" and "Every can inspected by Ray Charles" (the company's blind celebrity spokesman).
And on a personal note:
Dear Nephew Irving,
Happy Birthday. Tante and I send you a million hugs and kisses. Don't concern yourself with the fact that you never write or call anymore. Tante has now lost her mind and is incontinent. Thank goodness for Depends.
We know that we are old and don't matter anymore. Go live your life, we will just wait to die. You should be happy on your birthday
And so it goes.
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