Today In History [8th June, 2016]

452		Attila the Hun invades Italy.
632		Muhammad, the founder of Islam and unifier of Arabia, dies.
793		The Vikings raid the Northumbrian coast of England.
1861		Tennessee votes to secede from the Union and join the Confederacy.
1862		The Army of the Potomac defeats Confederate forces at Battle of Cross Keys, Virginia.
1863		Residents of Vicksburg flee into caves as General Ulysses S. Grant‘s army begins shelling the town.
1866		Prussia annexes the region of Holstein.
1904		U.S. Marines land in Tangiers, Morocco, to protect U.S. citizens.
1908		King Edward VII of England visits Czar Nicholas II of Russia in an effort to improve relations between the two countries.
1915		William Jennings Bryan quits as Secretary of State under President Woodrow Wilson.
1953		The Supreme Court forbids segregated lunch counters in Washington, D.C.
1965		President Lyndon Johnson authorizes commanders in Vietnam to commit U.S. ground forces to combat.
1966		Gemini astronaut Gene Cernan attempts to become the first man to orbit the Earth untethered to a space capsule, but is unable to when he exhausts himself fitting into his rocket pack.
1967		Israel airplanes attack the USS Liberty, a surveillance ship, in the Mediterranean, killing 34 Navy crewmen.
1968		James Earl Ray, the alleged assassin of Martin Luther King, Jr., is captured at the London Airport.
1969		President Richard Nixon meets with President Thieu of South Vietnam to tell him 25,000 U.S. troops will pull out by August.
1995		U.S. Air Force pilot Captain Scott O’Grady is rescued by U.S. Marines in Bosnia.
Born on June 8
1625		Giovanni Domenico Cassini, astronomer.
1724		John Smeaton, English engineer.
1810		Robert Schumann, German composer.
1813		David D. Porter, Union admiral during the American Civil War.
1867		Frank Lloyd Wright, influential American architect.
1916		Francis Crick, British scientist who co-discovered of the structure of DNA.
1918		Robert Preston, actor (The Music Man).
1925		Barbara Pierce Bush, First Lady to 41st President, George H. W. Bush.
1939		Herb Adderley, American football player.
1942		Andrew Weil, physician and author (Spontaneous Healing).
1947		Sara Paretsky, detective novelist.