Today is Saturday, June 21, the 172nd day of 2014. There are 193 days left in the year. Summer arrives at
6:51 a.m. Eastern time.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On June 21, 1964, civil rights workers Michael H. Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James E. Chaney were
slain in Philadelphia, Mississippi; their bodies were found buried in an earthen dam six weeks later.
(Seven people were convicted of conspiracy in the case; none served more than six years in prison. Edgar
Ray "Preacher" Killen, a former Ku Klux Klansman, was convicted of manslaughter on June 21,
2005 and is serving a 60-year sentence.)
On this date:
In 1788, the United States Constitution went into effect as New Hampshire became the ninth state to
ratify it.
In 1834, Cyrus Hall McCormick received a patent for his reaping machine.
In 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Miller v. California, ruled that states may ban materials found to be
obscene according to local standards.
In 1989, a sharply divided Supreme Court ruled that burning the American flag as a form of political
protest was protected by the First Amendment.