Today is Wednesday, June 29, the 181st day of 2016. There are 185 days left in the year.

Today’s birthdays: Edward Johnson III, who led Fidelity Investments to prominence, is 86. Songwriter L. Russell Brown is 76. Singer-songwriter Garland Jeffreys is 73. Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley is 72. Actor Gary Busey is 72. Comedian Richard Lewis is 69. Violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter is 53. Producer-writer Matthew Weiner is 51.

In 1767, Britain approved the Townshend Act, which imposed import duties on glass, paint, oil, lead, paper, and tea shipped to the American colonies. (Colonists bitterly protested, prompting Parliament to repeal the duties — except for tea.)

In 1972, the Supreme Court struck down a trio of death sentences, saying the way they had been imposed constituted cruel and unusual punishment. (The ruling prompted states to effectively impose a moratorium on executions.)

In 1995, the space shuttle Atlantis and the Russian Mir space station linked in orbit, beginning a historic five-day voyage as a single ship. A department store in Seoul collapsed, killing at least 500 people.

In 2003, actress Katharine Hepburn died in Old Saybrook, Conn., at age 96.

In 2006, the Supreme Court ruled, 5-3, that President George W. Bush’s plan to try Guantanamo Bay detainees in military tribunals violated US and international law.

Last year, a deeply divided Supreme Court upheld the use of a controversial drug, midazolam, in lethal-injection executions.