Today’s highlight

On June 4, 1942, the World War II Battle of Midway began, resulting in a decisive American victory against Japan and marking the turning point of the war in the Pacific.

On this date

1812: The U.S. House of Representatives approved, by a vote of 79-49, a declaration of war against Britain.

1919: Congress approved the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which said that the right to vote could not be denied or abridged based on gender. The amendment was sent to the states for ratification.

1939: The German ocean liner MS St. Louis, carrying more than 900 Jewish refugees from Germany, was turned away by U.S. officials on the Florida coast.

1940: During World War II, the Allied military evacuation of some 338,000 troops from Dunkirk, France, ended.

1985: The Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling striking down an Alabama law providing for a daily minute of silence in public schools.

1990: Dr. Jack Kevorkian carried out his first publicly assisted suicide, helping Janet Adkins, a 54-year-old Alzheimer’s patient from Portland, Ore., end her life in Oakland County, Mich.

2018: The Supreme Court ruled in favor of a Colorado baker who wouldn’t make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple, but it was a limited decision that didn’t address the larger issue of whether a business can invoke religious objections to refuse service to gay and lesbian people. Saudi Arabia issued its first driver’s licenses to women as the kingdom prepared to lift the world’s only ban on women driving.

Today’s birthdays

Sex therapist and media personality Dr. Ruth Westheimer is 95. Actor-singer Michelle Phillips is 79. Blues singer-musician Tinsley Ellis is 66. Former tennis player Andrea Jaeger is 58. Opera singer Cecilia Bartoli is 57. Actor Noah Wyle is 52. Actor-comedian Russell Brand is 48. Actor Angelina Jolie is 48.