1918

Labor activist and socialist Eugene V. Debs was arrested in Cleveland, charged under the Espionage Act of 1917 for a speech he had made two weeks earlier in which he denounced U.S. involvement in World War I. (Debs was sentenced to prison and disenfranchised for life.)

1934

Adolf Hitler launched his “blood purge” of political and military rivals in Germany in what came to be known as the “Night of the Long Knives.”

1936

Margaret Mitchell’s novel “Gone With the Wind” was released.

1958

The U.S. Senate passed the Alaska statehood bill.

1971

The Supreme Court ruled, 6-3, that the government could not prevent The New York Times or The Washington Post from publishing the Pentagon Papers.

1971

A Soviet space mission ended in tragedy when three cosmonauts aboard Soyuz 11 were found dead of asphyxiation inside their capsule after it had returned to Earth.

Birthdays

Actor David Garrison is 73. Actor-comedian David Alan Grier is 69. Boxer Mike Tyson is 59. Country music singer-songwriter Cole Swindell is 42. Olympic swimming champion Michael Phelps is 40.