Today’s highlight

On June 11, 1955, in motor racing’s worst disaster, more than 80 people were killed during the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France when two of the cars collided and crashed into spectators.

On this date

1509: England’s King Henry VIII married his first wife, Catherine of Aragon.

1770: Captain James Cook, commander of the British ship Endeavour, “discovered” the Great Barrier Reef off Australia by running onto it.

1776: The Continental Congress formed a committee to draft a Declaration of Independence calling for freedom from Britain.

1962: Three prisoners at Alcatraz in San Francisco Bay staged an escape, leaving the island on a makeshift raft; they were never found or heard from again.

1985: Karen Ann Quinlan, the comatose patient whose case prompted a historic right-to-die court decision, died in Morris Plains, New Jersey, at age 31.

1987: Margaret Thatcher became the first British prime minister in 160 years to win a third consecutive term of office as her Conservative Party held onto a reduced majority in Parliament.

1993: The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that people who commit hate crimes motivated by bigotry may be sentenced to extra punishment.

2001: Timothy McVeigh, 33, was executed by injection at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, for the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people.

Today’s birthdays

Former U.S. Rep. Charles B. Rangel, D-N.Y., is 93. International Motorsports Hall of Famer Jackie Stewart is 84. Singer Joey Dee is 83. Actor Roscoe Orman is 79. Actor Adrienne Barbeau is 78. Rock musician Frank Beard is 74. Animal rights activist Ingrid Newkirk is 74. Singer Graham Russell (Air Supply) is 73. Rock singer Donnie Van Zant is 71. Actor Peter Bergman is 70. Pro Football Hall of Famer Joe Montana is 67.