Today’s highlight

On June 16, 2015, real estate mogul Donald Trump launched his successful campaign to become president of the United States with a speech at Trump Tower in Manhattan.

On this date

1858: Accepting the Illinois Republican Party’s nomination for the U.S. Senate, Abraham Lincoln said the slavery issue had to be resolved, declaring, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”

1903: Ford Motor Co. was incorporated.

1963: The world’s first female space traveler, Valentina Tereshkova, 26, was launched into orbit by the Soviet Union aboard Vostok 6.

1970: Kenneth A. Gibson of Newark, New Jersey, became the first Black politician elected mayor of a major Northeast city.

2017: President Donald Trump acknowledged for the first time that he was under federal investigation as part of the expanding probe into Russia’s election meddling as he lashed out at a top Justice Department official overseeing the inquiry.

2023: Daniel Ellsberg, the government analyst and whistleblower who leaked the Pentagon Papers in 1971, died at age 92.

Today’s birthdays

Actor Eileen Atkins is 90. Actor Bill Cobbs is 90. Author Joyce Carol Oates is 86. Country singer Billy “Crash” Craddock is 86. R&B singer Eddie Levert is 82. Actor Joan Van Ark is 81. Actor Geoff Pierson is 75. Boxing Hall of Famer Roberto Duran is 73. Pop singer Gino Vannelli is 72. Actor Laurie Metcalf is 69. Actor Arnold Vosloo is 62.