Updated June 20, 2014, 6:13 pm
On June 20, 1967, boxer Muhammad Ali was convicted in Houston of violating Selective Service laws by refusing to be drafted. The conviction was later overturned by the Supreme Court.
On June 20, 1905, Lillian Hellman, the American playwright and screenwriter, was born. Following her death on June 30, 1984, her obituary appeared in The Times.
Go to obituary » | Other birthdays »
On This Date
| 1863 | West Virginia became the 35th state. |
|---|---|
| 1893 | A jury in New Bedford, Mass., found Lizzie Borden innocent of the ax murders of her father and stepmother. |
| 1943 | Race-related rioting erupted in Detroit. |
| 1948 | The TV variety series "Toast of the Town" hosted by Ed Sullivan debuted on CBS. |
| 1963 | The United States and Soviet Union signed an agreement to set up a hot line communication link between the two superpowers. |
| 1967 | Boxer Muhammad Ali was convicted in Houston of violating Selective Service laws by refusing to be drafted. (The conviction was later overturned by the Supreme Court.) |
| 1975 | The movie "Jaws" was released. |
| 1994 | O.J. Simpson pleaded innocent in Los Angeles to the killings of his ex-wife, Nicole, and her friend Ronald Goldman. |
| 1997 | The tobacco industry agreed to a massive settlement in exchange for relief from mounting lawsuits and legal bills. |
| 1999 | As the last of 40,000 Yugoslav troops left Kosovo, NATO declared a formal end to its bombing campaign against Yugoslavia. |
| 2001 | Andrea Yates drowned her five children, who ranged in age from 6 months to 7 years, in the bathtub in her family's home in Houston. |
| 2002 | The U.S. Supreme Court declared that executing mentally retarded murderers was unconstitutionally cruel. |
| 2007 | Sammy Sosa of the Texas Rangers became the fifth major leaguer to hit 600 career home runs. |
| 2009 | Neda Agha Soltan, 27, was gunned down during election protests in Tehran; her dying moments were caught on video and circulated widely on the Internet. |
Historic Birthdays
Lillian Hellman
6/20/1905 - 6/30/1984
American playwright and screenwriter.Go to obituary »
| 57 |
Salvator Rosa 6/20/1615 - 3/15/1673 Italian Baroque painter and etcher |
|---|---|
| 92 |
Adam Ferguson 6/20/1723 - 2/22/1816 Scottish historian and philosopher |
| 32 |
Thomas Edward Bowdich 6/20/1791 - 1/10/1824 English traveler and scientific writer |
| 61 |
Jacques Offenbach 6/20/1819 - 10/5/1880 French composer |
| 72 |
Alexander Winton 6/20/1860 - 6/21/1932 Scottish-born American automobile manufacturer |
| 85 |
Sir Frederick Hopkins 6/20/1861 - 5/16/1947 English Nobel Prize-winning biochemist (1929) |
| 44 |
Jean Moulin 6/20/1899 - 7/8/1943 French World War II Resistance hero |
| 50 |
Errol Flynn 6/20/1909 - 10/14/1959 American motion-picture actor |
| 65 |
Chester Arthur Burnett 6/20/1910 - 1/10/1976 American blues singer and composer |
