The Daily Standard
World News
Today is Tuesday, June 9, the 160th day of 2026. There are 205 days left in the year.
Today in history:
On June 9, 1973, Secretariat won the Belmont Stakes by 31 lengths, winning horse racing's Triple Crown and setting a still-standing record by running the 1 1/2-mile dirt course in 2 minutes, 24 seconds.
Also on this date:
In 1732, James Oglethorpe received a charter from Britain's King George II to establish the colony of Georgia.
In 1954, during the Senate Army-McCarthy hearings, Army special counsel Joseph N. Welch berated Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy, a Republican from Wisconsin, asking: "Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?"
In 1972, heavy rains triggered record flooding in the Black Hills of South Dakota. The resulting disaster left at least 238 people dead and more than 1,300 homes destroyed.
In 1978, leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints struck down a policy of excluding Black men from the Mormon priesthood that had been in place for more than 125 years.
In 1986, the Rogers Commission released its report on the space shuttle Challenger disaster, criticizing NASA and rocket builder Morton Thiokol for management problems leading to the explosion that claimed the lives of seven astronauts.
In 2013, Edward Snowden, a former CIA employee and National Security Agency contractor, revealed in a video interview from Hong Kong published by The Guardian that he was the source of a leaked trove of sensitive intelligence material. Snowden was charged with espionage and fled to residency in Russia.
In 2013, Rafael Nadal became the first man to win eight titles at the same Grand Slam tennis tournament after beating fellow Spaniard David Ferrer in the French Open final. (Nadal would finish his career with 14 French Open titles.)
In 2020, a funeral service and burial were held in Houston, Texas, for George Floyd, the Black man whose death spurred widespread protests over police brutality and racial prejudice. The service came little more than two weeks after Floyd was pinned down for more than eight minutes under the knee of a white Minneapolis police officer during an arrest.
Today's Birthdays: Sportscaster Dick Vitale is 87. Film composer James Newton Howard is 75. Author Patricia Cornwell is 70. Actor Michael J. Fox is 65. Writer-filmmaker Aaron Sorkin is 65. Actor Johnny Depp is 63. Actor Gloria Reuben is 62. Actor Michaela Conlin is 48. Actor Natalie Portman is 45. Musician Anoushka Shankar is 45. Olympic gymnastics gold medalist Laurie Hernandez is 26. Dancer and choreographer Kaeli Ware is 26.
