Today in history: June 17
Quaker Oats announced that it would retire the Aunt Jemima brand, saying the company recognized that the character’s origins were “based on a racial stereotype.”
1775: Bunker Hill
In 1775, the Revolutionary War Battle of Bunker Hill resulted in a costly victory for the British, who suffered heavy losses.
1930: Herbert Hoover
In 1930, President Herbert Hoover signed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, which boosted U.S. tariffs to historically high levels, prompting foreign retaliation.
1972: Richard Nixon
In 1972, President Richard Nixon’s eventual downfall began with the arrest of five burglars inside the Democratic headquarters in Washington, D.C.’s, Watergate complex.
1994: O.J. Simpson
In 1994, after leading police on a slow-speed chase on Southern California freeways, O.J. Simpson was arrested and charged with murder in the slayings of his ex-wife, Nicole, and her friend, Ronald Goldman. (Simpson was later acquitted in a criminal trial but held liable in a civil trial.)
2009: John Ensign
Nevada Sen. John Ensign resigned from the GOP leadership a day after admitting an affair with a former campaign staffer.
2012: Webb Simpson
Webb Simpson won the U.S. Open, outlasting former U.S. Open champions Jim Furyk and Graeme McDowell.
2015: Dylann Roof
On June 17, 2015, nine people were shot to death in a historic African-American church in Charleston, South Carolina; suspect Dylann Roof was arrested the following morning. (Roof was convicted of federal hate crimes and sentenced to death; he later pleaded guilty to state murder charges and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.)
2017: Bill Cosby
Five years ago: The jury in Bill Cosby’s sexual assault case declared itself hopelessly deadlocked, resulting in a mistrial for the 79-year-old TV star charged with drugging and groping a woman more than a decade earlier; prosecutors immediately announced they would pursue a second trial. (That trial resulted in Cosby’s conviction, but Pennsylvania’s highest court later overturned it.)
2017: USS Fitzgerald
The Navy destroyer USS Fitzgerald was damaged in a collision with a Philippine-flagged container ship off Japan that killed seven sailors.
2020: Aunt Jemima
Quaker Oats announced that it would retire the Aunt Jemima brand, saying the company recognized that the character’s origins were “based on a racial stereotype.”
2021: Kenneth Kaunda
Zambia’s first president Kenneth Kaunda, died at 97; he was a leader of the campaign that ended British colonial rule.
Things to know today: 2 killed, 1 wounded in shooting at Alabama church; EU OKs candidate status for Ukraine; Golden State Warriors champs again.