Moments in Time: Abraham Lincoln
The History Channel
On June 16, 1858, newly nominated senatorial candidate Abraham Lincoln told more than 1,000 delegates at the Illinois Republican Convention in Springfield that the nation was facing a crisis that could destroy the Union, paraphrasing a New Testament passage when he warned that "a house divided against itself cannot stand."
On June 17, 1976, the National Basketball Association announced a merger with its rival, the American Basketball Association, and took on the ABA's four most successful franchises: the Denver Nuggets, the Indiana Pacers, the New York (later Brooklyn) Nets and the San Antonio Spurs.
On June 18, 1178, five badly frightened monks in Canterbury, England, witnessed an explosion on the moon's surface after the sun had set. As their abbey's chronicler described it, "A flaming torch sprang up, spewing out ... fire, hot coals and sparks." The moon, he marveled, "throbbed like a wounded snake."
On June 19, 2014, two weeks after he abdicated the Spanish throne amidst low approval ratings, King Juan Carlos I removed his red sash, symbolic of his status as the leader of the Spanish military, and draped it around the waist of his son, 46-year-old Crown Prince Felipe, completing his official transfer of power.
On June 20, 1981, four Dutch studio musicians recording under the name Stars on 45, who sounded uncannily like the Beatles, made it to the top of the U.S. pop charts with their single titled "Medley: Intro Venus/Sugar Sugar/No Reply/I'll Be Back/Drive My Car/Do You Want To Know A Secret/We Can Work It Out/I Should Have Known Better/Nowhere Man/You're Going To Lose That Girl/Stars On 45."
On June 21, 1913, aviatrix Georgia "Tiny" Broadwick, who stood just four feet, eight inches tall and weighed 80 pounds, became the first woman to parachute from a plane. On the way up, she was suspended from a trap seat outside the cockpit, with her parachute on a shelf above her.
On June 22, 1953, a Brooklyn newsboy received an unusual nickel in payment. Upon dropping it on the ground he discovered it was hollow and contained a tiny photo of coded numbers. His discovery led the FBI to a Soviet spy named Rudolf Abel.
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