Today in News History

On June 21, several notable moments in the history of News stand out. In 533, A Byzantine expeditionary fleet under Belisarios sails from Constantinople to attack the Vandals in Africa, via Greece and Sicily. In 870, Al-Muhtadi, Muslim caliph passed away. In 1824, Greek War of Independence: Egyptian forces capture Psara in the Aegean Sea. In 1826, Maniots defeat Egyptians under Ibrahim Pasha in the Battle of Vergas. In 1898, The United States captures Guam from Spain. The few warning shots fired by the U.S. naval vessels are misinterpreted as salutes by the Spanish garrison, which was unaware that the two nations were at war. In 1942, World War II: A Japanese submarine surfaces near the Columbia River in Oregon, firing 17 shells at Fort Stevens in one of only a handful of attacks by Japan against the United States mainland. In 1947, Shirin Ebadi, Iranian lawyer, judge, and activist, Nobel Prize laureate was born. In 2001, A federal grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia, indicts 13 Saudis and a Lebanese in the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 American servicemen. In 2012, A boat carrying more than 200 migrants capsizes in the Indian Ocean between the Indonesian island of Java and Christmas Island, killing 17 people and leaving 70 others missing. In 2012, Abid Hussain, Indian economist and diplomat, Indian Ambassador to the United States (born 1926) passed away. Together, these milestones provide historical context for today's news news and ongoing narratives.