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ville, Tennessee.
• In 1915, Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan resigned in a disagreement with President Woodrow Wilson over U.S. handling of the sinking of the Lusitania.
• In 1948, the "Texaco Star Theater" made its debut on NBC-TV with Milton Berle guest-hosting the first program. (Berle was later named the show's permanent host.)
• In 1953, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that restaurants in the District of Columbia could not refuse to serve blacks. Eight tornadoes struck Michigan's Lower Peninsula, killing 126 people.
• In 1967, 34 U.S. servicemen were killed when Israel attacked the USS Liberty, a Navy intelligence-gathering ship in the Mediterranean. (Israel later said the Liberty had been mistaken for an Egyptian vessel.)
• In 1972, during the Vietnam War, an Associated Press photographer captured the image of 9-year-old Phan Thi Kim Phuc (fahn thee kihm fook) as she ran naked and severely burned from the scene of a South Vietnamese napalm attack.
• In 1973, Gen. Francisco Franco relinquished his post as Spain's prime minister while remaining as chief of state.
• In 1978, a jury in Clark County, Nevada, ruled the so-called "Mormon will," purportedly written by the late billionaire Howard Hughes, was a forgery.
• In 1982, President Ronald Reagan became the first American chief executive to address a joint session of the British Parliament.
• In 1987, Fawn Hall began testifying at the Iran-Contra hearings, describing how, as secretary to National Security aide Oliver L. North, she helped to shred some documents and spirit away others.
• In 1998, the National Rifle Association elected actor Charlton Heston its president.
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• Ten years ago: The U.N. Security Council gave unanimous approval to a resolution endorsing the transfer of sovereignty to Iraq's new government by the end of June. Three Italians and a Polish contractor who'd been abducted in Iraq were freed by U.S. special forces. An American who worked for a U.S. defense contractor was shot and killed in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. In a celestial rarity, Venus passed between the sun and the Earth.
• Five years ago: North Korea's highest court sentenced American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee to 12 years' hard labor for trespassing and "hostile acts." (The women were pardoned in early August 2009 after a trip to Pyongyang by former President Bill Clinton.) Omar Bongo, 73, the world's longest-serving president who'd ruled Gabon for 42 years, died at a Spanish hospital.

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