Two world-altering events occurred on this date in different years.
June 6, 1968 Robert F. Kennedy , Jr. died early in the morning on this date in Los Angeles. He was shot the night before, just after claiming victory in the California Democratic Presidential primary. Gunman Sirhan B. Sirhan was caught immediately after the shooting, Kennedy was 42 years old at the time of his death and had he not been killed, might have won the 1968 Democratic nomination for President. Instead, Vice President Hubert Humphrey, with the backing of Democratic party power brokers, won the nomination but was defeated by Richard M. Nixon in the 1968 general election. (Link to original NY Times article about Robert Kennedy’s assassination.)
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0605.html#article
The younger brother brother of President John F. Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy, as he was known, had been JFK’s Attorney General and close adviser. He remained as Attorney General under Lyndon Johnson for several months. He then resigned and successfully ran for the Senate from New York. Within a few years, Bobby Kennedy had become a vocal opponent of the war in Vietnam, and early in 1968, announced he would run for President.
Lyndon Johnson had already announced that he would not run for re-election. In California, Kennedy defeated Senator Eugene McCarthy, who was also an antiwar candidate and had challenged President Johnson, almost defeating him in the New Hampshire primary. Supporters of McCarthy claimed that Kennedy was an opportunist, fracturing the antiwar forces.
Vice-President Hubert Humphrey, who entered the race only after Johnson’s stunning decision not to run, was not entered in some early primaries because he had announced his candidacy so late. With the backing of organized labor and party regulars, Humphrey eventually won the Democratic nomination at the stormy Democratic convention in Chicago.
(Link to PBS American Experience documentary on Robert F. Kennedy)
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/rfk/index.html
In his run for the Presidency, Robert F. Kennedy championed racial and economic justice, an end to the war in Vietnam and a new vision of social improvement in America. Robert F. Kennedy is buried in Arlington Cemetery. Among his most famous quotes is this line (paraphrased from George Bernard Shaw):
“There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why… I dream of things that never were and ask why not.”
June 6 marks another important historical anniversary. On June 6, 1944, now known as D-Day, the Allied invasion of Normandy, France began. Here’s a quick quiz about D-Day excerpted from Don’t Know Much About Anything
Steven Spielberg’s World War II epic, Saving Private Ryan, brought the brutal reality of combat home to millions, but many moviegoers did not know which battle the film depicted, or when and why it happened. The assault, code-named Operation Overlord, occurred June 6, 1944, against Hitler’s Germany. In the largest amphibian assault in history, Allied armies crossed the English Channel to land on five beaches in Normandy in northern France. The invasion force involved 700 ships, 4,000 landing craft, 10,000 planes, and some 176,000 Allied troops. How much do you know about D-Day?
True or False?
1. The allied invasion force included troops from all NATO members.
2. The D-Day invasion marked the first Allied assault on the European mainland.
3. The allied forces were commanded by Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower.
4. Following D-Day, the war against Germany continued for almost a year.
Answers
1. False. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was not formed until 1949. Most of the troops participating were American, British, and Canadian.
2. False. The Allies began to retake Europe by invading Italy in 1943.
3. True. As Supreme Commander of the Allied forces, Eisenhower had ultimate responsibility for the invasion.
3. True. The German army did not formally surrender until May 7, 1945. May 8, 1945 was declared V.E. (Victory in Europe) Day.
