Thursday, June 22, 2000

This is incredibly exciting. What this means is that we have a chance to find ... extant life. Mars Society president Robert Zubrin, on a NASA scientist's comment that new photos suggest recent underground volcanic forces on Mars may have heated water into a liquid state.

• Death row inmate Gary Graham is scheduled to be executed in Texas.
• The 2000 Jefferson Symposium on the topic: "Thomas Jefferson and Slavery", takes place in Charlottesville, Virginia, through June 25.
• The National Association of Sports Officials holds its national conference, through June 25.

• On Friday, June 23, in Golden, Colorado, Philip Joseph Duran is expected to be sentenced. Duran pleaded guilty to helping Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold obtain a gun used in the Columbine High School massacre.
• On Saturday, June 24, boxers Mike Tyson and Lou Savarese are scheduled to fight in Glasgow, Scotland.
• On Sunday, June 25, Japan is scheduled to hold parliamentary elections.
• On Monday, June 26, Madagascar celebrates Independence Day, commemorating its independence from France in 1960.

• In 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte abdicated a second time.
• In 1868, Arkansas was readmitted to the Union.
• In 1870, Congress created the Department of Justice.
• In 1911, Britain's King George V was crowned at Westminster Abbey.
• In 1938, heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis knocked out Max Schmeling in the first round of their rematch at Yankee Stadium.
• In 1944, President Roosevelt signed the "GI Bill of Rights."
• In 1945, the World War Two battle for Okinawa officially ended; 12,520 Americans and 110,000 Japanese were killed in the 81-day campaign.
• In 1969, singer-actress Judy Garland died in London at age 47.
• In 1970, President Nixon signed a measure lowering the voting age to 18.
• In 1993, former first lady Pat Nixon died in Park Ridge, New Jersey, at age 81.