Today in History: June 17, O.J. Simpson charged with murder following highway chase
Today is Tuesday, June 17, the 168th day of 2025. There are 197 days left in the year.
Today in history:
On June 17, 1994, after leading police on a slow-speed chase on Southern California freeways, O.J. Simpson was arrested and charged with murder in the deaths of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman. (Simpson was acquitted of the murders in a criminal trial in 1995, but held liable in a civil trial in 1997.)
Also on this date:
In 1775, the Revolutionary War Battle of Bunker Hill resulted in a costly victory for the British, who suffered heavy losses.
In 1885, the Statue of Liberty, disassembled and packed into 214 separate crates, arrived in New York Harbor aboard the French frigate Isère.
In 1930, President Herbert Hoover signed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, which boosted U.S. tariffs to historically high levels, prompting foreign retaliation.
In 1963, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Abington (Pa.) School District v. Schempp, struck down, 8-1, rules requiring the recitation of the Lord’s Prayer or reading of biblical verses in public schools.
In 1972, President Richard Nixon’s eventual downfall began with the arrest of five burglars inside the Democratic headquarters in Washington, D.C.’s, Watergate complex.
In 2008, hundreds of same-sex couples got married across California on the first full day that same-sex marriage became legal by order of the state’s highest court; an estimated 11,000 same-sex couples would be married under the California law in its first three months.
In 2015, nine Black worshippers were killed when a gunman opened fire during a Bible study gathering at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. (Dylann Roof, a white supremacist, was captured the following day; he would be convicted on state and federal murder and hate crime charges and sentenced to death.)
In 2021, the Supreme Court, in a 7-2 ruling, left intact the entire Affordable Care Act, rejecting a major Republican-led effort to kill the national health care law known informally as “Obamacare.”
In 2021, President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law, creating the first new national holiday since the establishment of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Today’s Birthdays:
- Filmmaker Ken Loach is 89.
- Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is 82.
- Musician Barry Manilow is 82.
- Comedian Joe Piscopo is 74.
- Actor Jon Gries is 68.
- Filmmaker Bobby Farrelly is 67.
- Actor Thomas Haden Church is 65.
- Actor Greg Kinnear is 62.
- Olympic speed skating gold medalist Dan Jansen is 60.
- Fashion designer Tory Burch is 59.
- Actor Jason Patric is 59.
- Actor-comedian Will Forte is 55.
- Latin pop singer-songwriter Paulina Rubio is 54.
- Tennis Hall of Famer Leander Paes is 52.
- Tennis star Venus Williams is 45.
- Actor Jodie Whittaker is 43.
- Rapper Kendrick Lamar is 38.
- Actor KJ Apa is 28.