Thursday, June 7, is the 159th day of 2012. There are 207 days left in the year.

Today’s birthdays: Movie director James Ivory is 84. Actress Virginia McKenna is 81. Singer Tom Jones is 72. Poet Nikki Giovanni is 69. Actor Ken Osmond is 69. Former talk show host Jenny Jones is 66. Actress Anne Twomey is 61. Actor Liam Neeson is 60. Actress Colleen Camp is 59. Singer-songwriter Johnny Clegg is 59. Author Louise Erdrich is 58. Actor William Forsythe is 57. Record producer L.A. Reid is 56. Latin pop singer Juan Luis Guerra is 55. Singer-songwriter Prince is 54. Rock singer-musician Gordon Gano (The Violent Femmes) is 49. Rapper Ecstasy (Whodini) is 48. Rock musician Eric Kretz (Stone Temple Pilots) is 46. Rock musician Dave Navarro is 45. Actress Helen Baxendale is 42. Actor Karl Urban is 40. TV personality Bear Grylls is 38. Rock musician Eric Johnson (The Shins) is 36. Actress Adrienne Frantz is 34. Actor-comedian Bill Hader is 34. Actress Anna Torv is 33. Actress Larisa Oleynik is 31. Tennis player Anna Kournikova is 31. Actor Michael Cera is 24. Actress Shelley Buckner is 23.

In 1712, Pennsylvania’s colonial assembly voted to ban the further importation of slaves.

In 1776, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia proposed to the Continental Congress a resolution stating ‘‘These United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown.’’

In 1929, the sovereign state of Vatican City came into existence as copies of the Lateran Treaty were exchanged in Rome.

In 1937, actress Jean Harlow died in Los Angeles at age 26.

In 1942, the Battle of Midway ended in a decisive victory for American forces over the Imperial Japanese.

In 1998, James Byrd Jr., a 49-year-old black man, was hooked by a chain to a pickup truck and dragged to his death in Jasper, Texas. (Two white men were sentenced to death for the crime; a third received life with the possibility of parole.)

In 2002, Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel was convicted in Norwalk, Conn., of beating Martha Moxley to death when they were 15 in 1975. (Skakel, who continues to maintain his innocence, was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison.)