Today is Thursday, June 18, the 169th day of 2015. There are 196 days left in the year.
Today’s birthdays: Former senator Jay Rockefeller is 78. Baseball Hall of Famer Lou Brock is 76. Rock star Paul McCartney is 73. Actress Isabella Rossellini is 63. Actress Carol Kane is 63. Figure skater Kurt Browning is 49. Rhythm-and-blues singer Nathan Morris (Boyz II Men) is 44. Singer-songwriter Ray LaMontagne is 42. Country singer Blake Shelton is 39.
In 1812, the War of 1812 began as Congress approved, and President Madison signed, a declaration of war against Britain.
In 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte met his Waterloo as British and Prussian troops defeated the French in Belgium.
In 1873, suffragist Susan B. Anthony was found guilty by a judge in Canandaigua, N.Y., of breaking the law by casting a vote in the 1872 presidential election.
In 1940, during World War II, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill urged his countrymen to conduct themselves in a manner that would prompt future generations to say, ‘‘This was their finest hour.’’
In 1979, President Carter and Soviet President Leonid I. Brezhnev signed the SALT II strategic arms limitation treaty.
In 1983, Sally K. Ride became America’s first woman in space as she and four colleagues blasted off on Challenger.
In 2014, a Massachusetts judge rules Connecticut teenager Justina Pelletier should be removed from state custody and returned to her parents. She was the subject of a 16-month tug-of-war involving parental rights and the controversial new field of medical child abuse.