June 14, 1777: During the American Revolution, the
Continental Congress adopted a resolution stating
“the flag of the United States be thirteen alternate
stripes red and white” and that “the Union be thirteen
stars, white in a blue field, representing a new
Constellation.”      

       
According to legend, Philadelphia seamstress Betsy
Ross designed the new canton for the Stars and
Stripes, which consisted of a circle of 13 stars and
a blue background, at the request of General George
Washington. Historians have been unable to prove
or disprove this legend.          

In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson issued a presidential
proclamation that designated June 14 as Flag Day.

The United States Army also celebrates the U.S. Army
birthday on this date, as Congress adopted the American
continental army after reaching a consensus position on        
June 14, 1775.

TIM MAGUIRE

The concept of "Miranda rights" was enshrined in U.S. law following
the 1966 Miranda v. Arizona Supreme Court decision, which found
that the Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights of Ernesto Arturo Miranda
had been violated during his arrest and trial for armed robbery, kidnapping, and rape of a young woman.

Miranda was subsequently retried and convicted.

On January 31, 1976, a fight erupted at the Amapola Bar at 233
South 2nd Street in downtown Phoenix in which Miranda was
stabbed. He was pronounced dead on arrival at Banner Good
Samaritan Medical Center. He was 34.

The grave of Ernesto Arturo Miranda in the City of Mesa Cemetery.

On June 12, 1987, in one of his most famous Cold War speeches, President Ronald Reagan challenged Soviet Leader Mikhail
Gorbachev to “tear down” the Berlin Wall, a symbol of the
repressive Communist era in a divided Germany.

Nicole Brown Simpson, famous football player O.J. Simpson’s
ex-wife, and her friend Ron Goldman were brutally stabbed to
death outside Nicole’s home in Brentwood, California, in what
quickly became one of the most highly publicized trials of the
century.

With overwhelming evidence against him, including a prior
record of domestic violence towards Brown, O.J. Simpson
became the chief suspect.

Although he had agreed to turn himself in, Simpson escaped
with friend A.C. Cowlings in his white Ford Bronco on June 17.

The landmark film "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" was released on
this day in history, June 11, 1982.

Then 34-year-old director Steven Spielberg reportedly drew
on his own experiences as an unusually imaginative, often-
lonely child of divorce for his science-fiction classic.

With Steven Spielberg as its director, the film starred Henry
Thomas, Drew Barrymore, Robert McNaughton and Dee
Wallace. 

Director Steven Spielberg with E.T.