CAMILLE BOHANNON
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.
On June 11, 1979, John Wayne, famous for starring in countless westerns, died at age 72 after battling cancer for more than a
decade.
The actor was born Marion Morrison on May 26, 1907, in Winterset,
Iowa, and moved as a child to Glendale, California. A football star
at Glendale High School, he attended the University of Southern California on a scholarship but dropped out after two years.
After finding work as a movie studio laborer, Wayne befriended
director John Ford, then a rising talent. His first acting jobs were
bit parts in which he was credited as Duke Morrison, a childhood nickname derived from the name of his beloved pet dog.
Wayne’s first starring role came in 1930 with The Big Trail, a film
directed by Raoul Walsh.
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 E.T. the Extra-
Terrestrial, which was released on June 11, 1982.
For Spielberg, E.T. marked a return to territory he had first
visited with the classic Close Encounters of the Third Kind
(1977).
E.T. had stupendous success at the box office, eventually
raking in some $435 million (it was re-released in 1985 and
a special 20th-anniversary edition was issued in 2002). 
Steven Spielberg with E.T.
In Akron, Ohio, Bill Wilson and Dr. Robert Smith, two
recovering alcoholics, founded Alcoholics Anonymous,
also known as "A.A.," a 12-step rehabilitation program
that eventually helped countless people cope with
alcoholism.
Based on psychological techniques that have long been
used in suppressing certain personality traits, members
of the strictly anonymous organization control their
disease through guided group discussion and
confession.
As of 2021, AA estimated it is active in 180 countries with
an estimated membership of nearly two million—73% in
the United States and Canada.
Other addiction support groups patterned on A.A. include
Narcotics Anonymous and Gamblers Anonymous.
