6-25-1997

On this day in history, June 24, 1997, the U.S. Air Force released
a 232-page report titled "The Roswell Report: Case Closed,"
about a mysterious incident near Roswell, New Mexico, that
some believe was a UFO crash-landing on Earth.

The report was the second part of the government’s official
disclosure about what was found in rural New Mexico in the
1940s. Back in 1994, the government published, "The Roswell
Report: Fact vs. Fiction in the New Mexico Desert."

"The ‘Roswell Incident’ has assumed a central place in American
folklore since the events of the 1940s in a remote area of New
Mexico," noted the foreword of the 1997 report, written by
Secretary of the Air Force Sheila A. Widnall (below).         
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
Sheila Marie Evans Widnall

During World War II, the U.S. 10th Army overcomes the last
major pockets of Japanese resistance on Okinawa Island,
ending one of the bloodiest battles of World War II.

The same day, Japanese Lieutenant General Mitsuru Ushijima,
the commander of Okinawa’s defense, committed suicide with
a number of Japanese officers and troops rather than surrender.

On June 7, 1942, the Battle of Midway—one of the most decisive
U.S. victories in its war against Japan—came to an end. In the
four-day sea and air battle, the outnumbered U.S. Pacific Fleet
succeeded in destroying four Japanese aircraft carriers with the
loss of only one of its own, the Yorktown, thus reversing the tide
against the previously invincible Japanese navy.

This Day in History – June 5, 1968, Senator Robert F. Kennedy
was assassinated in the Ambassador Hotel by 24-year-old
Palestinian Sirhan Sirhan. He was shot in the head and died
early the next morning.

Kennedy delivered remarks to a crowd in the Ambassador
Hotel moments before the assassination.

Robert F. Kennedy’s grave in Arlington National Cemetery.

On June 1, 1942, a Warsaw underground newspaper, the Liberty
Brigade, made public the news of the gassing of tens of
thousands of Jews at Chelmno, a Nazi-operated death camp
in Poland—almost seven months after extermination of
prisoners began.

Investigation of Chelmno Death Camp being conducted.

Children rounded up for deportation to the Chelmno death camp.

Chelmno extermination camp burial pits.

Chelmno extermination camp memorial.