ROSS SIMPSON

Edward Moore Kennedy (February 22, 1932 – August 25, 2009)

On June 27, 1950, President Harry S. Truman announced he is ordering U.S.
air and naval forces to South Korea to aid the democratic nation in repulsing
an invasion by communist North Korea. The United States was undertaking
the major military operation, he explained, to enforce a United Nations
resolution calling for an end to hostilities, and to stem the spread of
communism in Asia. In addition to ordering U.S. forces to Korea, Truman
also deployed the U.S. 7th Fleet to Formosa (Taiwan) to guard against
invasion by communist China and ordered an acceleration of military aid
to French forces fighting communist guerrillas in Vietnam. 

Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884 – December 26, 1972)

John Joseph Gotti Jr. (October 27, 1940 – June 10, 2002)

Mafia boss John Gotti (above), who was nicknamed the “Teflon Don”
after escaping unscathed from several trials during the 1980s, is
sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty on 14 accounts
of conspiracy to commit murder and racketeering. Moments after
his sentence was read in a federal courthouse in Brooklyn, hundreds 
of Gotti’s supporters stormed the building along with smashing
and overturned cars before being forced back by police officers.

On June 3, 1965, 120 miles above the Earth, Major Edward H. White II opens
the hatch of the Gemini 4 and steps out of the capsule, becoming the first
American astronaut to walk in space.

At 11:30 a.m. on May 29, 1953, Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tenzing
Norgay, a Sherpa of Nepal, become the first explorers to reach the summit
of Mount Everest, which at 29,035 feet above sea level is the highest point
on earth. The two, part of a British expedition, made their final assault on
the summit after spending a fitful night at 27,900 feet. News of their
achievement broke around the world on June 2, the day of Queen Elizabeth
II’s coronation, and Britons hailed it as a good omen for their country’s
future.