In Furman v. Georgia, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled by a vote of
5-4 that capital punishment, as it is currently employed on the
state and federal level, is unconstitutional. The majority held that,
in violation of the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution, the
death penalty qualified as “cruel and unusual punishment,”
primarily because states employed execution in “arbitrary and
capricious ways,” especially in regard to race. It was the first
time that the nation’s highest court had ruled against capital
punishment. However, because the Supreme Court suggested
new legislation that could make death sentences constitutional
again, such as the development of standardized guidelines for
juries that decide sentences, it was not an outright victory for
opponents of the death penalty.

Birds Eye is an American international brand of frozen foods
owned by Conagra Brands in the United States, by Nomad
Foods in Europe, and Simplot in Australia.

The former Birds Eye Company Ltd., originally named "Birdseye Seafood, Inc." had been established in the United States by
Clarence Birdseye in 1922 to market frozen fish, being then
acquired by the Postum Cereal Company in 1929. The company
was then owned by other firms such as Dean Foods and Pinnacle
Foods, which was eventually taken over by Conagra Brands in
2018. Since then, Conagra has been managing rights to the Birds
Eye brand in the U.S.

TIM MAGUIRE

Comedian & film maker Mel Brooks is 96 today.
(born Melvin Kaminsky in New York City)

Two of the strongest earthquakes ever to hit California struck the
desert area east of Los Angeles on June 28, 1992. Although the
state sits upon the immense San Andreas fault line, relatively few
major earthquakes have hit California in modern times. Two of the strongest, but not the deadliest, hit southern California on a single morning in the summer of 1992.

Just before 5 a.m. on a Sunday morning, a 7.2-magnitude quake
struck in Landers, 100 miles east of Los Angeles. Because the
Landers area is sparsely populated, damage was relatively minor
given the intensity of the jolt.

In Los Angeles, residents experienced rolling and shaking for
nearly a minute. The tremors were also felt in Arizona, Las Vegas
and as far away as Boise, Idaho.

Just over three hours later, a second 6.3-magnitude tremor hit in
Big Bear, not too far from the original epicenter. This quake caused
fires to break out and cost three people their lives. A chimney fell
on a 3-year-old child and two people suffered fatal heart attacks.

Between the two quakes, 400 people were injured and $92 million
in damages were suffered.

On June 27, 1950, President Harry S. Truman (above) announced
that 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 stop 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.

U.S. troops arrive at the dockside in Pusan, 6 August 1950.