Today is Saturday, June 20, the 171st day of 2026. On this day in history, boxer Muhammad Ali was convicted in Houston of violating Selective Service laws by refusing to be drafted and was sentenced to five years in prison. Ali’s conviction would ultimately be overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Other Notable Events
In 1782, the Continental Congress approved the Great Seal of the United States, featuring the emblem of the bald eagle. In 1837, Queen Victoria acceded to the British throne following the death of her uncle, King William IV. In 1893, a jury in New Bedford, Massachusetts, found Lizzie Borden not guilty of the ax murders of her father and stepmother.
In 1943, race-related rioting erupted in Detroit; federal troops were sent in by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to quell the violence that resulted in more than 30 deaths. In 1947, gangster Benjamin ‘Bugsy’ Siegel was shot dead at the Beverly Hills, California, home of his girlfriend, Virginia Hill, likely at the order of mob associates.
In 1972, three days after the arrest of the Watergate burglars, President Richard Nixon met at the White House with his chief of staff, H.R. Haldeman; the secretly made tape recording of this meeting ended up with a notorious 18 1/2-minute gap. In 2002, in Atkins v. Virginia, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that executing people with intellectual disabilities qualified as cruel and unusual punishment and was therefore in violation of the Eighth Amendment.
Original reporting: Texarkana Gazette — read the source article.
