What Happened Today in History on June 13

Marquis De Lafayette accompanied by Baron De Kalb arrive on North Island, Georgetown County, S.C. to serve alongside General Washington. Lafayette was 19 at the time. He and George Washington went on to develop a strong bond. More

The words "under God" are added to the Pledge of Allegiance. The phrase was added by an Act of Congress and signed into law by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. The original Pledge of Allegiance was written by Francis Bellamy a Baptist minister, in August 1892. Bellamy had hoped that the pledge would be used by citizens in any country. The Pledge was published in the September 8th issue of The Youth's Companion. The addition of the words "under God" was intended to distinguish the United States from atheistic communism during the Cold War and to emphasize the religious heritage of the United States.

The U.S. Supreme Court hands down its decision in Miranda v. Arizona establishing the principle that all criminal suspects must be informed of their specific legal rights before interrogation. Now considered standard police procedure. This decision was based on a case in which a defendant, Ernesto Miranda, was accused of robbery, kidnapping, and rape. During police interrogation, he confessed to the crimes.

Thurgood Marshall, then-Solicitor General, becomes the first Black American to be nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court. He was nominated by President Lyndon B. Johnson, saying it was “the right thing to do, the right time to do it, the right man and the right place.” Marshall's pursuit for a legal career began with disappointment as the University of Maryland Law School, refused to open its doors to Black students. He wound up graduating first in his class at Howard University Law School. One of his first victories came against the University of Maryland, which had rejected a Black applicant on the basis of race alone. More

The New York Times began publication of the Pentagon Papers, a collection of top secret documents exposing U.S. strategy in the Vietnam War, which were leaked to to the New York Times and the Washington Post and 17 other newspapers by Daniel Ellsberg, a former Defense Department analyst. Expand +