[goofywife]

1997: Report explains Roswell sightings
The United States Air Force released a report today on the 1947 'Roswell Incident,' in which a flying disc had reportedly crashed near Roswell, New Mexico. The report, in response to witnesses that claimed to see the military recovering alien bodies, stated that the bodies were actually life-sized dummies.

"Just as sightings of squids and whales once spawned tales of sea monsters, the Air Force says, the shadowy doings of brave fliers, high-altitude balloons, lifelike crash dummies and saucerlike craft were glimpsed and embellished into false evidence of aliens," reported the Syracuse Herald Journal on June 25, 1997. "Dummies were routinely dropped from balloons to test parachutes and were sometimes lost in the desert and disfigured in suggestive ways, their hands often missing a finger. A distinguishing characteristic of the aliens supposedly sighted near Roswell, the report notes, is four fingers."

NOTE: The report did not convince those who witnessed the Roswell incident, as they quickly pointed out that the parachute tests occurred years after the sightings. While the Air Force stated there was no other explanation, believers continued to voice their opinion that the report was part of a government cover-up.

1975: Jetliner crashes at JFK Airport
"An Eastern Airlines 727 jetliner coming in for a landing in a thunderstorm crashed and burned just short of Kennedy airport Tuesday, killing more than 100 persons aboard," informed the Florence Morning News on June 25, 1975. "At least two eyewitnesses reported seeing lightning strike the aircraft just before it tore through three landing approach light stanchions and plowed into an area of parkland north of the airport. As it skidded along the ground, the big airliner spun across heavily traveled Rockaway Boulevard, but did not strike any vehicles. Then it flipped upside down."NOTE: Official reports after the accident did not mention lightning as the probable cause. Instead, a high descent rate due to strong winds was thought to have caused the crash, which left 113 people dead.

1957: Court rules obscenity not protected by First Amendment
The United States Supreme Court ruled today that obscenity is not protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution, which guarantees free speech and freedom of the press. "The law was attacked by Samuel Roth, New York publisher, who was convicted of sending obscene literature through the mails and got five years' imprisonment and $5,000 fine," explained The Greeley Daily Tribune on June 24, 1957. "The statute involved in the Roth case makes unlawful the mailing of 'every obscene, lewd, lascivious or filthy book, pamphlet, picture, paper, letter, writing, print or other publication of an indecent character.'" NOTE: In 1973, another Supreme Court case led to the creation of the Miller test, which defines when materials are considered obscene.

1908: Grover Cleveland dies
Former U.S. President Grover Cleveland died of heart failure today at his home in Princeton, New Jersey. On June 26, 1908, the Bedford Gazette published a message to the American people from President Theodore Roosevelt. "In [Cleveland's] death the nation has been deprived of one of its greatest citizens," read the message. "As mayor of his city, as governor of his state, and twice as President, he showed signal power as an administrator, coupled with entire devotion to the country's good and a courage that quailed before no hostility when once he was convinced where his duty lay."