MOMENTS IN TIME - June 17, 2010

The History Channel

* On June 15, 1877, Henry Ossian Flipper, born a slave in Thomasville, Ga., in 1856, is the first black cadet to graduate from the United States Military Academy at West Point. Flipper was appointed a second lieutenant in the all-black 10th Cavalry at Fort Sill in the Indian Territory.

* On June 19, 1885, the Statue of Liberty arrives in New York Harbor as a symbol of Franco-American friendship. Nine years late in arriving, the 300-foot statue was a gift from the people of France as a celebration of the Declaration of Independence centenary in 1876.

* On June 14, 1909, folksinger and Academy Award-winning actor Burl Ives is born near Hunt City, Ill. Ives is perhaps best known for his voiceover work as the jovial Sam the Snowman in the animated Christmas special “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” which included the song “A Holly Jolly Christmas.”

* On June 18, 1923, the first Checker Cab rolls off the line at the Checker Cab Manufacturing Company in Kalamazoo, Mich. The company then employed some 700 people. The last Checker Cab rolled off the line in Kalamazoo in 1982.

* On June 20, 1941, after a long and bitter struggle on the part of Henry Ford against cooperation with organized labor unions, Ford Motor Company signs its first contract with the United Automobile Workers of America and Congress of Industrial Organizations (UAW-CIO).

* On June 16, 1965, Bob Dylan records “Like a Rolling Stone.” The sales staff at Columbia Records did not like the song due to its length, 6 minutes 34 seconds. Two radio DJs heard a bootlegged song and demanded copies. Sales got its last dig in by chopping “Like a Rolling Stone” in half and putting it on separate sides of 45s, but a re-spliced full version was what radio stations played.

* On June 17, 1972, five men are arrested for breaking into the Democratic National Committee offices at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C. Senate investigations eventually revealed that President Richard Nixon had been personally involved in the subsequent cover-up of the break-in.

(c) 2010 King Features Synd., Inc.