Updated June 21, 2014, 6:13 pm
On June 21, 1964, three civil rights workers disappeared in Philadelphia, Miss. Their bodies were found buried in an earthen dam six weeks later. Eight members of the Ku Klux Klan went to prison on federal conspiracy
charges; none served more than six years.
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On June 21, 1905, Jean-Paul Sartre, the French existientialist philosopher and writer, was born. Following his death on April 15, 1980, his obituary appeared in The Times.
Go to obituary » | Other birthdays »
On This Date
| 1834 | Cyrus Hall McCormick received a patent for his reaping machine. |
|---|---|
| 1905 | Philosopher, author and playwright Jean-Paul Sartre was born in Paris. |
| 1963 | Cardinal Giovanni Battista Montini was chosen to succeed the late Pope John XXIII as head of the Roman Catholic Church, taking the name Paul VI. |
| 1964 | Three civil rights workers disappeared in Philadelphia, Miss. Their bodies were found buried in an earthen dam six weeks later. |
| 1964 | Jim Bunning of the Philadelphia Phillies pitched a perfect game in a 6-0 victory over the New York Mets. |
| 1973 | The Supreme Court ruled that states may ban materials found to be obscene according to local standards. |
| 1977 | Menachem Begin became Israel's sixth prime minister. |
| 1982 | John Hinckley Jr. was found innocent by reason of insanity in the shootings of President Ronald Reagan and three others. |
| 1985 | Scientists announced that skeletal remains exhumed in Brazil were those of Nazi war criminal Josef Mengele. |
| 1989 | The Supreme Court ruled that burning the American flag as a form of political protest is protected by the First Amendment. |
| 1997 | The Women's National Basketball Association made its debut. |
| 2005 | Edgar Ray Killen, an 80-year-old former Ku Klux Klansman, was found guilty of manslaughter in the deaths of three civil rights workers in Philadelphia, Miss., 41 years to the day earlier. |
| 2010 | Faisal Shahzad, a Pakistan-born U.S. citizen, pleaded guilty to charges of plotting a failed car bombing in New York's Times Square. (He was later sentenced to life in prison.) |
Historic Birthdays
Jean-Paul Sartre
6/21/1905 - 4/15/1980
French novelist and playwright.Go to obituary »
| 84 |
Increase Mather 6/21/1639 - 8/23/1723 American minister, author and educator |
|---|---|
| 62 |
Moses Hess 6/21/1812 - 4/6/1875 German journalist; espoused socialism and Zionism |
| 72 |
Sir Richard Wallace 6/21/1818 - 7/20/1890 English art collector and philanthropist |
| 55 |
Joseph Hayne Rainey 6/21/1832 - 8/2/1887 American politician; first African-American in the U.S. House of Representatives (1870-9) |
| 62 |
Jose Graca Aranha 6/21/1868 - 1/26/1931 Brazilian novelist and diplomat |
| 88 |
Rockwell Kent 6/21/1882 - 3/13/1971 American painter and illustrator |
| 87 |
Pier Luigi Nervi 6/21/1891 - 1/9/1979 Italian engineer and architect |
| 78 |
Reinhold Niebuhr 6/21/1892 - 6/1/1971 American pastor and theologian |
| 77 |
Mary McCarthy 6/21/1912 - 10/25/1989 American novelist and critic |
| 43 |
Judy Holliday 6/21/1921 - 6/7/1965 American stage and screen comedian |