Moments in Time – June 21, 2023

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• On July 3, 1971, Jim Morrison, lead singer for the rock group The Doors, died in Paris at just 27 years old of what was officially listed as heart failure likely due to a heroin overdose, though no autopsy was performed as it was not required under French law.
• On July 4, 1845, American author and philosopher Henry David Thoreau began a two-year experiment in simple living at Walden Pond near Concord, Massachusetts, famously writing that he “went to the wood because I wished to live deliberately.” The resulting book about his experience has been called, among other things, part social experiment and part voyage of spiritual discovery.
• On July 5, 1975, Arthur Ashe became the first Black man to win a Wimbledon singles title after defeating the overwhelming favorite Jimmy Connors, who was then the No. 1 tennis player in the world. Ashe would later say that prior to the match, “I had the strangest feeling that I couldn’t lose.”
• On July 6, 2004, Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry chose Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina to be his running mate. Edwards was considered by some to provide balance to Kerry’s campaign. Others found Edwards to be essentially reliant on smooth speeches and personal charisma. Years later, in his autobiography, Kerry admitted he’d made an unfortunate choice that botched his chance at the White House.
• On July 7, 1865, Maryland tavern owner Mary Surratt became the first woman to be executed by the U.S. federal government, for her alleged complicity in the plot to assassinate Abraham Lincoln. Historians remain divided on the question of her guilt.
• On July 8, 1997, the Mayo Clinic and the U.S. government warned that the diet-drug combination popularly known as fen-phen, originally touted as a “miracle medicine” for weight loss, could cause serious heart and lung damage.
• On July 9, 2011, the northeast African country known as Republic of South Sudan seceded from Sudan, becoming the youngest country in the world. Since that time, however, it has been plagued with widespread ethnic violence and human rights violations.

© 2023 King Features Synd., Inc.