John Gullion

Today is Friday, June 26, the 177th day of 2026. There are 188 days left in the year. Today in history: On June 26, 2015, in its 5-4 Obergefell v. Hodges decision, the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage across the country, ruling that state-level bans on same-sex marriage violated the due process and equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. Also on this date: In 1917, U.S. troops entered World War I as the first soldiers of the American Expeditionary Force landed in Saint-Nazaire, France. In 1945, the charter of the United Nations was signed by 50 countries in San Francisco. In 1948, the Berlin Airlift began in earnest after the Soviet Union cut off land and water routes to the isolated western sector of Berlin. In 1963, President John F. Kennedy visited West Berlin, where he delivered his famous speech expressing solidarity with the city’s residents, declaring: “Ich bin ein Berliner” (“I am a Berliner”). In 1993, President Bill Clinton announced the U.S. had launched missiles against Iraqi targets because of “compelling evidence” Iraq had plotted to assassinate former President George H.W. Bush. In 1996, in the case of United States v. Virginia, the U.S. Supreme Court found that the Virginia Military Institute’s male-only admission policy violated the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause. (VMI enrolled its first female cadets the following year.) In 1997, the first Harry Potter novel, “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” by J.K. Rowling, was published in the United Kingdom. It was later released in the United States under the title “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.” Today’s Birthdays: Jazz musician-composer Dave Grusin is 92. Brazilian singer-songwriter and politician Gilberto Gil is 84. Basketball Hall of Fame coach Tara VanDerveer is 73. Musician Mick Jones (The Clash, Big Audio Dynamite) is 71.