Today in History....June 29

On this day in …


* 1767, the British Parliament approved the Townshend Acts, which imposed import duties on certain goods shipped to America.
(Colonists bitterly protested, prompting Parliament in 1770 to repeal the duties on all goods -- except tea.)

* 1966, the United States bombed fuel storage facilities near the North Vietnamese cities of Hanoi and Haiphong

* 1967, Jerusalem was reunified as Israel removed barricades separating the Old City from the Israeli sector

* 1970, the United States ended a two-month military offensive into Cambodia

* 1972, the Supreme Court, in Furman v. Georgia, ruled the death penalty, as it was being meted out, could constitute "cruel and unusual punishment." (The ruling prompted states to revise their capital punishment laws.)

* 1981, Hu Yaobang, a protege of Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, was elected Communist Party chairman, replacing Mao Zedong's hand-picked successor, Hua Guofeng

* 1995, the shuttle Atlantis and the space station Mir docked in orbit.

* 1997, in Albania, gunmen menaced voters, burned ballots and pressured polling officials, marring parliamentary elections meant to steer the country toward recovery after months of chaos

* 2002, President Bush transferred his presidential powers to Vice President Dick Cheney for more than two hours during a routine colon screening that ended in a clean bill of health

* 2006, the Supreme Court ruled 5-3 that President Bush's plan to try Guantanamo Bay detainees in military tribunals violated U.S. and international law. ALSO: The government announced it had recovered a stolen laptop computer and hard drive with sensitive data on up to
26.5 million veterans and military personnel