Today in History: June 24, Sally Ride completes historic space shuttle mission

Today is Tuesday, June 24, the 175th day of 2025. There are 190 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On June 24, 1983, the space shuttle Challenger — carrying America’s first woman in space, Sally Ride — coasted to a safe landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

Also on this date:

In 1509, Henry VIII was crowned king of England; his wife, Catherine of Aragon, was crowned queen consort.

In 1939, the Southeast Asian country of Siam changed its name to Thailand. (It reverted to Siam in 1945, then became Thailand once again in 1949.)

In 1948, Communist forces cut off all land and water routes between West Germany and West Berlin, prompting the Western allies to organize the Berlin Airlift.

In 1957, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Roth v. United States, ruled in a 6-3 decision that obscene materials were not protected by the First Amendment.

In 1973, President Richard Nixon concluded a summit with the visiting leader of the Soviet Union, Leonid Brezhnev, who hailed the talks in an address on American television.

In 1992, the Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, strengthened its 30-year ban on officially sponsored worship in public schools, prohibiting prayer as a part of graduation ceremonies.

In 2010, in the first round of the Wimbledon Championships, American John Isner won the longest professional tennis match in history, defeating Nicolas Mahut of France 6-4, 3-6, 6-7, 7-6, 70-68; the match was played over the course of three days and lasted a total of 11 hours, 5 minutes.

In 2015, a federal judge formally sentenced Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to death for the 2013 terror attacks. (A federal appeals court later threw out the sentence; the Supreme Court reinstated it.)

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