Today is Saturday, June 25, the 176th day of 2011. There are 189 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History

On June 25, 1950, war broke out in Korea as forces from the communist North invaded the South.

On this date

In 1788, Virginia ratified the U.S. Constitution.

In 1876, Lt. Col. George A. Custer and his 7th Cavalry were wiped out by Sioux and Cheyenne Indians in the Battle of the Little Bighorn in Montana.

In 1910, President William Howard Taft signed the White-Slave Traffic Act, more popularly known as the Mann Act, which made it illegal to transport women across state lines for “immoral” purposes.

In 1938, the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 was enacted.

In 1951, CBS transmitted the first commercial color telecast from New York to four other cities using its field sequential system that was incompatible with existing black and white TVs.

In 1962, the Supreme Court, in Engel v. Vitale, ruled that recital of a state-sponsored prayer in New York State public schools was unconstitutional.

In 1981, the Supreme Court ruled that male-only draft registration was constitutional.

In 2009, death claimed Michael Jackson, the “King of Pop,” in Los Angeles at age 50 and actress Farrah Fawcett in Santa Monica, Calif., at age 62.

Five years ago

Palestinian militants kidnapped an Israeli soldier, Cpl. Gilad Shalit, after tunneling under the border and attacking a military post, killing two other soldiers. An al-Qaida-linked group posted a Web video showing the killings of three Russian Embassy workers who’d been abducted in Iraq; a statement from the group said a fourth worker had also been slain.

One year ago

BP said its effort to drill a relief well through 2 1/2 miles of rock to stop the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico was on target for completion by mid-August.

Today’s Birthdays

Actress June Lockhart is 86. Rhythm-and-blues singer Eddie Floyd is 74. Actress Barbara Montgomery is 72. Basketball Hall-of-Famer Willis Reed is 69. Writer-producer-director Gary David Goldberg is 67. Singer Carly Simon is 66. Rock musician Allen Lanier (Blue Oyster Cult) is 65. Rock musician Ian McDonald (Foreigner; King Crimson) is 65. Actor-comedian Jimmie Walker is 64. Actor-director Michael Lembeck is 63. TV personality Phyllis George is 62. Rock singer Tim Finn is 59. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor is 57. Rock musician David Paich (Toto) is 57. Actor Michael Sabatino is 56. Actor-writer-director Ricky Gervais is 50. Actor John Benjamin Hickey is 48. Rock singer George Michael is 48. Actress Erica Gimpel is 47. Former NBA player Dikembe Mutombo is 45. Rapper Candyman is 43. Actress Angela Kinsey (TV: “The Office”) is 40. Rock musician Mario Calire is 37. Actress Linda Cardellini is 36. Actress Busy Philipps is 32.

Thought for Today

“A straight line is the shortest in morals as in mathematics.”

— Maria Edgeworth, Anglo-Irish novelist (1767-1849)