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The Moscow-Washington hot line is a system that allows direct communication between the leaders of the United States and the Soviet Union. It was originally designed by the Harris Corporation and is also known as the “red telephone,” linking the White House via the National Military Command Center with the Kremlin during the Cold War.

The “Hot Line,” as it would come to be known, was established following an agreement on June 20, 1963 by the signing of the “Memorandum of Understanding Regarding the Establishment of a Direct Communications Line” in Geneva, Switzerland, after the events of the Cuban Missile Crisis made it clear that reliable, direct communications between the two nuclear powers was a necessity. White House advisers at the time thought that the crisis could have been more quickly resolved and easily averted if communication had been faster.

The first generation of the hot line had no voice element at all and the memorandum called for a full-time duplex wire telegraph circuit. The first use of the hot line was in 1967, during the six-day Egypt-Israel War, when both superpowers informed each other of military moves that might have been provocative or ambiguous.

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Gena Rowlands was born in Cambria, Wisconsin. Her father was a banker and a state legislator and her mother was a painter and a housewife. Growing up, her family moved around a lot and she lived in Washington, D.C., Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Minneapolis, Minnesota. Rowlands attended the University of Wisconsin from 1947 to 1950, where was a popular student known for her beauty.

Rowlands left for New York City to study drama at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. She went from understudy to lead role in the original Broadway production of The Seven Year Itch and made her film debut in The High Cost of Living in 1958. She guest starred on several anthology television series, including the Kraft Television Theatre. In 1961, she starred in the well-received TV series, 87th Precinct and, in 1964, in Peyton Place.

Teaming with her husband, writer and director John Cassavetes, whom she married in 1954, Rowlands starred in many productions, including Faces, Gloria, Love Streams, and A Woman Under the Influence. In recent years, she appeared in The Notebook, which was directed by her son, Nick Cassavetes, and co-starred James Garner, Ryan Gosling, and Rachel McAdams. She has been nominated for two Academy Awards, six Emmys, eight Golden Globes, and a Screen Actors Guild award.

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Roger Ebert is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American film critic and screenwriter. He is known for his weekly review column that appears in the Chicago Sun-Times since 1967 and for the television program Siskel and Ebert at the Movies, which he co-hosted for 23 years with fellow film critic Gene Siskel. After Siskel’s death in 1999, Ebert auditioned several potential replacements, ultimately choosing Richard Roeper to fill the open chair.

Ebert’s movie reviews are syndicated in more than 200 newspapers in the United States and abroad. He has written more than 15 books, including his annual movie yearbook. In 1975, Ebert became the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. His TV programs have also been widely syndicated and have been nominated for Emmy awards.

In February 1995, a section of Chicago’s Erie Street near CBS Studios was given the honorary name Siskel and Ebert Way. Ebert was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in June 2005, the first professional film critic to receive one. He was also named the most influential pundit in America by Forbes magazine.

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The Battle of Bunker Hill took place on June 17, 1775 on Breed’s Hill as part of the Siege of Boston during the American Revolutionary War. General Israel Putnam was in charge of the revolutionary forces, while Major-General William Howe commanded the British forces. The conflict is sometimes more accurately (though less often) called the Battle of Breed’s Hill because most of the fighting did not occur on Bunker Hill itself.

The result was a victory for the British. However, they suffered their greatest losses of the entire war with 1,054 shot, over 800 wounded and 228 killed. The colonists lost 140 men with 30 captured. Most of their losses came during the withdrawal. The colonists held on and repelled the first two attacks. Finally, their ammunition supplies ran out and on their third assault, the British forces overran the revolutionaries’ fortified earthworks on Breed’s and Bunker’s Hills.

Howe’s immediate objective was achieved, but did not affect the siege. It did, however, demonstrate that the American Colonists were willing to stand up to a pitched battle. Colonel William Prescott gave the order, “Don’t shoot until you see the whites of their eyes!”

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Valentina Tereshkova was born in Bolshoye Maslennikovo. She became interested in parachuting at a young age and trained at the local Aeroclub, making her first jump at age 22. It was her expertise in parachute jumping that led to her selection as a cosmonaut.

After Yuri Gagarin’s flight into space in 1961, Sergey Korolyov, the head Soviet rocket engineer, came up with the idea of putting a woman in space. On February 16, 1962, Tereshkova was selected to join the female cosmonaut corps. Out of more than 400 applicants, five were selected. Tereshkova was considered a particularly worthy candidate, partly due to her “proletarian” background, and because her father had died as a war hero during World War II.

Training included weightless flights, isolation tests, centrifuge tests, rocket theory, spacecraft engineering and so on. After several months of intensive training concluding with examinations, four candidates were commissioned in the Soviet Air Force. Tereshkova was nominated to pilot the Vostok 6 which launched on June 16, 1963. Although she was in a state of nausea and physical discomfort for much of the flight, she orbited the Earth 48 times and spent almost three days in space.

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Born in Karlsruhe, Oliver Kahn is a former German football goalkeeper who started his career at Karlsruher SC and in 1994 was transferred to FC Bayern Munich, his last professional club. He is one of the most successful German players in recent history, having won eight German championships, six German cups, the UEFA Cup in 1996, the UEFA Champions League, and the Intercontinental Cup (both in 2001).

Kahn’s individual contributions have earned him four consecutive UEFA Best European Goalkeeper awards and two German “Footballer of the Year” trophies. He played for the German national team from 1994 to 2006, where he was starting goalkeeper of the 2002 World Cup squad which reached the finals and won the FIFA World Cup Golden Ball for his performance. He is nicknamed “King Kahn” or “The Titan.”

Kahn made his last professional appearance for FC Bayern Munich on May 27, 2008 at the Salt Lake Stadium, Kolkata in a friendly against Mohun Bagan AC of India during Bayern’s Asian tour of 2008. Around 120,000 people turned up for the match which ended 0-3 in favor of Bayern. As of 2007, Kahn is the all-time clean sheet leader in the history of the Bundesliga with 190.

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Action Comics is an American comic book series that introduced Superman, the first major superhero character as the term is popularly defined. The publisher was originally known as Detective Comics, Inc. and later as National Comics and as National Periodical Publications, before taking on its current name of DC Comics.

Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster saw their creation, Superman, launched in Action Comics #1 in April 1938 (cover-dated June). Its approximate present-day value in “near mint” condition is estimated at $1.4 million. Siegel and Shuster had tried for years to find a publisher for their Superman character without success. It was originally conceived as a newspaper strip.

They were asked to contribute a feature for National Periodical Publications’ newest publication. Siegel and Shuster submitted Superman for consideration, and after re-pasting the sample newspaper strips they had prepared into comic book page format, National decided to make Superman the cover feature of their new magazine. the character was an instant hit and permanently changed the medium of comic books and comic strips by formalizing a new fantasy subgenre. Action Comics was soon followed by the Superman comic book series in 1939. As of 2008, it is still in publication, surpassing the milestone of 850 issues.

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James Braddock was an American heavyweight boxing champion. He was known for staging an amazing comeback from a floundering career, which saw him lose several bouts before struggling to support his family by working on the docks during the Great Depression, earning him the nickname “The Cinderella Man” from Damon Runyon. After fighting and defeating in succession, John “Corn” Griffin, John Henry Lewis, and Art Lasky, Braddock was given a title fight against the World Heavyweight Champion, Max Baer.

Considered little more than a journeyman fighter, Braddock was hand-picked by Baer’s handlers because he was seen as an easy payday for the champion. However, on June 13, 1935, at Madison Square Garden Bowl, Braddock won the Heavyweight Championship of the world as a 10-to-1 underdog in one of the most stunning upsets in boxing history. During the fight, a persistent Braddock took heavy hits from the powerful Baer but kept coming, wearing the champion down who seemed confused by Braddock’s ability to take a punch.

Afterwards, Baer admitted that he had underestimated Braddock and had received the worst pummeling of his professional career. Braddock fought his last bout in 1938 and enlisted in the United States Army in 1942. He died in 1974 at the age of 69. In 2005, a fictionalized account of Braddock’s life was made into film called Cinderella Man, directed by Ron Howard and starring Russell Crowe (as Braddock), Renee Zwelleger, and Paul Giamatti.

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This 1981 adventure film was directed by Steven Spielberg, produced by George Lucas, and starring Harrison Ford. It is the first film in the Indiana Jones franchise and pits Indy (played by Ford) against the Nazis, who search for the Ark of the Covenant, to make their army invincible. The film also starred Karen Allen as Indy’s old flame Marion Ravenwood and Paul Freeman as Indy’s nemesis, French archaeologist Rene Belloq.

Raiders’ origins came from Lucas’ desire to create a modern version of the serials of the 1930s and 1940s. Spielberg originally suggested casting Ford as Indy, but Lucas objected, stating that he did not want the actor, who he had previously cast as Han Solo in the Star Wars trilogy, to be constantly associated with his films. Lucas persuaded Spielberg to look for someone else and Tom Selleck was cast in the role, but was unavailable because of his commitment to the television series Magnum, P.I.

When released on June 12, 1981, the $20 million film was a huge success, easily the highest grossing film of the year, earning $384 million worldwide and, at the time, one of the highest grossing films ever made. Raiders of the Lost Ark was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, in 1982 and won four of them. The film’s success spawned three additional films, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of Crystal Skull (2008).

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On June 11, 1184 BC, the Achaeans entered the city of Troy and killed the sleeping population. A great massacre followed which continued into the day. Desperate, the Trojans fought back fiercely despite being disorganized and leaderless. At the height of the fighting, some donned fallen enemies’ attire and launched surprise counterattacks in the chaotic street fighting. Other defenders hurled down roof tiles and anything else heavy on the attackers. Eventually, the remaining defenders were destroyed along with the whole city.

The Greeks burned the city and divided the spoils. A storm fell on the Achaeans returning fleet off Tenos Island. False lights were set up in Cape Caphereus that caused many shipwrecks. Nestor, who had the best conduct in Troy and did not take part in the looting, was the only hero who had a fast and safe return. Ajax, the Lesser, never returned. His ship was wrecked by a storm. The crew managed to land on a rock but lightning hit it causing Ajax to fall in the sea and drown.

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