On This Day, June 17: O.J. Simpson leads police on low-speed chase in white Bronco

Lead defense attorney Johnnie Cochran (L) and defendant O.J. Simpson listen to testimony March 21, 1995. On June 17, 1994, Simpson led California Highway Patrol on a low-speed chase in his white Bronco. File Photo by Myung J. Chun/UPI
Lead defense attorney Johnnie Cochran (L) and defendant O.J. Simpson listen to testimony March 21, 1995. On June 17, 1994, Simpson led California Highway Patrol on a low-speed chase in his white Bronco. File Photo by Myung J. Chun/UPI

On this date in history:

In 1885, the Statue of Liberty, a gift from France to the United States, arrived in New York Harbor.

In 1967, China announced it successfully tested a hydrogen bomb.

In 1972, the Watergate scandal began with the arrest of five burglars inside Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington.

In 1982, Argentina's President Leopoldo Galtieri resigned in response to Britain's victory in the Falkland Islands war.

On June 17, 1972, the Watergate scandal began with the arrest of five burglars inside Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington. File Photo by Alexis C. Glenn/UPI
On June 17, 1972, the Watergate scandal began with the arrest of five burglars inside Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington. File Photo by Alexis C. Glenn/UPI

In 1991, a coroner in Kentucky exhumed the remains of the 12th U.S. president, Zachary Taylor, to prove or disprove rumors he was killed by arsenic poisoning. The testing proved he wasn't.

In 1994, former NFL player O.J. Simpson led California Highway Patrol on a low-speed chase in his white Bronco. The 90-minute televised chase occurred shortly after he was charged for the murder of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman.

On June 17, 1991, a coroner in Kentucky exhumed the remains of President Zachary Taylor to prove or disprove rumors he was killed by arsenic poisoning. Image courtesy of the Cornell University Library
On June 17, 1991, a coroner in Kentucky exhumed the remains of President Zachary Taylor to prove or disprove rumors he was killed by arsenic poisoning. Image courtesy of the Cornell University Library
File Photo by Myung J. Chun/UPI
File Photo by Myung J. Chun/UPI

In 2011, Ayman al-Zawahiri, an Egyptian surgeon and co-founder of al-Qaida, moved up to assume leadership of the terrorist network six weeks after U.S. forces killed Osama bin Laden.

A memorial is erected outside the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church on June 19, 2015 in memory of the the nine people killed in a June 17 shooting inside the church. Dylann Roof, 21, was arrested in connection with the shootings. File Photo by Kevin Liles/UPI
A memorial is erected outside the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church on June 19, 2015 in memory of the the nine people killed in a June 17 shooting inside the church. Dylann Roof, 21, was arrested in connection with the shootings. File Photo by Kevin Liles/UPI

In 2015, Dylann Roof killed nine people at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, in a mass shooting. He was sentenced to death in January 2017.

In 2017, the USS Fitzgerald Navy destroyer collided with a container ship in the Pacific off the coast of Japan, killing seven U.S. sailors.

File Photo by MC2 Christian Senyk/U.S. Navy
File Photo by MC2 Christian Senyk/U.S. Navy

In 2019, Mohamed Morsi, who became Egypt's first democratically elected president shortly after the Arab Spring only to be deposed a year later, fainted and died during his trial on espionage charges.

In 2021, President Joe Biden signed a law formally making Juneteenth a federal holiday, marking the end of slavery in the United States.

File Photo by Oliver Contreras/UPI
File Photo by Oliver Contreras/UPI