Richard Pryor Sets Himself on Fire…..
June 9, 1980…..
The award-winning comedian Richard Pryor pours 151-proof rum on himself and lights himself on fire while on a freebasing binge. He then ran down the street ablaze until subdued by police. He was taken to a hospital, where he was treated for second and third degree burns covering more than half of his body. He incorporated this incident into his comedy show Richard Pryor: Live on the Sunset Strip (1982), which won a Grammy for best comedy recording.
World War II – Lidice Massacre…..
June 10, 1942…..
Under orders of Adolf Hitler, the village of Lidice, in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (now in the Czech Republic), is destroyed. The massacre was in retaliation for the assassination of Reich Protector Reinhard Heydrich in the late spring of 1942. The Nazis executed all 173 men in the village over the age of 15, plus several others who were already under arrest and 11 others who were not in the village at the time were later arrested and executed. Eighty-eight of the 105 children were sent to concentration camps where they died. Seven children who were considered racially suitable for Germanisation were handed over to SS families. Sixty of the 184 women sent to concentration camps died there. All the animals in the village were also slaughtered. The village was then burned and the buildings destroyed with explosives.
Timothy McVeigh Executed…..
June 11, 2001…..
Timothy McViegh had conspired with Terry Nichols in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. The attack killed 168, injured more than 680 others, and caused $652 million worth of damage. It was the largest domestic terrorist attack in the United States up to that date. He was executed by lethal injection.