U.S. Pres. Ronald Reagan appeal to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to dismantle the Berlin Wall, June 12, 1987
PRESIDENT RONALD W. REAGAN: General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate.
On this day in 1991, Boris Yeltsin was easily elected president of Russia (then part of the Soviet Union) in the republic's first direct, popular elections, and he was president of independent Russia until the eve of 2000.
American actor Gregory Peck—who often portrayed characters of honesty and integrity, most notably Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)—died at age 87