On This Day, June 17th

1. 1885: Lady Liberty arrives in New York

Weighing in at over 225 tons and, at her completion, standing 111 feet six-inches tall, The Statue of Liberty arrived in New York harbor on this date in 1885. When she arrived she was in more than 350 pieces that were split up between roughly 200 cases. The assembly process would require nearly a year’s worth of work.

Made by the French at a cost  of $250,000 (the equivalent of $5.5 million today), it was intended to commemorate the friendship between France and the U.S.

2. 1994: O.J. Simpson’s police chase in Los Angeles

It was on this day that the world watched as O.J. Simpson took the Los Angeles Police Department on a slow-speed chase along the 405 Interstate. Simpson had taken his former teammate Al Cowlings by gunpoint and told him to drive for him in his white Ford Bronco while he rode in the back. Simpson was wanted for double murder charges of ex-wife Nicole Brown-Simpson and friend Ronald Goldman. Simpson was at his friend and lawyer Robert Kardashian’s home when police arrived to make the arrest.

Simpson was able to slip out the back with Cowlings at gunpoint. After about an hour with the LAPD in pursuit, the Bronco finally pulled into Simpson’s home where he emerged and was immediately arrested and booked for double murder. In October of 1995, he was acquitted of the criminal charges, but two years later was found liable for the murders in a civil trial and was forced to pay $33.5 million for damages to the Goldman and Brown families.

3. 1972: Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein get the story  of their lives

It was on this date in 1972 that two young reporters were given a story of five men that were caught trying to break into the Democratic National Committee offices. At the time it didn’t appear to be a significant event, but Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein did their due diligence and soon realized there was much more to the story. They ended up breaking the major scoop about the pattern of unethical practices against political enemies by none other than the White House. This would later be known as the Watergate Scandal. The two would go on to write a book detailing the whole process of how they uncovered their information. The book, All the Presidents Men ended up being on the best-sellers list, and in 1976 Hollywood turned it into a film starring Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford.