“The people of Texas are informed that in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and free laborer.”—a proclamation read by Major General Gordon Granger at Galveston, Texas, June 19, 1865

 
Today is Juneteenth, the celebration of the abolition of slavery in the United States, first celebrated in Texas on this date in 1865. It is officially recognized as a holiday till this day in most but not all of the United States.
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Sir Paul McCartney is 74 today.

That is sufficient reason for this:
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Now that Raif and I were forcibly separated from one another, we were behaving as we had done at the start of our relationship: we constantly wrote each other messages. We sent chats or spoke on the phone … When I woke up, I was usually greeted by one of his little hearts sent to my phone during the night.
 
This morning, however, I didn’t find a single heart, and no missed calls. […] I had an extremely bad feeling, and called his number. […] I don’t know how often I tried that morning. Twenty times? Fifty times?
 
At about the fifty-second attempt someone suddenly answered. I was almost speechless with surprise when I heard a deep man’s voice at the other end. But it wasn’t Raif’s voice. “Who the hell is this?” it asked angrily. “You’re getting on our nerves!”
 
I gave a terrible start. “Where is my husband?” I asked shrilly.
 
“He’s in jail.”—Raif Badawi, The Voice of Freedom: My Husband, Our Story, Ensaf Haidar, Andrea Claudia Hoffmann

Four years ago today, writer Raif Badawi was arrested for violating article 6 of the Saudi Anti-Cybercrime Law. He has been incarcerated since that day. In the subsequent four years he was convicted of “insulting” Islam in his writings, sentenced to 600 lashes and seven years imprisonment, and even had his sentence re-considered but made harsher: 10 years in prison and 1000 lashes.
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