On this day

June 17, 1948

Revisit the news, notable people, and historical moments connected to this date.

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Headlines from June 17, 1948

Notable Births

Dave Concepción

1948Dave Concepción, Venezuelan baseball player and manager[†]

David Ismael Concepción Benitez is a Venezuelan former professional baseball player and manager. He played his entire career in Major League Baseball as a shortstop for the Cincinnati Reds dynasty that won four National League pennants and two World Series championships between 1970 and 1976.

Jacqueline Jones

1948Jacqueline Jones, American historian and academic[†]

Jacqueline Jones is an American social historian and winner of the Pulitzer Prize in history. She held the Walter Prescott Webb Chair in History and Ideas from 2008 to 2017, is the Ellen C. Temple Professor of Women’s History Emerita at the University of Texas at Austin, and is the past president of the American Historical Association. University of Texas at Austin. Her expertise is in American social history in addition to writing on economics, race, slavery, and class. She is a Macarthur Fellow, Bancroft Prize Winner, and Pulitzer Prize winner in 2024 after twice being a finalist.

Aurelio López

1948Aurelio López, Mexican baseball player and politician (died 1992)[†]

Aurelio Alejandro López Rios was a Mexican professional baseball player. After pitching for several years in the Mexican League, he spent eleven seasons with four teams in Major League Baseball — a majority of it spent with the Detroit Tigers. He acquired the nickname "Señor Smoke" in Detroit, while he was known as "El Buitre de Tecamachalco" in Mexico. López was discovered in his hometown by Mexican League scouts and converted from a starting pitcher to a relief pitcher.

1948Karol Sikora, English physician and academic[†]

Karol Sikora is a British physician specialising in oncology, who has been described as a leading world authority on cancer. He was a founder and medical director of Rutherford Health, a company that provided proton therapy services, and is Director of Medical Oncology at the Bahamas Cancer Centre.

Historical Events

United Air Lines Flight 624

1948United Airlines Flight 624, a Douglas DC-6, crashes near Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania, killing all 43 people on board.[†]

United Air Lines Flight 624 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight from San Diego, California, to New York City, with stopovers in Los Angeles and Chicago. The four-engined, propeller-driven Douglas DC-6 crashed at 1:41 pm Eastern Daylight Time on June 17, 1948, outside Aristes, Pennsylvania, resulting in the deaths of all 4 crew members and 39 passengers on board. The crew had deployed the aircraft's CO2-based fire extinguisher system, without opening the pressure relief valves designed to ventilate CO2 out of the cabin. The part-incapacitated crew then began an emergency descent and subsequently crashed into a hillside.