Sunday · September 27, 2026
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American history, reported as it happened
Made for the 250th
20091776 Club

Michael Jackson is dead at 50; he rehearsed at Staples Center just hours before

His physician, Conrad Murray, gave him propofol at his Holmby Hills home and did not call for help until nearly 90 minutes after finding him not breathing.

The last thing Michael Jackson did before he died was rehearse. He had spent the evening of June 24, 2009, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, running through material for the "This Is It" comeback tour, and a witness said he looked great and had great energy. He returned to his Holmby Hills home around 1:00 a.m. and went to bed — where his personal physician, Conrad Murray, administered a sequence of sedatives culminating in 25 milligrams of propofol. Murray left the bedside, returned two minutes later to find Jackson not breathing, and waited nearly 90 minutes before help was called…

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More from June 25
1788

Virginia ratifies, 89 to 79; the union's largest state is in

Patrick Henry's three weeks of thunder fall short as Edmund Randolph switches sides, and the promise of a Bill of Rights seals the margin.
2013

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1950

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19981776 Club
The Presentment Clause forbids the president from unilaterally excising provisions from enacted law, the Court rules, voiding cuts to a New York liability exemption and a Snake River potato-farmer tax break.
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Read the full June 25 edition →Everything that happened on June 25 →
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