Today, Then: June 16, 1995

Good morning from 1995

The biggest courtroom in America asked a man to try on a pair of gloves yesterday, and the whole case may have wobbled. Meanwhile Boris Yeltsin is touching down at a world summit while gunmen hold a hospital full of hostages back home, and tonight the multiplex trades Gotham gloom for neon. Pour something cold; it's a busy Friday.

In today's time jump:

• ⚖️ A glove that won't go on rattles the O.J. trial
• 🌍 Yeltsin lands at the G7 in Halifax with a hostage crisis raging at home
• 🦇 Batman goes candy-colored, Batman Forever opens today
• 🏅 Salt Lake City's Olympic dream gets decided in Budapest today
• 🚀 Plus: the cosmos gets its own daily homepage

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

What's Happening Here

THE O.J. TRIAL

⚖️ The gloves don't fit, and prosecutors flinched

Today, Then: A courtroom demonstration backfired on the prosecution yesterday when O.J. Simpson tugged at the blood-stained leather gloves in front of the jury, and they appeared too tight to pull on. The details:

• Catch-up: Simpson, the football legend turned actor and rental-car pitchman, has been on trial in downtown L.A. since January for the June 1994 murders of ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman. He's pleaded not guilty, and the case has been the nation's wall-to-wall TV obsession.
• Prosecutors have spent weeks on dense DNA testimony. Yesterday they went for something the jury could see: prosecutor Christopher Darden had Simpson pull on the actual gloves, one found at the murder scene, one at his Rockingham estate.
• Wearing latex underneath, Simpson grimaced, struggled, held up his hands and told the jury they were too small.
• Legal watchers called it a rare unforced error; co-prosecutor Marcia Clark had reportedly been wary of the stunt. The defense barely hid its delight. The case so far.

Why it matters: In a trial built on invisible science, the jury just got a piece of live theater, and it cut the wrong way for the state.

What's Happening in the World

RUSSIA

🌍 Yeltsin flies to the G7 while a hospital siege rages at home

Today, Then: Boris Yeltsin landed in Halifax, Nova Scotia for the G7 summit, even as Chechen gunmen hold more than a thousand hostages inside a hospital in southern Russia. The details:

• Catch-up: On Wednesday, Chechen fighters led by field commander Shamil Basayev shot their way into Budyonnovsk, a town about 70 miles from Chechnya, and herded over a thousand civilians into the local hospital, demanding Moscow halt its six-month war. Dozens were killed in the initial raid.
• The standoff is still on this morning. Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin is managing the crisis by phone while Yeltsin travels abroad. What's unfolding.
• In Halifax, the leaders of the U.S., Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Canada, Clinton in the room, are talking Bosnia, the world economy, and nuclear safety, while Russia's chaos hijacks the cameras.

Why it matters: The summit was meant to showcase Russia joining the club of stable democracies. Instead Yeltsin's war is detonating live, and Washington's bet on him suddenly looks shakier.

What Everyone's Talking About

MOVIES

🦇 The Batsuit gets nipples and the whole multiplex goes neon

Today, Then: Batman Forever opens today, trading Tim Burton's gothic gloom for Joel Schumacher's candy-colored spectacle, and the lines are forming early. The details:

• Catch-up: Burton's brooding Batman is out; Schumacher takes the wheel, and Val Kilmer steps in under the cowl, replacing Michael Keaton.
• The villains are the draw: Jim Carrey, fresh off Ace Ventura, The Mask, and Dumb and Dumber, as the Riddler, and Tommy Lee Jones chewing scenery as Two-Face. Nicole Kidman and Chris O'Donnell (as Robin) round it out. The full rundown.
• Seal's "Kiss from a Rose" and U2's "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me" anchor a stacked soundtrack; McDonald's has the collector cups and Kenner has the figures.
• It's tracking to flatten everything else at the box office this weekend.

Why it matters: This is the blueprint for the modern summer blockbuster machine, less brooding artist, more merchandising universe.

Quick Bites

• 🏅 Olympics: Today in Budapest, the IOC picks the host of the 2002 Winter Games. Salt Lake City, runner-up last time and the heavy favorite, is up against Switzerland's Sion, Sweden's Östersund, and Quebec City. The vote lands today.
• 🚀 Tech: A new corner of the World Wide Web flickers to life, NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day debuts, promising a fresh image of the cosmos with a plain-English caption every single day.
• 💰 Trade: Two weeks until Washington's threatened 100% tariffs slam luxury Lexus, Infiniti, and Acura models on June 28. U.S. and Japanese negotiators keep grinding in Geneva, a fight echoing all the way to the G7 tables in Halifax.
• 🎵 Music: Bryan Adams still owns America's No. 1 with "Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?" Across the pond, Soldier Soldier co-stars Robson & Jerome stay glued to the UK top spot with "Unchained Melody."
• 🏒 Stanley Cup: The Final opens tomorrow night, New Jersey's trap-clogging Devils, fresh off ousting the Flyers, against the Presidents'-Trophy Detroit Red Wings. The Devils are decided underdogs.
• 🎭 Broadway: Chronicles of a Death Foretold, the near-wordless dance-musical from García Márquez's novella, opened last night at the Plymouth, with Graciela Daniele staging a Colombian honor killing almost entirely in movement.

Before You Log Off

Your 8 PM remote fight: ABC's TGIF block is in summer reruns, Family Matters into Step by Step, but the real event is the line at the multiplex for Batman Forever; hold-outs can catch The X-Files on Fox at nine. What you want to buy today: a Batman Forever Kenner figure (Sonar Sensor Batman, obviously), a six-pack of Ecto Cooler Hi-C, and a Skip-It with the counter on the ball. Your answering machine greeting, if anyone asks:

not home. probably arguing about whether the glove actually fit. leave it after the beep.