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Almanac

By The Associated Press

Today in History

Today is Friday, June 28, the 179th day of 2019. There are 186 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlights in History:

On June 28, 1978, the Supreme Court ordered the University of California-Davis Medical School to admit Allan Bakke (BAHK’-ee), a white man who argued he’d been a victim of reverse racial discrimination.

On this date:

In 1778, the Revolutionary War Battle of Monmouth took place in New Jersey; from this battle arose the legend of “Molly Pitcher,” a woman who was said to have carried water to colonial soldiers, then took over firing her husband’s cannon after he was disabled.

In 1838, Britain’s Queen Victoria was crowned in Westminster Abbey.

In 1863, during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln appointed Maj. Gen. George G. Meade the new commander of the Army of the Potomac, following the resignation of Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker.

In 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife, Sophie, were shot to death in Sarajevo (sah-ruh-YAY’-voh) by Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princip (gavh-REE’-loh PREEN’-seep) — an act which sparked World War I.

In 1919, the Treaty of Versailles (vehr-SY’) was signed in France, ending the First World War. In Independence, Missouri, future president Harry S. Truman married Elizabeth Virginia Wallace.

In 1939, Pan American Airways began regular trans-Atlantic air service with a flight that departed New York for Marseilles (mar-SAYLZ’), France.

In 1940, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Alien Registration Act, also known as the Smith Act, which required adult foreigners residing in the U.S. to be registered and fingerprinted.

In 1968, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Uniform Monday Holiday Bill, which moved commemorations for Washington’s Birthday, Memorial Day and Veterans Day to Monday, creating three-day holiday weekends beginning in 1971.

In 1994, President Bill Clinton became the first chief executive in U.S. history to set up a personal legal defense fund and ask Americans to contribute to it.

In 1997, in a wild rematch, Evander Holyfield retained the WBA heavyweight boxing championship after his opponent, Mike Tyson, was disqualified for biting Holyfield’s ear during the third round of their fight in Las Vegas.

In 2013, tens of thousands of supporters and opponents of President Mohammed Morsi rallied in Cairo, and both sides fought each other in Egypt’s second-largest city of Alexandria, where two people — including an American — were killed and scores injured. The four plaintiffs in the U.S. Supreme Court case that overturned California’s same-sex marriage ban tied the knot, just hours after a federal appeals court freed gay couples to obtain marriage licenses in the state for the first time in 4 1/2 years.

In 2017, ABC and a South Dakota meat producer announced a settlement in a $1.9 billion lawsuit against the network over its reports on a beef product that critics dubbed “pink slime.”

Ten years ago: Soldiers ousted Manuel Zelaya (zuh-LY’-uh), the democratically elected president of Honduras; congressional leader Roberto Micheletti was sworn in to serve until Zelaya’s term ended in January 2010.

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