Today in History
Jun 27, 2021, 9:00 PM | Updated: 10:09 pm
Today in History
Today is Monday, June 28, the 179th day of 2021. There are 186 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlights in History:
On June 28, 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.
On this date:
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 1950, North Korean forces captured Seoul (sohl), the capital of South Korea.
In 1951, a TV version of the radio comedy program “Amos ‘N’ Andy” premiered on CBS. (It was the first network TV series to feature an all-Black cast, but came under criticism for racial stereotyping.)
In 1964, civil rights activist Malcolm X declared, “We want equality by any means necessary” during the Founding Rally of the Organization of Afro-American Unity in New York.
In 1978, the Supreme Court ordered the University of California-Davis Medical School to admit Allan Bakke (BAH’-kee), a white man who argued he’d been a victim of reverse racial discrimination.
In 2000, seven months after he was cast adrift in the Florida Straits, Elian Gonzalez was returned to his native Cuba.
In 2010, Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., the longest-serving senator in the nation’s history, died in Falls Church, Virginia, at 92. The Supreme Court ruled, 5-4, that Americans had the right to own a gun for self-defense anywhere they lived.
In 2013, tens of thousands of supporters and opponents of Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi rallied in Cairo, and both sides fought each other in the country’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 2019, avowed white supremacist James Alex Fields, who deliberately drove his car into a crowd of counterprotesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, killing a young woman and injuring dozens, apologized to his victims before being sentenced to life in prison on federal hate crime charges.
Ten years ago: Taliban fighters raided an international hotel in Kabul and killed 10 people on the eve of a conference to discuss plans for Afghan forces to take over security when international troops left by the end of 2014.
Five years ago: House Republicans concluded their $7 million, two-year investigation into the deadly attacks in Benghazi, Libya, with fresh accusations of lethal mistakes by the Obama administration but no “smoking gun” pointing to wrongdoing by Hillary Clinton, who said the report “found nothing, nothing to contradict” the findings of earlier investigations. Three suicide bombers armed with assault rifles stormed Istanbul’s Ataturk airport, killing 44 victims and wounding nearly 150; no one claimed responsibility, but Turkish officials said they suspected the Islamic State group. Death claimed Pat Summitt, the most successful coach in major college basketball history, at age 64; former pro football coach Buddy Ryan at age 85; and pioneering rock guitarist Scotty Moore at age 84.
One year ago: A St. Louis couple, Mark and Patricia McCloskey, waved guns at protesters who marched on their private street amid the national racial injustice demonstrations. (The McCloskeys, who were initially indicted on felony charges including unlawful use of a weapon, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges and agreed to give up the weapons they used during the confrontation.) President Donald Trump tweeted approvingly of a video showing one of his supporters chanting “white power,” a racist slogan associated with white supremacists. (Trump later deleted the tweet, and the White House said he had not heard “the one statement” on the video.) Trump denied that he’d been made aware of the conclusions of U.S. intelligence officials that Russia had offered bounties to militants for killing U.S. troops in Afghanistan. The world surpassed two coronavirus milestones – 500,000 confirmed deaths, 10 million confirmed cases, while also hitting another high mark for daily new infections. California Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered bars that had opened in seven counties to immediately close, and urged bars in eight other counties to do the same, amid the rapid spread of the coronavirus in parts of the state.
Today’s Birthdays: Comedian-movie director Mel Brooks is 95. Former Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., is 87. Comedian-impressionist John Byner is 84. Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is 83. Rock musician Dave Knights (Procul Harum) is 76. Actor Bruce Davison is 75. Actor Kathy Bates is 73. Actor Alice Krige is 67. College and Pro Football Hall of Famer John Elway is 61. Jazz singer Tierney Sutton is 58. Actor Jessica Hecht is 56. Rock musician Saul Davies (James) is 56. Actor Mary Stuart Masterson is 55. Actor John Cusack is 55. Actor Gil Bellows is 54. Actor-singer Danielle Brisebois is 52. Jazz musician Jimmy Sommers is 52. Actor Tichina Arnold is 52. Actor Steve Burton is 51. Entrepreneur Elon Musk is 50. Actor Alessandro Nivola (nih-VOH’-luh) is 49. Actor Camille Guaty is 45. Rock musician Tim Nordwind (OK Go) is 45. Rock musician Mark Stoermer (The Killers) is 44. Country singer Big Vinny Hickerson (Trailer Choir) is 38. Country singer Kellie Pickler is 35.
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