Today is Wednesday, June 28, the 179th day of 2006. There are 186 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On June 28, 1914, Austrian Archduke Francis Ferdinand and his wife, Sofia, were assassinated in Sarajevo by a Serb nationalist — the event that triggered World War I.
On this date:
In 1491, England’s King Henry VIII was born at Greenwich.
In 1778, “Molly Pitcher” (Mary Ludwig Hays) carried water to American soldiers at the Revolutionary War Battle of Monmouth, N.J.
In 1836, the fourth president of the United States, James Madison, died in Montpelier, Va.
In 1838, Britain’s Queen Victoria was crowned in Westminster Abbey.
In 1919, the Treaty of Versailles was signed in France, ending World War I.
In 1939, Pan American Airways began regular trans-Atlantic air service.
In 1944, the Republican national convention in Chicago nominated New York Gov. Thomas E. Dewey for president and Ohio Gov. John W. Bricker for vice president.
In 1950, North Korean forces captured Seoul, South Korea.
In 1978, the Supreme Court ordered the University of California at Davis Medical School to admit Allan Bakke, a white man who’d argued he was 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.
Ten years ago: The Citadel voted to admit women, ending a 153-year-old men-only policy at the South Carolina military school.
Five years ago: A unanimous federal appeals court reversed the court-ordered breakup of Microsoft, but ruled that the software giant had violated antitrust laws, and appointed another judge to determine a new punishment. Former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic was handed over by Serbia to the U.N. war crimes tribunal.
One year ago: On the first anniversary of Iraqi sovereignty, President Bush, addressing the nation from Fort Bragg, N.C., rejected suggestions that he set a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq or send in more troops as he counseled patience for Americans who were questioning the war’s painful costs. Sixteen service members were killed when an American MH-47 Chinook crashed in Afghanistan after it had been struck by a rocket-propelled grenade.
Today’s Birthdays: Comedian-movie director Mel Brooks is 80. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., is 72. Former White House chief of staff Leon Panetta is 68. Rock musician Dave Knights (Procul Harum) is 61. Actor Bruce Davison is 60. Actress Kathy Bates is 58. Actress Alice Krige is 52. Football Hall of Famer John Elway is 46. Record company chief executive Tony Mercedes is 44. Actress Jessica Hecht is 41. Rock musician Saul Davies (James) is 41. Actress Mary Stuart Masterson is 40. Actor John Cusack is 40. Actor Gil Bellows is 39. Actress-singer Danielle Brisebois is 37. Jazz musician Jimmy Sommers is 37. Actress Tichina Arnold is 35. Actor Alessandro Nivola is 34.
Thought for Today: “One of the sources of pride in being a human being is the ability to bear present frustrations in the interests of longer purposes.” — Helen Merrell Lynd, American sociologist and educator (1896-1982).