Tuesday, June 28

This Day In History

• 1491   England's King Henry VIII was born in Greenwich.
• 1836   James Madison, the fourth president of the United States, died in Montpelier, Va., at age 85.
• 1838   Britain's Queen Victoria was crowned in Westminster Abbey.
• 1894   Labor Day was established as a holiday for federal employees on the first Monday of September.
• 1914   Austrian Archduke Francis Ferdinand and his wife, Sofia, were assassinated in Sarajevo by a Serb nationalist. The event triggered World War I.
• 1919   Elizabeth ‘Bess’ Wallace became Bess Truman when she married the future U.S. President, Harry S Truman.
• 1928   New York Gov. Alfred E. Smith was nominated for president at the Democratic national convention in Houston.
• 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.
• 1950   North Korean forces captured Seoul, South Korea.
• 1951   A TV version of the radio program ''Amos 'N' Andy'' premiered on CBS.
• 1967   Israel declared Jerusalem reunified under its sovereignty following its capture of the Arab sector in the Six-Day War.
• 1978   The Supreme Court ordered the medical school at the University of California at Davis to admit Allan Bakke, a white man who argued he had been a victim of reverse discrimination.
• 1994   The U.S. EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) announced it would begin experimenting with a UV (ultraviolet) Index, “To enhance public awareness of the effects of overexposure to the sun’s ultraviolet rays, and to provide the public with actions they can take to reduce harmful effects of overexposure, which may include skin cancer, cataracts and immune suppression.”
• 1995   Webster Hubbell, the former No. 3 official at the Justice Department, was sentenced to 21 months in prison for bilking clients of the law firm where he and Hillary Rodham Clinton were partners.
• 1996   The Citadel voted to admit women, ending a 153-year-old men-only policy at the South Carolina military school.
• 1997   Mike Tyson was disqualified for biting Evander Holyfield's ear during their WBA heavyweight title fight in Las Vegas.
• 1998   The Cincinnati Enquirer apologized to the Chiquita banana company and retracted stories questioning the company's business practices; the paper agreed to pay more than $10 million to settle legal claims.
• 2000   Elian Gonzalez was returned to his native Cuba seven months after he was cast adrift in the Florida Straits.
• 2000   The Supreme Court ruled the Boy Scouts can bar homosexuals from serving as troop leaders.
• 2001   Former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic was handed over by Serbia to the U.N. war crimes tribunal.

Happy Birthday To

• 1491   Henry VIII (King of England [1509-1547]; Henry’s six wives: Catherine of Aragon [divorced], Anne Boleyn [beheaded], Jane Seymour [died], Anne of Cleaves [divorced], Catherine Howard [beheaded], Catherine Parr [survived]; plagued by illness brought on by overeating, Henry died Jan 28, 1547)
• 1703   John Wesley (religious leader: founder of ‘Methodism’ [forerunner of Methodist church]; writer: A Plain Account of Christian Perfection; died Mar 2, 1791)
• 1926   Mel Brooks (Kaminsky) (director, actor: Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, Silent Movie, High Anxiety, The Producers; comedy writer: Your Show of Shows, Get Smart; Broadway producer: The Producers)
• 1932   Pat (Noriyuki) Morita (actor: Happy Days, Karate Kid, Babes in Toyland, Thoroughly Modern Millie)
• 1946   Gilda Radner (Emmy Award-winning comedienne, actress: Saturday Night Live [1977-78]; Haunted Honeymoon [w/husband Gene Wilder]; died May 20, 1989)
• 1948   Kathy Bates (Academy Award-winning actress: Misery [1990]; Fried Green Tomatoes, Home of Our Own, Prelude to a Kiss)