TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

1919

Treaty of Versailles was signed in France, ending the First World War.

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1838

Britain’s Queen Victoria was crowned in Westminster Abbey

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.

1939

Pan American Airways began regular trans-Atlantic air service with a flight that departed New York for Marseilles , France.

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.

1964

Civil rights activist Malcolm X declared, “We want equality by any means necessary” during the Founding Rally of the Organization of AfroAmerican Unity in New York.

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.

1978

The Supreme Court ordered the University of CaliforniaDavis Medical School to admit Allan Bakke ,a white man who argued he’d been a victim of reverse racial discrimination.

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.