Today in history
On July 28, 1945, the U.S. Senate ratified the United Nations Charter by a vote of 89-2.
In 1794, Maximilien Robespierre, a leading figure of the French Revolution, was sent to the guillotine.
In 1914, World War I began as Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia.
In 1929, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis was born in Southampton, N.Y.
In 1932, federal troops forcibly dispersed the so-called "Bonus Army" of World War I veterans who had gathered in Washington to demand payments they weren't scheduled to receive until 1945.
In 1943, President Franklin D. Roosevelt announced the end of coffee rationing, which had limited people to one pound of coffee every five weeks since it began in Nov. 1942.
In 1945, a U.S. Army bomber crashed into the 79th floor of New York's Empire State Building, killing 14 people.
In 1959, in preparation for statehood, Hawaiians voted to send the first Chinese-American, Republican Hiram L. Fong, to the U.S. Senate and the first Japanese-American, Democrat Daniel K. Inouye, to the U.S. House of Representatives.
In 1976, an earthquake devastated northern China, killing at least 242,000 people, according to an official estimate.
In 1984, the Los Angeles Summer Olympics opened.
In 1989, Israeli commandos abducted a pro-Iranian Shiite (SHEE'-eyet) Muslim cleric, Sheik Abdul-Karim Obeid (AHB'-dool kah-REEM' ohBAYD'), from his home in south Lebanon. (He was released in January 2004 as part of a prisoner swap.)
In 2016, Hillary Clinton accepted the Democratic presidential nomination at the party's convention in Philadelphia, where she cast herself as a unifier for divided times as well as an experienced leader steeled for a volatile world while aggressively challenging Republican Donald Trump's ability to lead.
In 2017, the Senate voted 51-49 to reject Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's last-ditch effort to dismantle President Barack Obama's health care overhaul with a trimmed-down bill. John McCain, who was about to begin treatments for a brain tumor, joined two other GOP senators in voting against the repeal effort.
Ten years ago: U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton put most of Arizona's toughest-in-thenation immigration law on hold just hours before it was to take effect. (In September 2012, Bolton ruled that police could enforce the so-called "show me your papers" provision of the law.) Airblue Flight 202, a Pakistani Airbus A321, crashed into the hills overlooking Islamabad, killing all 152 people aboard.
Five years ago: President Barack Obama wrapped up his trip to Kenya and Ethiopia in Addis Ababa, where he urged African leaders to leave office peacefully after their terms expired. It was announced that Jonathan Pollard, the former U.S. Naval intelligence analyst who had spent nearly three decades in prison for spying for Israel, had been granted parole. In a case that outraged animal lovers, Zimbabwean police said they were searching for an American who had shot and killed a well-known, protected lion known as Cecil during a bow hunt; Walter Palmer, a Minnesota dentist, issued a statement saying he thought everything about his trip was legal. (Officials in Zimbabwe later said Palmer had not broken the country's hunting laws.) Tom Brady's four-game suspension for his role in using underinflated footballs during the AFC championship game was upheld by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.