ON JUNE 27 ...
In 1844, Mormon leader Joseph Smith and his brother, Hyrum, were killed by a mob in Carthage, Ill. (Brigham Young then became head of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.)
In 1847 New York and Boston were linked by telegraph wires.
In 1893 prices collapsed on the New York Stock Exchange, setting off a depression.
In 1944 American forces completed their capture of the French port of Cherbourg from the Germans during World War II.
In 1950 President Harry Truman ordered the Air Force and Navy into the Korean War.
In 1957 more than 500 people were killed when Hurricane Audrey ravaged coastal Louisiana and Texas.
In 1973 former White House counsel John Dean told the Senate Watergate Committee about an “enemies list” kept by the Nixon White House.
In 1980 President Jimmy Carter signed legislation reviving the draft registration.
In 1984 the Supreme Court ended the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s monopoly on controlling college football telecasts, ruling such control violated antitrust law.
In 1986 the International Court of Justice at The Hague ruled that the United States had broken international law and violated the sovereignty of Nicaragua by aiding the Contras.
In 1991 Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, the first black to sit on the nation’s highest court, announced his retirement.
In 1998 during a joint news conference broadcast live in China, President Bill Clinton and President Jiang Zemin offered an uncensored airing of differences on human rights, freedom, trade and Tibet.
In 2002 the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that tuition vouchers are constitutional.
In 2003 more than 735,000 phone numbers were registered on the first day of a national do-not-call list aimed at blocking unwelcome solicitations from telemarketers.
In 2005 the Supreme Court ruled, in a pair of 5-4 decisions, that displaying the Ten Commandments on government property is constitutionally permissible in some cases but not in others.
In 2007 Apple’s first-generation iPhone went on sale.
In 2012 the Chicago City Council voted 44-3 to decriminalize marijuana possession, opting for the issuance of fines instead of arrests for small amounts of the drug.
In 2013 a landmark bill to overhaul the U.S. immigration system, including a path to citizenship for 11 million people in the country without legal status, passed the Senate.