Today in history
On June 28, 1491, England’s King Henry VIII was born in Greenwich.
In 1778 Mary Ludwig Hays became a heroine of the Revolutionary War when, as Molly Pitcher, she carried water to American soldiers at the Battle of Monmouth, N.J.
In 1836 James Madison, the fourth president, died at age 85.
In 1894 Congress made Labor Day a holiday for federal employees and the District of Columbia, designating the first Monday in September for observance.
In 1904 blind- deaf student Helen Keller graduated with honors from Radcliffe College.
In 1919 the Treaty of Versailles, ending World War I, was signed in France. Also in 1919, Harry Truman married Elizabeth Virginia Wallace in Independence, Mo.
In 1926 actor, director and producer Mel Brooks was born Melvin Kaminsky in Brooklyn, N.Y.
In1939 Pan American World Airways began regular trans-Atlantic air service as the Dixie Clipper left Port Washington, N.Y., for Portugal.
In 1944 the Republican national convention in Chicago nominated New York Gov. Thomas Dewey for president.
In 1964 former Cubs first baseman Mark Grace was born in Winston-Salem, N.C.
In 1966 actor John Cusack was born in Evanston.
In 1978 the Supreme Court ordered the University of California, Davis Medical School to admit Allan Bakke, a white man who had argued he was a victim of reverse racial discrimination.
In 1994 President Bill Clinton became the first chief execu- tive defenseto set fundup a and personalask Ameri-legal cans to contribute to it.
In 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.
In1996 The Citadel voted to admit women, ending a 153-year-old men-only policy at the South Carolina military school.
In 1997 Mike Tyson was disqualified for biting Evander Holyfield’s ear during their WBA heavyweight title fight in Las Vegas.
In 2000 seven months after he was cast adrift in the Florida Straits, Elian Gonzalez was returned to his native Cuba. Also in 2000, the Supreme Court ruled the Boy Scouts can bar homosexuals from serving as troop leaders.
In 2007 the Supreme Court voted 5-4 to strike down school integration plans in Louisville, Ky., and Seattle, a decision that was denounced at a debate hours later by Democratic presidential candidates. Also in 2007, President George W. Bush’s immigration plan to legalize as many as 12 million unlawful immigrants while fortifying the border collapsed in the Senate.
In 2009 Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was replaced by Roberto Micheletti in the first coup in Central America in at least 16 years.
In 2010 a federal jury convicted former Chicago police Cmdr. John Burge on three counts of obstruction of justice and perjury for lying about the torture of crime suspects. (He was sentenced to 4 1⁄2 years in prison in January 2011.)
In 2011 former Chicago Blackhawks goalie Ed Belfour was selected on his first year of eligibility to be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.
In 2012 the Supreme Court, in a 5-4 ruling, upheld most of President Barack Obama’s health care law, the Democrats’ most ambitious social legislation in a generation.