TODAY In History

Today is Sunday, June 28, the 180th day of 2020. There are 186 days left in the year.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY:

• On June 28, 1919, the Treaty of Versailles (vehr-SY’) was signed in France, ending the First World War.

ON THIS DATE:

• In 1838, Britain’s Queen Victoria was crowned in Westminster Abbey.

• In 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.

• In 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife, Sophie, were shot to death in Sarajevo (sah-ruhYAY’-voh) by Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princip (gavh-REE’-loh PREEN’seep) — an act which sparked World War I.

• In 1939, Pan American Airways began regular trans-Atlantic air service with a flight that departed New York for Marseilles (mar-SAY’), France.

• In 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.

• In 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.

• In 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.

• In 1975, screenwriter, producer and actor Rod Serling, 50, creator of “The Twilight Zone,” died in Rochester, New York.

• In 1978, the Supreme Court ordered the University of California-Davis Medical School to admit Allan Bakke (BAH’-kee), a white man who argued he’d been a victim of reverse racial discrimination.

• In 2000, seven months after he was cast adrift in the Florida Straits, Elian Gonzalez was returned to his native Cuba.