June 28

It’s Insurance Awareness Day and Paul Bunyan Day

ON THIS DAY…
1776 Thomas Hickey, Continental Army private and bodyguard to General George Washington, was hanged for mutiny and sedition
1778 In the Battle of Monmouth during the Revolutionary War, American forces led by General George Washington and aided by a woman known as Molly Pitcher defeat the British
1832 The first American case of a cholera epidemic was reported in New York City
1838 The coronation of Victoria of the United Kingdom
1846 Adolphe Sax was awarded a patent for the saxophone
1859 First conformation dog show is held in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England
1867 The Bank of California is created
1880 Ned Kelly the Australian bushranger captured at Glenrowan
1886 Henri Moissan’s discovery of fluorine gas was announced at the Paris Academy of Science, two days after his first successful experiment to isolate the element, which he tested with silicon to find it burst into flame
1893 Crash of the New York Stock Exchange
1894 Labor Day becomes an official US holiday
1902 The US Congress passes the Spooner Act, authorizing President Theodore Roosevelt to acquire rights from Colombia for the Panama Canal
1914 Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princip assassinates Austrian archduke Francis Ferdinand, leading Austria-Hungary to declare war on Serbia a month later, beginning World War I
1919 The Treaty of Versailles is signed, ending World War I with Germany
1923 Capt. Lowell H. Smith and Lt. John P. Richter perform the first ever aerial refueling in a DH-4B biplane
1928 The plane of Roald Amundsen, the Norwegian explorer who was the first person to reach the South Pole, disappears on a flight to rescue the Italian explorer Umberto Nobile in the Arctic
1938 An aerial tramway, the first in North America, was dedicated in Franconia, NH
1939 Pan American Airways debuts the first regular transatlantic air service, flying from New York to Lisbon, Portugal, and Marseilles, France
1940 Disney’s first Pluto cartoon “Bone Trouble” is released
1950 Seoul is captured by troops from North Korea
1951 The Amos ‘N’ Andy Show moved from network radio to television
1956 The first atomic reactor built for private research began operations in Chicago, IL
1960 US-owned oil refineries in Cuba confiscated and nationalised
1961 The American Medical Association backed the Sabin polio vaccine over the Salk vaccine
1963 Burt Reymolds and Judy Carne are married; they would divorce two years later
1964 Malcom X forms the Organization of Afro-American Unity
1965 The first commerical telephone conversation over a satellite took place over Early Bird I between America and Europe
1967 Israel annexes East Jerusalem
1969 Stonewall riots in New York city mark the beginning of the modern gay rights era
1971 The Supreme Court overturns the conviction of boxer Muhammad Ali for draft evasion, finding that his refusal to fight in Vietnam is based on the religious principles of Islam
1992 A35-year-old man at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center became the world’s first recipient of a baboon liver transplant
1997 Boxer Mike Tyson is disqualified from WBA title re-match, for biting off part of the ear of his opponent Evander Holyfield in the third round
2000 Cuban exile Elián González returns to Cuba following a Supreme Court order
2003 The United States National Do Not Call Registry, formed to combat unwanted telemarketing calls and administered by the Federal Trade Commission, enrolls almost three-quarters of a million phone numbers on its first day
2004 Sovereign power is handed to the interim government of Iraq by the Coalition Provisional Authority, ending the US-led rule of that nation
2005 AMD files suit against Intel corporation, charging monopolization and antitrust violations
2005 Canada becomes the third country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage
2006 Brian Singer’s Superman Returns opens in US movie theaters
2007 Gordon Brown succeeds Tony Blair as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom after over 10 years of Blair’s premiership

BORN:
1491 Henry VIII, King of England and Lord of Ireland, later King of Ireland and claimant to the Kingdom of France; the second monarch of the House of Tudor, succeeding his father, Henry VII
1902 Richard Rodgers, Emmy and Academy Award-winning composer (State Fair, Winston Churchill: The Valiant Years, The King and I, South Pacific, Oklahoma!)
1909 Eric Ambler, OBE, influential writer of spy novels who introduced a new realism to the genre (The Mask of Dimitrios, The Light of Day, Journey Into Fear)
1926 Mel Brooks, actor, producer, director, and Academy Award-winning writer (The Producers, Young Frankenstein, When Things Were Rotten, Get Smart)
1933 Noriyuki “Pat” Morita, stand-up comedian, actor (Happy Days, Karate Kid, Mulan)
1938 John Byner, stand-up comedian, impressionist, actor (Silk Stalkings, Soap, Transylvania 6-5000, A Wish for Wings That Work, The Pink Panther Show)
1946 Gilda Radner, comedian, writer and Emmy Award-winning actress (Saturday Night Live, The Woman in Red, Hanky Panky, Haunted Honeymoon, The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash)
1946 Bruce Davison, actor (Last Summer, Willard, Mother, Jugs & Speed, Longtime Companion, Short Cuts, X-Men)
1948 Kathy Bates, Academy Award-winning actress (Misery, Titanic, The Stand, Dick Tracy)
1951 Lalla Ward, actress (Doctor Who, Crossed Swords, Vampire Circus, The Duchess of Duke Street, Hamlet, Prince of Denmark)
1954 Alice Krige, actress (Star Trek: First Contact, Reign of Fire, Dinotopia, Children of Dune, Deadwood, Solomon Kane)
1960 John Elway, Hall of Fame football quarterback, Super Bowl XXXIII MVP, selected to the Pro Bowl (1986, 1987, 1989, 1991, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998)
1966 John Cusack, actor, producer, writer (High Fidelity, Sixteen Candles, Stand by Me, Tapeheads, Grosse Pointe Blank, Being John Malkovich)
1966 Mary Stuart Masterson, actress (Law & Order: SVU, Some Kind of Wonderful, Benny & Joon, Radioland Murders)

DIED:
1836 James Madison, 4th President of the United States (1809-1817), 5th United States Secretary of State (1801-1809), dies at 85
1975 Rod Serling, screenwriter, best known for his live television dramas of the 1950s and his science fiction anthology TV series, The Twilight Zone, dies at 50
1976 Sir Stanley Baker, actor and producer (Hell Driver, Richard III, The Guns of Navarone, Zulu), dies at 48
2001 Joan Sims, actress, the First Lady of Carry On, dies at 71
2006 Jim Baen, noted science fiction publisher and editor who founded his own publishing house, Baen Books, specializing in the adventure, fantasy, military science fiction and space opera genres, dies at 62