Today in history

Today is Sunday, June 28, the 179th day of 2009. There are 186 days left in the year. On this date in 1919, the Treaty of Versailles is signed in France, ending World War I.

In 1778, the Revolutionary War Battle of Monmouth takes place in New Jersey; it is from this battle that the legend of “Molly Pitcher” arose. In 1838, Britain’s Queen Victoria is crowned in Westminster Abbey. In 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife, Sophie, are assassinated in Sarajevo by a Serb nationalist — the event which sparks World War I. In 1928, New York Gov. Alfred E. Smith is nominated for president at the Democratic national convention in Houston. In 1934, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs into law the National Housing Act, which establishes the Federal Housing Administration. In 1939, Pan American Airways begins regular trans-Atlantic air service with a flight that departed New York for Marseilles, France. In 1950, North Korean forces capture Seoul, the capital of South Korea. In 1978, the Supreme Court orders the University of California-Davis Medical School to admit Allan Bakke, a white man who argued he’d been a victim of reverse racial discrimination.

June 28, 1984: Eugene Sipus Jr., who was a standout wrestler at Boardman High School, is emerging as one of the nation’s top young jockeys, with 600 victories and 30 stakes wins.

Prince Bandar Bin Sultan, the Saudi ambassador to the United States, played a key role in hammering out an agreement to release three Youngstown men, employees of Bucheit International, who are being held in Saudi Arabia because of a contract dispute between the company and a Saudi prince.

Ohio Senate President Harry Meshel, D-Youngstown, says Ohio may file a lawsuit to overturn a bill passed by Congress and signed by President Reagan that would withhold highway funds from states that refuse to raise their legal drinking age to 21.

June 28, 1969: A fire bomb damages the Montella Isaly Dairy store at 907 Oak St., scene of an altercation in which a pregnant woman claimed she was struck by the owner and a store clerk.

Dr. John A . Knowles, director of Massachusetts General Hospital, says he was denied appointment to the number one health post in the Nixon administration because the American Medical Association and political conservatives opposed him on the basis of his past support for medicare.

Wayne R. Taylor, 16, who was working at the Valley Block Division of Carbon Limestone near West Middlesex, dies after falling into a bin of finely ground limestone.

June 28, 1959: Three Ohio State University sophomores escape serious injury when their motor boat plunges 18 feet over the Lake Newport dam into Mill Creek. In the boat were Judy Malkoff, 19, daughter of Dr. and Mrs. J.R. Malkoff of Euclid Blvd., and two weekend guests, Marilyn Ginsburg, 18, and Beverly Dann, 19, both of Shaker Heights.

Fifty new members of the Caballeros de San Juan, a lay organization of Puerto Rican men, are installed in a ceremony in St. Columba Cathedral. The installation was part of the weekend Fiesta de San Juan, honoring Puerto Rico’s patrol saint. Fermina Ortiz, 17, of Arlington Street, is crowned queen of the festival.

June 28, 1934: Youngstown’s population is being temporarily enhanced by MacGregors, Gammies and Murrays, as hundreds of Daughters of Scotland arrive at the Hotel Ohio for the organization’s state convention.

Youngstown police say they will enforce the midnight closing hour for liquor establishments, but the Mahoning Valley Liquor Protective Dealers’ Association is negotiating for a 2 a.m. deadline.

Nearly 100 Youngstown families take themselves off the public relief roll as the county administrator continues to pursue criminal charges against relief chiselers.