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June 28, 2007
Today in History: June 28th
The following information is from: Those Were the Days - Today in History:
1894 - U.S. President Grover Cleveland signed an act of Congress, making Labor Day a federal holiday in the U.S. The first Monday of September is when Labor Day is celebrated as a salute to working men and women across the country.
1914 - World War I began. Archduke Francis Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated while at (what is now known as) Sarajevo, Bosnia.
1976 - Women entered the Air Force Academy for the first time on this day. President Gerald R. Ford had actually opened the door by signed legislation [Oct 7, 1975] allowing women to enter the nation’s military academies. The first Air Force Academy class with women graduated in May 1980.
1985 “Get your kicks...on Route...Six...Six” The words to the classic song made famous by Nat "King" Cole, The Manhattan Transfer, Rosemary Clooney and many others is remembered today, along with the TV show of the same name.
The 59-year-old highway of 2,200 miles of blacktop was decertified as a U.S. highway on this day in 1985. The highway that was a legendary part of Americana saw highway crews removing the classic roadway shield-markers that designated it as the highway west.
Route 66 started in Chicago, Illinois and continued into Santa Monica, California. Martin Milner and George Maharis took us for many spins on the famous highway through the TV series which aired in the early sixties. To travel from one end of Route 66 to the other, one would go through eight states and three time zones. Today, a very small portion of the highway is still open. In some places, grass and vegetation, as seen from the interstate highway or railroad tracks nearby, have all but obscured the once well-traveled Route 66. Some one-stop, out-of-the-way places such as gas stations and greasy-spoon diners are now nothing more than decaying shells of their once glorious past.
1992 - A very strong earthquake shook the high desert of Southern California at 4:57 a.m. The M7.3 earthquake was centered on the eastern side of the San Bernardino Mountains near the town of Landers. The quake was the largest to strike California since the Kern County M7.7 earthquake in 1952. Vigorous rocking and rolling was felt 100 miles away in L.A. and the quake was felt as far away as Central California and Las Vegas, Nevada. Property damage: $56 million, including collapsed buildings, ruptured utility lines and widespread nonstructural damage. Human toll: One killed, 25 seriously injured, 372 treated for some sort of earthquake-related injuries, millions awakened with nightmares for weeks.
1996 - The Citadel, which had fought to keep one woman from enrolling as a cadet in its all-male military academy in 1993, abruptly ended its opposition to enrolling qualified female cadets. The change of policy happened after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled a similar all-male policy at the Virginia Military Institute was unconstitutional. The court said the school could not refuse to accept women while receiving federal or state tax dollars. Had the Citadel decided to retain its 153-year-old men-only policy, it would have lost public tax dollars. As usual, money talked.
1997 - The headlines screamed: “Fight Bites into MGM Earnings,” “Bit Part for Tyson,” “Pay-Per-Chew Bout,” and the one that said it all, “Tyson Disqualified After Ripping Piece of Holyfield’s Ear.” Needless to say (but we will anyway), Evander Holyfield retained his World Boxing Association heavyweight championship after Mike Tyson was disqualified for biting Holyfield, not once, but twice. The Nevada Athletic Commission revoked Mike Tyson’s boxing license for a year and fined him $3 million.
Posted by d-nadler at June 28, 2007 08:43 AM