On June 28, 1778, during the Revolutionary War’s Battle of Monmouth, N.J., the assistance given the colonials by Mary Ludwig Hays, who became known as Molly Pitcher, made her a hero in American history.
In 1838 Britain’s Queen Victoria was crowned.
In 1894 Congress made Labor Day a holiday for federal employees and the District of Columbia.
In 1914 Austrian Archduke Ferdinand and his wife, Sofia, were assassinated in what is now Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, by a Serbian nationalist, triggering World War I.
In 1950 North Korean forces captured Seoul, the South Korean capital.
In 1969 patrons at the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York City, clashed with police during a raid, an incident considered a landmark of the gay rights movement (this item has been added to this text).
In 1972 President Richard Nixon announced that no more draftees would be sent to Vietnam unless they volunteered.
In 1979 OPEC announced it was raising the price of its oil to between $18 and $24 a barrel.
In 1980 officials at Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island nuclear plant began venting radioactive gas from the containment building of the damaged reactor. (The process, which lasted nearly two weeks, prompted the evacuation of hundreds of nearby residents.)
In 1981 an explosion destroyed the headquarters of Iran’s ruling Islamic Republic Party in Tehran, killing more than 70 people.
In 1992 two severe earthquakes struck Southern California, killing a 31/2-year-old boy in Yucca Valley and injuring 400 people.
In 1993 the National Commission on AIDS ended its work after four years, with members expressing frustration over how little national leaders had done to combat the disease.
