On June 27 1880, Helen Keller, who became a famous author and lecturer despite being left blind and deaf by illness when she was 19 months old, was born in Tuscumbia, Ala.
In 1893 prices collapsed on the New York Stock Exchange, setting off a depression.
In 1927 Bob Keeshan, later TV’s “Captain Kangaroo,” was born in Lynbrook, N.Y.
In 1942 the FBI disclosed the capture of eight Nazi saboteurs who had been put ashore from a submarine on New York’s Long Island.
In 1943 American bombers attacked Athens, which was occupied by German forces, in World War II.
In 1950 President Harry Truman ordered the Air Force and Navy into the Korean War.
In 1957 more than 500 people were killed when Hurricane Audrey ravaged coastal Louisiana and Texas.
(An erroneous item as published at this point has been deleted from this text.)
In 1979 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that employers and unions could establish affirmative action programs that include the use of quotas.
In 1980 President Jimmy Carter signed legislation reviving the draft registration.
In 1991 Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, the first black to sit on the court, announced his retirement.
In 2001 Jack Lemmon, 76, one of Hollywood’s most versatile and beloved actors, died.
