Calendar for June 28th, 2012

St. Irenaeus

Died 767: Pope Paul I

Born 1491: Henry VIII ( King of England)

Born 1577: Peter Paul Rubens (painter)

Born 1712: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (philosopher)

1778: Molly Pitcher took her mortally wounded husband's place at a cannon at the Battle of Monmouth, NJ. As a recognition of her heroism, the valiant woman was commissioned a sergeant by General George Washington

1832: Cholera epidemic began in N.Y.C.

Died 1836: James Madison (4th U.S. president)

Died 1889: Maria Mitchell (astronomer)

1894: Labor Day became an official U.S. holiday

Born 1902: Richard Rodgers (composer)

1919: The Treaty of Versailles was signed, ending WW I

Born 1926: Mel Brooks (director & actor)

Born 1932: Pat Morita (actor)

Born 1946: Gilda Radner (actress)

Born 1948: Kathy Bates (actress)

1953: First Corvette car assembled

Born 1960: John Elway (football player)

Born 1966: Mary Stuart Masterson (actress)

Born 1966: John Cusack (actor)

1967: Israel annexed East Jerusalem

Died 1975: Rod Serling (screenwriter)

1978: The United States Supreme Court, in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, bars quota systems in college admissions but affirms constitutionality of programs giving advantage to minorities

Died 1981: Terrance Stanley Fox (cross-country runner, Canadian hero)

Died 2001: Queen Modjadji V (the "rain queen" of South Africa's Lobedu tribe)

2004: A brief 4.5 earthquake struck the Midwest rattling windows and awakening sleeping residents from Wisconsin south to Missouri and from Indiana west to Iowa

2005: Pope Benedict XVI waived the five year waiting period for a cause for beatification to be opened and the official process for beatification of Pope John Paul II began in the Diocese of Rome

Died 2009: Billy Mays (popular TV pitchman)