The Stonewall Riots begin in NYC’s Greenwich Village

Charles I of Spain, who by birth already held sway over much of Europe and Spanish America, is chosen as the successor of his late grandfather, Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I. Charles, who was also the grandson of Ferdinand II and Isabella of Spain, had bribed the princes of Germany to vote for him, defeating […]

On June 28, 1904, Helen Keller—deaf and blind since an illness at just 19 months old—graduates cum laude from Radcliffe College in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Keller becomes the first DeafBlind person to earn a bachelor’s degree. According to an article the next day in The Boston Herald, Keller earned enthusiastic applause at the commencement exercises held […]

On June 28, 1940, Adolf Hitler surveys notable sites in the French capital, now German-occupied territory. In his first and only visit to Paris, Hitler made Napoleon’s tomb among the sites to see. “That was the greatest and finest moment of my life,” he said upon leaving. Comparisons between the Führer and Napoleon have been […]

In the first major offensive ordered for U.S. forces in Vietnam, 3,000 troops of the 173rd Airborne Brigade—in conjunction with 800 Australian soldiers and a Vietnamese airborne unit—assault a jungle area known as Viet Cong Zone D, 20 miles northeast of Saigon. The operation was called off after three days when it failed to make […]

Two of the strongest earthquakes ever to hit California strike the desert area east of Los Angeles on June 28, 1992. Although the state sits upon the immense San Andreas fault line, relatively few major earthquakes have hit California in modern times. Two of the strongest, but not the deadliest, hit southern California on a […]

After a flurry of rumors, DaimlerChrysler chairman Dieter Zetsche announces on June 28, 2006 that the company’s urban-focused Smart brand—already popular in Europe—will come to the U.S. in early 2008. Smart—an acronym for Swatch Mercedes ART—began as a joint venture between Swatch, the company known for its colorful and trendy plastic watches, and the German […]