On this date...

Joseph Smith

In 1844, Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormon church, was murdered by an armed mob in Carthage, Illinois.

In 1862, During the first Battle of Cold Harbor in the American Civil War, Confederate General Robert E. Lee attacked Union troops, driving them back in disorder and forcing them to withdraw to the south side of the Chickahominy River.

In 1864, Colorado Governor John Evans issues a proclamation warning that all peaceful Native Americans in the region must report to the or risk being attacked, creating the conditions that will lead to the Sand Creek Massacre.

In 1893, the New York Stock Market crashed.

In 1922, the American Library Association (ALA) awards the first Newbery Medal, honoring the year’s best children’s book, to The Story of Mankind by Hendrik Willem van Loon.

In 1944, American forces completed their capture of the French port of Cherbourg from the Germans three weeks after D-Day.

In 1950, President Truman ordered the Air Force and Navy into the Korean War following a call from the United Nations Security Council for member nations to help South Korea repel an invasion from the North.

In 1957, , Hurricane Audrey slammed into coastal Louisiana and Texas as a Category 4 storm, causing as many as 600 deaths.

In 1970, Chicago hosts the first-ever Pride parade, commemorating the one-year anniversary of the Stonewall uprising. The open celebration of LGBTQ+ rights marked a welcome change for a community long forced into the shadows.

In 1972, Atari was founded by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney in Santa Clara, California.

In 1980, President Carter signed legislation reviving draft registration.

In 1985, After 59 years, the iconic Route 66 enters the realm of history on June 27, 1985, when the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials decertifies the road and votes to remove all its highway signs.

In 1991, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, the first Black jurist to sit on the nation’s highest court, announced his retirement.

In 2005, BTK serial killer Dennis Rader pleaded guilty to 10 murders that had spread fear across Wichita, Kansas, beginning in the 1970s.

In 2006, a constitutional amendment to ban desecration of the American flag died in a U.S. Senate cliff-hanger, falling one vote short of the 67 needed to send it to states for ratification.

In 2011, former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was convicted by a federal jury in Chicago on a wide range of corruption charges, including the allegation that he’d tried to sell or trade President Barack Obama’s U.S. Senate seat.

In 2018, Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, whose vote often decided cases on abortion, gay rights and other contentious issues, announced his retirement.

In 2022, in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, the Supreme Court ruled that a high school football coach who sought to kneel and pray on the field after games was protected by the First Amendment.