June 28, 2002
The fire department has received 85 new firefighting uniforms paid for almost entirely by a federal grant. The new black uniforms replace 15-year-old tan jackets and pants.
Rome Lab is due an extra $20 million in a House bill adopted Thursday. Senate action is pending.
June 28, 1992
Sister Nancy Gregg, C.S.J., principal of Rome Catholic High School, presided over the 29th commencement. It was her last since she became principal eight years ago. She has resigned, effective June 30.
June 28, 1982
It took the Board of Education seven hours to trim $1.09 from the proposed tax increase for next year, and members may decide tomorrow night not to adopt a spending plan that is supposed to be in place by July 1.
June 28, 1972
County Executive William E. Bryant, recommending to the Board of Legislators Ways and Means Committee that the county’s contribution to Mohawk Valley Community College for the 1972-73 school year be held to the current level of $96,863, storngly indicated he will demand that all department heads submit hold-the-line budgets.
June 28, 1962
Oriskany Malleable Iron Co. has announced plans for a modernization program which its president, Clarence L. DeShong Jr., says will triple present capacity.
June 28, 1952
The Rome Retail Merchants Association has withdrawn its opposition to parallel parking on Dominick Street provided this is not instituted until Erie Boulevard is completed and the city pledges to develop additional off-street parking facilities.
Today is Thursday, June 28, the 180th day of 2012. There are 186 days left in the year.
Today in History
On June 28, 1712, philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, one of the most influential thinkers of the 18th century Enlightenment, was born in Geneva.
On this date:
In 1778, the Revolutionary War Battle of Monmouth took place in New Jersey; it was from this battle that the legend of "Molly Pitcher" arose.
In 1836, the fourth president of the United States, James Madison, died in Montpelier, Va.
In 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife, Sophie, were assassinated in Sarajevo by Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princip - the event which sparked World War I.
In 1919, the Treaty of Versailles was signed in France, ending the First World War. In Independence, Mo., future president Harry S. Truman married Elizabeth Virginia Wallace.
In 1922, the Irish Civil War began between rival nationalists over the Anglo-Irish Treaty establishing the Irish Free State. (The conflict lasted nearly a year, resulting in defeat for anti-treaty forces.)
In 1939, Pan American Airways began regular trans-Atlantic air service with a flight that departed New York for Marseilles, France.
In 1944, the Republican national convention in Chicago nominated New York Gov. Thomas E. Dewey for president and Ohio Gov. John W. Bricker for vice president.
In 1950, North Korean forces captured Seoul (sohl), the capital of South Korea.
In 1962, a jury in New York awarded $3.5 million to former radio-TV personality John Henry Faulk in his libel suit against the group AWARE Inc. and two individuals who’d accused him of Communist sympathies and gotten him blacklisted. (The judgment was reduced to $550,000 by an appeals court.)
In 1978, the Supreme Court ordered the University of California-Davis Medical School to admit Allan Bakke, a white man who argued he’d been a victim of reverse racial discrimination.
In 1981, a bomb exploded at the Tehran headquarters of Iran’s ruling Islamic Republic Party, killing 74 people, including Iran’s chief judge, Ayatollah Mohammad Beheshti.
In 2000, seven months after he was cast adrift in the Florida Straits, Elian Gonzalez was returned to his native Cuba.
Ten years ago
WorldCom Inc. began laying off 17,000 employees worldwide after disclosing accounting irregularities that later forced it into bankruptcy protection. Xerox Corp. said it had overstated revenue by $6.4 billion over the previous five years; the copier company said it had overhauled its books but still had $1.9 billion to report as revenue in the future.
Five years ago
The U.S. Supreme Court voted 5-4 to strike down school integration plans in Louisville, Ky., and Seattle, a decision that was denounced hours later by Democratic presidential candidates in their third primary debate. President George W. Bush’s immigration plan to legalize as many as 12 million unlawful immigrants while fortifying the border collapsed in the Senate. The American bald eagle was removed from the endangered species list.
One year ago
Taliban fighters raided an international hotel in Kabul and killed 10 people on the eve of a conference to discuss plans for Afghan forces to take over security when international troops left by the end of 2014. French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde was chosen to lead the International Monetary Organization. Former All-Star goalie Ed Belfour was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility, joining Doug Gilmour, Mark Howe and Joe Nieuwendyk as inductees.
Today’s Birthdays
Comedian-movie director Mel Brooks is 86. Senate Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., is 78. Comedian-impressionist John Byner is 75. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is 74. Rock musician Dave Knights (Procul Harum) is 67. Actor Bruce Davison is 66. Actress Kathy Bates is 64. Actress Alice Krige is 58. College and Pro Football Hall of Famer John Elway is 52. Record company chief executive Tony Mercedes is 50. Actress Jessica Hecht is 47. Rock musician Saul Davies (James) is 47. Actress Mary Stuart Masterson is 46. Actor John Cusack is 46. Actor Gil Bellows is 45. Actress-singer Danielle Brisebois is 43. Jazz musician Jimmy Sommers is 43. Actress Tichina Arnold is 43. Actor Alessandro Nivola is 40. Actress Camille Guaty is 36. Rock musician Tim Nordwind (OK Go) is 36. Rock musician Mark Stoermer (The Killers) is 35.
Thought for Today
"Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains. One thinks himself the master of others, and still remains a greater slave than they." - Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778).
