Today is Monday, June 28, the 180th day of 2004. There are 186 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On June 28, 1914, Austrian Archduke Francis Ferdinand and his wife, Sofia, were assassinated in Sarajevo by a Serb nationalist – the event which triggered World War I.

On this date:

In 1778, Molly Pitcher (Mary Ludwig Hays) carried water to American soldiers at the Revolutionary War Battle of Monmouth, N.J.

In 1836, the fourth president of the United States, James Madison, died in Montpelier, Va.

In 1838, Britain’s Queen Victoria was crowned in Westminster Abbey.

In 1904, 100 years ago, blind-deaf student Helen Keller graduated with honors from Radcliffe College.

In 1919, the Treaty of Versailles was signed in France, ending World War I.

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, South Korea.

In 1951, a T.V. version of the radio program “Amos ‘N’ Andy” premiered on CBS. (While criticized for racial stereotyping, it was the first network T.V. series to feature an all-black cast.)

In 1978, the Supreme Court ordered the University of California at Davis Medical School to admit Allan Bakke, a white man who’d argued he was a victim of reverse racial discrimination.

In 1996, The Citadel voted to admit women, ending a 153-year-old men-only policy at the South Carolina military school.

Ten years ago: North and South Korea set July 25-27 as the dates for a historic summit between the leaders of both countries (the summit was derailed by the death of North Korean President Kim Il Sung the following month.) President Clinton became the first chief executive in U.S. history to set up a personal legal defense fund and ask Americans to contribute to it.

Five years ago: Announcing even bigger projected budget surpluses, President Clinton said the government could drastically reduce the national debt while still buttressing Social Security and Medicare.

One year ago: After days of intense searching by ground and air, U.S. forces found the bodies of two soldiers missing north of Baghdad, as the toll of American dead since the start of war topped the grim milestone of 200.

Today’s Birthdays: Comedian-movie director Mel Brooks is 78. Actor Pat Morita is 72. Senator Carl Levin, D-Mich., is 70. Former White House chief of staff Leon Panetta is 66. Rock musician Dave Knights (Procul Harum) is 59. Actor Bruce Davison is 58. Actress Kathy Bates is 56. Actress Alice Krige is 50. Football Hall of Fame electee John Elway is 44. Record company chief executive Tony Mercedes is 42. Actress Jessica Hecht is 39. Rock musician Saul Davies (James) is 39. Actress Mary Stuart Masterson is 38. Actor John Cusack is 38. Actor Gil Bellows is 37. Actress-singer Danielle Brisebois is 35. Jazz musician Jimmy Sommers is 35. Actor Alessandro Nivola is 32.

Thought for Today: “The secret of a man who is universally interesting is that he is universally interested.” – William Dean Howells, American author (1837-1920).