Today In History

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 1914: Austrian Archduke Francis Ferdinand and his wife, Sofia, were assassinated in Sarajevo by a Serb nationalist - the event which triggered World War I. In 1919: The Treaty of Versailles was signed in France, ending World War I. In 1928: New York Gov. Alfred E. Smith was nominated for president at the Democratic national convention in Houston.

In 1978: The Supreme Court ordered the University of California at Davis Medical School to admit Allan Bakke, a white man who had 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.