U.S. Supreme Court unanimously overturned the draft evasion conviction of Muhammad Ali.

Quakers, led by Anthony Bennezet, opened a school for Blacks in Philadelphia.

John L. Waller was a career Republican and activist who played a significant role in Kansas politics. He was born to slave parents, Anthony and Maria Waller, on a plantation in New Madrid County, Missouri. Some records suggest he was born in 1851, contrary to his own testimony. Waller and his parents were freed by a Union infantry regiment in 1862, and he moved to Iowa where the regiment was based.

Thanks to an Iowa farmer who hired him, Waller was able to attend school for four years starting in 1863. He graduated from high school in Toledo, Iowa but his college education was interrupted by an unidentified epidemic that affected his family whom he returned to support. 

In 1874 Waller moved to Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He began to read legal documents, which led Judge N. M. Hubbard to place his entire legal library at Waller’s disposal. Waller made good use of that library and was admitted to the Iowa bar in 1877.

In 1878 Waller moved to Leavenworth, Kansas where he opened a practice. Success came slowly. Local whites preferred white attorneys and local blacks questioned his qualifications.  His skill as a lawyer, however, eventually won him both black and white clients. With that success, he turned to politics. In 1884 Waller, now also recognized for his speaking ability, was recruited by Leavenworth Republicans to tour eastern Kansas in support of the Republican ticket.

Three years later Waller received his first political appointment. On June 28, 1887, Waller was appointed deputy city attorney of Topeka, Kansas. After the appointment he contributed editorials to the Lawrence newspaper Colored Citizen. In the 1888 presidential election, Waller was the only black man in the United States to be selected for the Electoral College. He cast a vote for president-to-be Benjamin Harrison. In 1890 Waller ran unsuccessfully for Kansas state auditor.

The inability of black Republicans to move beyond local elective office left Waller disillusioned with his political chances in Kansas. He remained loyal to the Republican Party

Cinque, origially Senghbe, the son of a Mende king, along with several other Africans, is kidnapped and sold into slavery in Cuba. Cinque and his companions will later carry out the famous successful revolt upon the slave ship Amistad.

Reggae Sunsplash, founded in 1978 to promote a slow summer tourist season in Jamaica, was the first Caribbean music festival to introduce reggae to a global audience. The idea of the festival originated with a group of young entrepreneurs who called themselves Synergy. They were led by Tony Johnson, an urban planning project manager, but also included Ronnie Burke, a record company owner, Don Green, a systems analyst, businesswoman Maxine Walters, and John Wakeling, a radio talk show host.  Although only Burke had a background in the music industry, they were all passionate about Jamaican reggae music and believed it had an audience far beyond the island.

In early January 1978 Synergy approached the Jamaican Tourist Board to promote their idea. The Board embraced the concept mainly because it wanted to attract tourists to Jamaica in the summer. Until that point the country’s largest industry, tourism, had revolved around winter destination hotels and resorts. The hope was that a summer music festival would attract people to fill the hotels during the off season.  

Soon leading Jamaican musicians such as Bob Marley and Jimmy Cliff embraced the idea and promised to participate. The first concert, an eight day event beginning on June 28, 1978, had as headliners the band Third World, Bob Andy, and Toots and the Maytals. They performed at Jarrett Park in Montego Bay attracting an average daily audience of 16,000.

Word about Reggae Sunsplash began to spread among Jamaican immigrants living in the United States, Canada, and Great Britain.  It was also promoted by the disk jockeys and international journalists who had attended the inaugural festival.  By the time of the second festival in 1979, over 100 journalists from Japan, Italy, Sweden, West Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States, attended along with a mostly international crowd of about 10,000.  They heard Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Third World, and Burning Spear.

In year three, 1980, the festival was reduced to six days and occurred

Al-Shabab formally declared allegiance to al-Qaeda in February 2010, sparking further concern that the group posed a global threat. It claimed responsibility for the July bombing at a restaurant in Kampala, Uganda, that killed about 75 people who were watching the final game of the World Cup. The bombing was intended to send a message to countries that have sent troops to support Somalias transitional government.

Prime Minister Omar Sharmarke, who has been criticized for failing to defeat the Shabab and who has been at odds with President Ahmed, resigned in September 2010. He was succeeded in November by Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed.

Piracy continued to plague the waters off Somalia and other parts of eastern Africa into 2011. In February, Somalia pirates killed four Americans who were sailing on their yacht in the piracy-laden water off the coast of Somalia.

The summer of 2011 brought drought to a country already laid low by nearly constant conflict, resulting in a UN-declared famine in two regions in southern Somalia. With tens of thousands of Somalis dead of malnutrition and its related causes and ten million more at risk, those who could, fled, trying to reach neighboring Kenya and Ethiopia for help. According to a report released by the Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS NET) and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organizationin in April 2013, about 260,000 died in the famine—more than half under age 6. The figure is double early estimates. The report cites the delayed response by donor nations and the Shabab for not allowing the delivery of aid the affected areas.

In June, Prime Minister Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed resigned; Abdiweli Mohamed Ali became acting prime minister and was approved by parliament and sworn in on June 28, 2011.

The earliest inhabitants of Cameroon were probably the Bakas (Pygmies). They still inhabit the forests of the south and east provinces. Bantu speakers originating in the Cameroonian highlands were among the first groups to move out before other invaders. During the late 1770s and early 1800s, the Fulani, a pastoral Islamic people of the western Sahel, conquered most of what is now northern Cameroon, subjugating or displacing its largely non-Muslim inhabitants.

Arrival of the Europeans:

Although the Portuguese arrived on Cameroons coast in the 1500s, malaria prevented significant European settlement and conquest of the interior until the late 1870s, when large supplies of the malaria suppressant, quinine, became available. The early European presence in Cameroon was primarily devoted to coastal trade and the acquisition of slaves. The northern part of Cameroon was an important part of the Muslim slave trade network. The slave trade was largely suppressed by the mid-19th century. Christian missions established a presence in the late 19th century and continue to play a role in Cameroonian life.

Beginning in 1884, all of present-day Cameroon and parts of several of its neighbors became the German colony of Kamerun, with a capital first at Buea and later at Yaounde. After World War I, this colony was partitioned between Britain and France under a June 28, 1919 League of Nations mandate.

France gained the larger geographical share, transferred outlying regions to neighboring French colonies, and ruled the rest from Yaounde. Britains territory--a strip bordering Nigeria from the sea to Lake Chad, with an equal population--was ruled from Lagos.

In 1955, the outlawed Union of the Peoples of Cameroon (UPC), based largely among the Bamileke and Bassa ethnic groups, began an armed struggle for independence in French Cameroon.

This rebellion continued, with diminishing intensity, even after independence. Estimates of death from this conflict vary from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands.

French Cameroon achieved

Muhammad Ali, (born Cassius Clay) stands before the Supreme Court regarding his refusal of induction into the US Army during the Vietnam War(Clay v- United States). He is asked How can you be a pacifist opposed to the idea of war?

One of Alis responses goes as follows, I am not going ten thousand miles from here to help murder and kill and burn poor people simply to help continue the domination of white slave masters over the darker people.

US Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, citing illness, announces his retirement from the nations highest court after 24 years of service.

Measha Brueggergosman, Canada’s most recognizable young opera star, is working hard to bring classical music to a popular audience.  The Canadian soprano has emerged as one of the most magnificent performers and vibrant personalities of the day. She is critically acclaimed by the international press for having both a voluptuous voice and a sovereign stage presence far beyond her years.

Brueggergosman’s ancestors fled slavery in Connecticut during the American Revolution in the 1780s, settling in Fredricton, New Brunswick. Measha Brueggergosman was born in Fredricton on June 28, 1977. She began singing in the choir of her local Baptist church and studied voice and piano with the director of the choir.  As a teenager she spent summers on scholarship at the Boston (Massachusetts) Conservatory. She studied one year with New Brunswick soprano Wendy Nielson, before moving to the University of Toronto (Ontario) where she obtained a Bachelor of Music. Brueggergosman then pursued a Master’s degree in music at the Robert Schumann Hochschule in Düsseldorf, Germany.

In one of her premiere performances Brueggergosman played the lead role in the opera Beatrice Chancy by James Rolfe. Produced in Toronto in 1998 and in Nova Scotia in 1999, the opera portrayed the tale of a slave girl in 19th-century rural Nova Scotia who murders her abusive father and master. The opera and Brueggergosman won praise from critics and audiences and in 2000 it was filmed for Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC) TV.

As Brueggergosman’s career rapidly gained momentum, her mature musicianship and powerful voice have placed her in demand both in concert and on the operatic stage. She has appeared throughout Canada, and has performed with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, and the National Arts Centre Orchestra. In 2002 Brueggergosman was featured in Cincinnati (Ohio) Opera productions of Elektra, Jack Heggie’s Dead Man Walking, and Turnadot. Meanwhile, she has continued to develop her concert repertoire, often combining

U.S. Supreme Court ordered the University of California Medical School at Davis to admit Allan P. Bakke in so-called reverse discrimination suit.

Organization for Afro-American Unity founded in New York by Malcolm X.

Douglas Dollarhide was the first African American mayor of the city of Compton, California, and a pioneer and role model for future black politicians across the state of California.

Dollarhide was born in March 1923 in Earlsboro, Oklahoma. He was the son of two former slaves, Thomas Dollarhide and Daisy Williams Dollarhide. In the early 1940s, the family moved from Earlsboro to San Jose, California, where Dollarhide enlisted in the U.S. Army. He served during World War II and after the conflict ended, settled in Los Angeles County with his new wife, Eliza, and daughter, Barbara.

Dollarhide attended the Metropolitan Business College, Long Beach City College, and La Salle University Law School, where he received a law degree. He was elected to Compton City Council in 1963, where he served as the first African American chairman of the council’s finance committee and represented the city at the League of California Cities. Following his three terms as city council member, Dollarhide, a Democrat, was elected as the first African American mayor of Compton in June 1969. He served one term until 1973 when he was defeated by thirty-seven-year-old Dorris Davis. During the time he served in office, the city became the first municipality in California to have a black majority; African Americans comprised 65 percent of the population by 1970.

During Dollarhide’s first few years as mayor, major changes took place in Compton. The city, like many urban areas in the nation at the time, underwent white flight—the exodus of middle-class white residents—and a corresponding influx of African Americans, many of whom had been displaced by the 1965 Watts riot (the Watts section of Los Angeles bordered Compton) and others who sought a suburban lifestyle. White flight contributed to Compton’s transformation from an overwhelmingly white city, which in the 1950s had been home to the family of future President George H. W. Bush, into a predominantly black city by the time of Dollarhide’s election. Whites who left Compton eventually ended

The city of Entebbe, Uganda, is located on the shores of Lake Victoria about 22 miles south of Kampala, the nation’s capital.  In addition to being the official residence of the president of Uganda, Entebbe is the site of the nations only international airport.  On June 28, 1976 Air France flight 139, en route from Tel Aviv to Paris, was hijacked by members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and two German accomplices shortly after a scheduled stop in Athens, Greece.

After the hijacking the Airbus A300 jet was flown to Benghazi, Libya for refueling, and then on to Entebbe, Uganda where they expected a supportive reception from the pro-Palestinian Ugandan government headed by dictator Idi Amin.  After landing at Entebbe, the 103 passengers on board who carried Israeli passports or were Jewish, were detained while the remainder of the passengers were eventually released.  Additionally, more terrorists joined the hijackers on the ground in Uganda, reinforced by members of the Ugandan military.  

At just after 11 p.m. local time on July 3rd Israeli commandos landed at Entebbe Airport to begin a carefully planned rescue attempt.  Planning, preparation, and execution of the raid was made easier because the new buildings at the airport had been designed and built by Israelis, and thus the commandos were able to familiarize themselves with the layout. Using four C-130 Hercules aircraft, the Israeli military secured the airport perimeter and entered the terminal building where the hostages were being held.

The commandos were successful in extracting all but three of the prisoners being held in the terminal.  All of the hijackers were killed along with 45 Ugandan soldiers.  Most of the Ugandan Air Force was destroyed on the tarmac at the Entebbe airport during the raid.  The only casualty suffered by the commandos was the death of Lieutenant Colonel Yoni Netanyahu, older brother of future Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.  One hostage, 75-year old Mrs. Dora Bloch, had been taken to a

Former New York Congressman Major Robert Owens was born on June 28, 1936 in Collierville, Tennessee.  He graduated from Hamilton High School in Memphis in 1952 at the age of 16.  Owens received a bachelor’s degree from Morehouse College in 1956, and an M.S. in Library Science from Atlanta University in 1957. He then moved to Brooklyn, New York where he worked as a librarian.

During this time Owens became active in the Brooklyn community. In 1964 he served as the chair of the Brooklyn Congress of Racial Equality and vice president of the Metropolitan Council of Housing for New York City.  He was also the community coordinator of the Brooklyn Public Library from 1964 to 1966, served as the executive director of the Brownsville Community Council from 1966 to 1968.  From 1968 to 1973 Owens was commissioner of the Community Development Agency in New York City.  Between 1973 and 1975 he served as director of the community media library program at Columbia University, NY.

Major Owens was elected to the New York State Senate as a Democrat in 1974.  He remained in the State Senate until 1982 when he was elected to New York’s Eleventh Congressional District, replacing the retiring Shirley Chisholm.  With his election Owens became the only professional librarian ever elected to Congress.

While a congressman, Owens was one of the original sponsors and strongest proponents of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which was signed into law by George H.W. Bush in 1990. He served on the Committee on Education and the Workforce, which guided all federal involvement in education, labor law, job training, programs for the aging and people with disabilities, employee pensions and safety, and equal employment opportunities. In addition, he served on the Committee on Government Reform, and was ranking Democrat on the Subcommittee for Workforce Protections, chairman of the Subcommittee on Select Education and Civil Rights, chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus Task Force on Haiti, and a member of the Progressive Caucus of the

Donald C. Johanson , in full Donald Carl Johanson (born June 28, 1943, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.), American paleoanthropologist best known for his discovery of “ Lucy,” one of the most complete skeletons of Australopithecus afarensis known, in the Afar region of Ethiopia in 1974.

Johanson was the only child of Swedish immigrants Carl Johanson and Sally Johnson. His father died when he was two years old, and he was raised by his mother, a housecleaner. Although he performed poorly on a college-entrance examination, he was encouraged to study for a career in the sciences by one of his neighbours, who was an anthropologist. Johanson attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in anthropology in 1966. After corresponding with noted American anthropologist F. Clark Howell, he decided to pursue graduate work under Howell’s direction at the University of Chicago. Johanson completed a master’s degree in 1970 and a Ph.D. in 1974.

Johanson was a curator of physical anthropology at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History from 1974 to 1981 and held concurrent adjunct professorships at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland and at Kent State University in Kent between 1978 and 1981. He founded the Institute of Human Origins (IHO) in 1981 in Berkeley, California, where he served as the IHO’s director and as a research associate in the anthropology department at the University of California. After moving the institute to Arizona State University in Tempe in 1997, he served as the director of the institute until 2008 . Johanson also served as a professor in the university’s School of Human Evolution and Social Change.

Throughout his career Johanson participated in excavations in numerous countries throughout East Africa and the Middle East. He made his first trip to Ethiopia in 1970. During a fossil-collecting visit to Hadar, in the country’s Afar region, in 1973, he found the leg bones of a three-million-year-old hominid. That discovery included a knee joint that