1762
Jun 28, Catharine II, Russian Tsarina, grabbed power. [see Jul 17]


1778
Jun 28, "Molly Pitcher," Mary Ludwig Hays McCauley, wife of an American artilleryman, carried water to the soldiers during the Revolutionary War Battle of Monmouth, N.J. and, supposedly, took her husband's place at his cannon after he was overcome with heat. Temperatures reportedly reached 96 degrees in the shade. According to myth she was presented to General George Washington after the battle. Her actual existence is a matter of historical debate and the outcome of the battle was inconclusive.


1838
Jun 28, Britain's Queen Victoria was crowned in Westminster Abbey.


1904
Jun 28, Blind-deaf student Helen Keller graduated with honors from Radcliffe College. [See Sep 1]


1976
Jun 28, The first women entered the U.S. Air Force Academy.


1991
Jun 28, In Detroit, a white woman was attacked by a group of black women at a downtown fireworks display in an incident captured on amateur video. Five women later pleaded no contest to charges stemming from the assault.

1996
Jun 28, The Citadel voted to admit women, ending a 153-year-old men-only policy at the South Carolina military school.


2000
Jun 28, The US Supreme Court also ruled that Nebraska’s ban on “partial-birth abortion" put an “undue burden" on a woman’s right to terminate a pregnancy.


2006
Jun 28, Star Jones Reynolds was booted from "The View," one day after surprising ABC and Barbara Walters by saying on the air that she wouldn't be returning to the daytime talk show in the fall.


2007
Jun 28, Egypt banned all female circumcision, the widely-practiced removal of the clitoris, which just days ago cost the life of a 12-year-old girl.


2007
Jun 28, In Zambia US first lady Laura Bush promoted the role of faith-based organizations in combating disease in Africa as she launched an anti-malaria campaign.



2008
Jun 28, Ruslana Korshunova (20), a European Vogue cover model, fell to her death from her Manhattan apartment building in an apparent suicide. She was originally from the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan.


2009
Jun 28, In Lebanon a Sunni woman (30) was killed and three men were wounded in a gunbattle between Sunni supporters of Lebanon's prime minister-designate and parliamentary majority leader Saad Hariri, and rival followers of the Hezbollah-allied Shiite Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri.


2010
Jun 28, In Iraq attacks in Baghdad killed two women civilians and an intelligence officer, while two policemen died trying to defuse a bomb.


2011
Jun 28, In Afghanistan a roadside bomb killed two women and injured a child who were walking in Panjwai district of Kandahar province. A NATO service member was killed in an insurgent attack. Heavily armed Taliban militants stormed a top Kabul hotel, sparking a ferocious battle involving Afghan commandos and a NATO helicopter gunship that left 20 people dead including nine attackers. The hotel was hosting delegates attending an Afghan security conference and a large wedding party when the insurgents struck late in the day.