June 20
Oil begins moving through the Alaska pipeline. Seventy thousand persons worked on building the pipeline, history’s largest privately-financed construction project. – 1977.
June 21
In Neshoba County in central Mississippi, three civil rights field workers disappear after investigating the burning of an African American church by the Ku Klux Klan. The disappearance of the three young men garnered National attention and led to a massive FBI investigation that was code-named MIBURN, for “Mississippi Burning.” – 1964.
June 22
During World War II, the U.S. 10th Army overcomes the last major pockets of Japanese resistance on Okinawa Island to end one of the bloodiest battles of World War II. The Japanese lost 120,000 troops in the defense of Okinawa, while the Americans suffered 12,500 dead and 35,000 wounded. – 1945.
June 23
U.S. president Richard Nixon signs into law the Higher Education Act, which includes the groundbreaking Title IX legislation. Title IX barred discrimination in higher education programs, including funds for sports, and other extracurricular activities. As a result, women’s participation in team sports, particularly in collegiate athletics, surged with the passage of this act. – 1972.
OSHA issues its standard on cotton dust to protect 600,000 workers from byssinosis, known as “brown lung.” – 1978.
Mafia boss John Gotti, who was nicknamed the “Teflon Don” after escaping unscathed from several trials during the 1980s, is sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty on 14 accounts of conspiracy to commit murder and racketeering. Moments after his sentence was read in a federal courthouse in Brooklyn, N.Y., hundreds of Gotti’s supporters storm the building and overturn and smash cars. – 1992.
June 24
The Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, stating that there is no longer a federal constitutional right to an abortion. Abortion rights are to be determined by states. – 2022.
June 25
Native American forces, led by Chiefs Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull, defeat the U.S. Army troops of Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer in a bloody battle near southern Montana’s Little Bighorn River. – 1876.
Fair Labor Standards Act passes Congress which bans child labor and sets the 40-hour work week. – 1938.
Armed forces from communist North Korea smash into South Korea, to set off the Korean War. The United States, acting under the auspices of the United Nations, quickly springs to the defense of South Korea and fight a bloody and frustrating war for the next three years. – 1950.
June 26
During World War I, the first 14,000 U.S. infantry troops land in France at the port of Saint Nazaire. The landing site had been kept secret because of the menace of German submarines, but by the time the Americans had lined up to take their first salute on French soil, an enthusiastic crowd had gathered to welcome them. – 1917.
The U.S. Congress approves the Federal Highway Act, which allocates more than $30 billion for the construction of 41,000 miles of interstate highways; it was the largest public construction project in U.S. history to that date. – 1956.