Today is Saturday, June 27, the 178th day of 2009. There are 187 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History

On June 27, 1844, Mormon leader Joseph Smith and his brother, Hyrum, were killed by a mob in Carthage, Ill.

On this date

In 1846, New York and Boston were linked by telegraph wires.

In 1893, the New York stock market crashed.

In 1944, during World War II, American forces completed their capture of the French port of Cherbourg from the Germans.

In 1950, the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution calling on member nations to help South Korea repel an invasion from the North.

In 1969, police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York’s Greenwich Village; patrons fought back in clashes considered the birth of the gay rights movement.

In 1984, the Supreme Court ended the NCAA’s monopoly on controlling college football telecasts, ruling such control violated antitrust law.

In 1986, the International Court of Justice at The Hague ruled that the United States had broken international law and violated the sovereignty of Nicaragua by aiding the contras.

In 1988, 57 people were killed in a train collision in Paris.

Ten years ago

George Papadopoulos, the head of Greece’s 1967-74 military dictatorship, died of cancer in Athens at age 80. Juli Inkster shot a 6-under 65 to win the LPGA Championship, becoming the second woman to win the modern career Grand Slam (the first was Pat Bradley).

Five years ago

NATO leaders gathered in Turkey closed ranks on a pledge to take a bigger military role in Iraq; President George W. Bush declared that the alliance was poised to “meet the threats of the 21st century.” Insurgents threatened to behead Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun, a U.S. Marine who’d vanished in Iraq, in a videotape that aired on Arab television. (However, Hassoun contacted American officials in his native Lebanon the following month; after being reunited with his family in Utah, Hassoun disappeared in December 2004.)

One year ago

North Korea destroyed the most visible symbol of its nuclear weapons program, the cooling tower at its main atomic reactor at Yongbyon. (However, North Korea announced in September 2008 that it was restoring its nuclear facilities.) In Zimbabwe, roaming bands of government supporters heckled, harassed or threatened people into voting in a runoff election in which President Robert Mugabe was the only candidate.

Today’s Birthdays

Business executive and former presidential candidate Ross Perot is 79. Former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt is 71. Singer-musician Bruce Johnston (The Beach Boys) is 67. Actress Isabelle Adjani is 54. Country singer Lorrie Morgan is 50. Actor Brian Drillinger is 49. Writer-producer-director J.J. Abrams is 43. Actor Tobey Maguire is 34. Gospel singer Leigh Nash is 33. Actor Drake Bell is 23.

Thought for Today

“A man, after he has brushed off the dust and chips of his life, will have left only the hard, clean question: Was it good or was it evil? Have I done well — or ill?”

— John Steinbeck , American author (1902-1968)