June 22. 1970: By the 26th Amendment to the US Constitution, the right to vote is extended to 18-to-20-year-olds.

June 23. 1947: Senate overrides Pres. Truman's veto of the Taft-Hartley Act. The Act greatly weakened the power of US labor unions in collective bargaining.

June 24. 1947: First reported sighting of flying saucer. 1982: Equal Rights Amendment supporters admit defeat: 33 states have ratified in 10 years, three short of the three-quarters needed by the June 30 deadline.

June 25. 1876: Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapahoe defeat Gen. Custer's troops at Little Big Horn, Montana. 1967: Heavyweight boxing champion Muhammed Ali, stripped of his title upon conviction, is sentenced to five years in prison for his conscientious objection.

June 26. 1894: Beginning of Pullman Railroad Strike, largest industrial strike to date in US history, eventually broken by federal government troops. At least two dozen strikers were killed, and Pres. Cleveland suspended the constitutional right to assembly (the ability of any two or more people to meet in public) in seven states. 1993: US fires 23 cruise missiles on intelligence compound in Baghdad, Iraq.

June 27. 1995: Two Operation Homestead activists are arrested in downtown Seattle for occupying the rooftop of a low-income housing building, the Payne Apartments, slated for demolition to make way for a parking lot. They are later acquitted of charges.

June 28. 1969: Stonewall Rebellion in New York City--a riot of drag queens enraged by yet another evening of casual police brutality--marks birth of modern gay rights movement in US.

June 29. 1940: Alien Registration (Smith) Act enacted. 1967: Israel removes barricades, re-unifying Jerusalem.

June 30. 1952: Congress passes McCarran-Walter Immigration Act, to screen out "subversive" aliens and deport them, even if they have become US citizens.

July 1 1492: King of Spain, culminating the Spanish Inquisition, gives all Jews in Spain 30 days to leave the country. Some of the confiscated Jewish assets were then used to finance the voyage of Columbus. 1943: First withholding tax from paychecks.

July 2. 1777: Vermont becomes first state in what would become US to abolish slavery. 1961: Iconic American writer Ernest Hemingway, alleging CIA persecution, blows his brains out with a shotgun in Ketchum, Idaho. 1976: US Supreme Court rules death penalty not inherently cruel.

July 3. 1978: US Supreme Court rules 5-4 that the Federal Communications Commission has a right to reprimand New York City left-leaning noncommercial radio station WBAI for broadcasting Filthy George Carlin's "The Seven Dirty Words you can't say on Television."

July 4. 1776: Spurred by unfair taxation issues, the US Declaration of Independence from England begins first successful anti-imperialist revolution in world history. Within 30 years, the US would begin its 200-year legacy of opposing similar revolutions in other countries.

July 5. 1861: Constitutional guarantees of Habeas Corpus suspended by Abraham Lincoln; in the following four years, some 18,000 "subversives" and peace activists were jailed without cause or charges in US. 1961: Seattle City Council and state legislature announce probes of incidents of local police brutality.