Today is Friday, June 27, the 178th day of 2014. There are 187 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History: On June 27, 1864, Confederate forces repelled a frontal assault by Union
troops in the Civil War Battle of Kennesaw Mountain in Georgia.
On this date:
In 1787, English historian Edward Gibbon completed work on his six-volume work, "The History of the
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire."
In 1844, Mormon leader Joseph Smith and his brother, Hyrum, were killed by a mob in Carthage, Illinois.

In 1846, New York and Boston were linked by telegraph wires.
In 1922, the first Newberry Medal, recognizing excellence in children’s literature, was awarded in
Detroit to "The Story of Mankind" by Hendrik Willem van Loon.
In 1963, President John F. Kennedy spent the first full day of a visit to Ireland, the land of his
ancestors, stopping by the County Wexford home of his great-grandfather, Patrick Kennedy, who’d
emigrated to America in 1848.
In 1974, President Richard Nixon opened an official visit to the Soviet Union.
Five years ago: Dr. Conrad Murray, the cardiologist who was with Michael Jackson during the pop star’s
final moments two days earlier, sat down with investigators for the first time to explain his actions.