1521 – After an extended siege, forces led by Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés captured Tlatoani Cuauhtémoc and conquered the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan.

1608 – John Smith’s story of Jamestown’s first days was submitted for publication.

1624 – The French king Louis XIII appointed Cardinal Richelieu as prime minister.

1779 – American Revolutionary War: The Royal Navy defeated the Penobscot Expedition with the most significant loss of United States naval forces prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor.

1792 – King Louis XVI of France was formally arrested by the National Tribunal, and declared an enemy of the people.

1852 – The steamer “Atlantic,” which was crossing Lake Erie from Buffalo to Detroit, collided with a fishing boat and sank with 250 aboard.

1889 – William Gray of Hartford, Connecticut was granted United States Patent Number 408,709 for “Coin-controlled apparatus for telephones.”

1913 – First production in the UK of stainless steel by Harry Brearley.

1914 – Carl Wickman began Greyhound, the first US bus line, in Minnesota.

1918 – Women enlisted in the United States Marine Corps for the first time. Opha May Johnson was the first woman to enlist.

1918 – Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW) was established as a public company in Germany.

1942 – Major General Eugene Reybold of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers authorized the construction of facilities that would house the “Development of Substitute Materials” project, better known as the Manhattan Project.

1956 – Elvis Presley released the song “Don’t Be Cruel”.

1961 – Cold War: East Germany closed the border between the eastern and western sectors of Berlin to thwart its inhabitants’ attempts to escape to the West, and construction of the Berlin Wall began. The day is known as Barbed Wire Sunday.

1967 – Two young women became the first fatal victims of grizzly bear attacks in the 57-year history of Montana’s Glacier National Park in separate incidents.

1967 – “Bonnie and Clyde” crime film directed by Arthur Penn and starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, was released.

1969 – The Apollo 11 astronauts enjoyed a ticker tape parade in New York City. That evening, at a state dinner in Los Angeles, they were awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by U.S. President Richard Nixon.

1977 – Randy Bachman quit the band Bachman-Turner Overdrive, they then disbanded.

1981 – Last broadcast of “The Waltons” on CBS-TV.

1990 – American soul singer Curtis Mayfield became paralyzed from the neck down after stage lighting equipment fell on him at an outdoor concert at Wingate Field in Flatbush, Brooklyn, New York; although unable to perform live, he continued to compose, sing, and record.

1997 – South Park’s first episode was aired.

2015 – US Government formally returned to France Picasso’s painting La Coiffeuse, which was stolen from Paris’ National Museum of Modern Art in 2001.

---

To report an issue or typo with this article – CLICK HERE