1495 – A monk, John Cor, recorded the first known batch of Scotch whisky.
1533 – Anne Boleyn was crowned Queen of England.
1773 – Wolraad Woltemade rescued 14 sailors at the Cape of Good Hope from the sinking ship De Jonge Thomas by riding his horse into the sea seven times. Both he and his horse, Vonk, drowned on his eighth attempt.
1779 – The court-martial for malfeasance of Benedict Arnold, a general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, began.
1792 – Kentucky was admitted as the 15th state of the United States.
1796 – Tennessee was admitted as the 16th state of the United States.
1812 – War of 1812: U.S. President James Madison asked the Congress to declare war on the United Kingdom.
1831 – James Clark Ross became the first European at the North Magnetic Pole.
1849 – Territorial Governor Alexander Ramsey declared the Territory of Minnesota officially established.
1868 – The Treaty of Bosque Redondo was signed which allowed the Navajo to return to their lands in Arizona and New Mexico.
1869 – Thomas Edison was granted his first patent for the Electric Vote Recorder (U.S. Patent 90,646).
1880 – The first pay telephone service in the United States was installed in New Haven, Connecticut.
1890 – The United States Census Bureau began using Herman Hollerith’s tabulating machine to count census returns.
1916 – Louis Brandeis became the first Jew appointed to the United States Supreme Court.
1918 – World War I: Western Front: Battle of Belleau Wood: Allied Forces under John J. Pershing and James Harbord engaged Imperial German Forces under Wilhelm, German Crown Prince.
1918 – Canadian ace Billy Bishop downed six aircraft over a three-day span, including German ace Paul Bilik, and reclaimed his top scoring title from James McCudden.
1935 – Compulsory driving tests and license plates were introduced in the United Kingdom.
1943 – BOAC Flight 777 was shot down over the Bay of Biscay by German Junkers Ju 88s, killing British actor Leslie Howard and leading to speculation that it was actually an attempt to kill British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
1950 – The Chinchaga fire ignited. By September, it had become the largest single fire on record in North America.
1964 – The Rolling Stones arrived in New York’s Kennedy International Airport for their first US tour and were greeted by about 500 fans.
1967 – EMI released The Beatles’ album “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” nationwide in the UK. It held the number one position for 22 weeks.
1968 – Simon & Garfunkel’s single “Mrs Robinson” from “The Graduate” hit #1 (first rock song to win Grammy for Record of the Year).
1970 – “Everything Is Beautiful” by Ray Stevens hit #1.
1973 – George Harrison’s “Living in the Material World” album went gold just two days after its US release.
1973 – Paul McCartney & Wings released the single “Live & Let Die.”
1974 – Ted Bundy victim Brenda Ball disappeared from Burien, Washington.
1974 – The Heimlich maneuver for rescuing choking victims was published in the journal “Emergency Medicine.”
1975 – Ronnie Wood replaced Mick Taylor as Rolling Stones guitarist.
1980 – Cable News Network (CNN) began broadcasting.
1985 – “Just A Gigolo/I Ain’t Got Nobody” by David Lee Roth hit #12.
1985 – Weird Al Yankovic released his “Dare To Be Stupid” LP.
1990 – Cold War: George H. W. Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev signed a treaty to end chemical weapon production.
1996 – Woody Harrelson was arrested in Lee County, Kentucky, after he symbolically planted four hemp seeds to challenge the state law which did not distinguish between industrial hemp and marijuana.
1999 – American Airlines Flight 1420 slid and crashed while landing at Little Rock National Airport, killing 11 people on a flight from Dallas to Little Rock.
2004 – Oklahoma City bombing co-conspirator Terry Nichols was sentenced to 161 consecutive life terms without the possibility of a parole, breaking a Guinness World Record.
2008 – A fire on the back lot of Universal Studios broke out. It destroyed the attraction King Kong Encounter and a large archive of master tapes for music and film, the full extent of which was not revealed until 2019.
2009 – General Motors filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. It was the fourth largest United States bankruptcy in history.
2011 – A rare tornado outbreak occurred in New England; a strong EF3 tornado struck Springfield, Massachusetts, during the event, killing four people.
2011 – Space Shuttle Endeavour made its final landing after 25 flights.
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