1692 – Salem witch trials: Bridget Bishop was hanged at Gallows Hill near Salem, Massachusetts, for “certaine Detestable Arts called Witchcraft and Sorceries.”
1829 – The first Boat Race between the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge took place on the Thames in London.
1854 – The United States Naval Academy graduated its first class of students.
1861 – American Civil War: Battle of Big Bethel: Confederate troops under John B. Magruder defeated a much larger Union force led by General Ebenezer W. Pierce in Virginia.
1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Brice’s Crossroads: Confederate troops under Nathan Bedford Forrest defeated a much larger Union force led by General Samuel D. Sturgis in Mississippi.
1871 – Sinmiyangyo: Captain McLane Tilton led 109 US Marines in a naval attack on Han River forts on Kanghwa Island, Korea.
1898 – Spanish–American War: In the Battle of Guantánamo Bay, U.S. Marines began the American invasion of Spanish-held Cuba.
1933 – John Dillinger robbed his first bank, in New Carlisle, Ohio. He took $10,600.00.
1933 – Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker flipped their car into a ravine. Parker suffered serious third degree burns from the accident which affected her for the rest of her life.
1935 – Dr. Robert Smith took his last drink, and Alcoholics Anonymous was founded in Akron, Ohio, United States, by him and Bill Wilson.
1940 – World War II: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt denounced Italy’s actions in his “Stab in the Back” speech at the graduation ceremonies of the University of Virginia.
1940 – World War II: Military resistance to the German occupation of Norway ended.
1942 – World War II: The Lidice massacre was perpetrated as a reprisal for the assassination of Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich.
1943 – Heinrich Himmler ordered the final liquidation of Lodz ghetto in occupied Poland.
1944 – World War II: Six hundred forty-two men, women, and children were massacred at Oradour-sur-Glane, France.
1944 – World War II: In Distomo, Boeotia, Greece, 218 men, women, and children were massacred by German troops.
1944 – In baseball, 15-year-old Joe Nuxhall of the Cincinnati Reds became the youngest player ever in a major-league game.
1947 – Saab produced its first automobile.
1963 – The Equal Pay Act of 1963, aimed at abolishing wage disparity based on sex, was signed into law by John F. Kennedy as part of his New Frontier Program.
1964 – United States Senate broke a 75-day filibuster against the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which led to the bill’s passage.
1964 – Rolling Stones recorded their “12×5” album at Chess Studios in Chicago, Illinois.
1966 – The Beatles released their single “Paperback Writer” / “Rain” in UK; “Rain” featured experimental studio tricks of slowed down bass and drums tracks, and backwards vocals in the fade out.
1966 – Janis Joplin performed her first live concert (Avalon Ballroom in San Francisco).
1966 – Mamas & Papas won a gold record for “Monday, Monday.”
1972 – Elvis Presley recorded a live album at NYC’s Madison Square Garden.
1972 – Donny Osmond released the single entitled “Too Young.”
1972 – Sammy Davis Jr.’s cover of “The Candy Man” by Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse (from the film “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory”) went to #1 on the charts – his biggest single.
1977 – James Earl Ray escaped from Brushy Mountain State Prison in Petros, Tennessee. He was recaptured three days later.
1977 – Apple Computer shipped its first Apple II computer.
1985 – Coca-Cola announced they were bringing back their 99-year-old formula. They called it Coca-Cola Classic.
1989 – “Tales From The Crypt” TV Anthology debuted on HBO.
1990 – British Airways Flight 5390 landed safely at Southampton Airport after a blowout in the cockpit caused the captain to be partially sucked from the cockpit. There were no fatalities.
1991 – Eleven-year-old Jaycee Lee Dugard was kidnapped in South Lake Tahoe, California; she remained a captive until 2009.
1991 – David Lynch’s “Twin Peaks” final episode aired on ABC.
1996 – Variety talk show “The Rosie O’Donnell Show” hosted by Rosie O’Donnell, premiered.
2002 – The first direct electronic communication experiment between the nervous systems of two humans was carried out by Kevin Warwick in the United Kingdom.
2003 – The Spirit rover was launched, which began NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover mission.
2007 – “The Sopranos” series finale on HBO (infamous “cut to black” ending).
2009 – James Wenneker von Brunn, who was 88-years-old, opened fire inside the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and fatally shot Museum Special Police Officer Stephen Tyrone Johns. Other security guards returned fire, wounding von Brunn, who was apprehended.
2018 – A planetary dust storm caused NASA’s Opportunity Rover to cease communication from Mars.
2019 – An Agusta A109E Power helicopter crashed onto the AXA Equitable Center on Seventh Avenue in Manhattan, New York City, which sparked a fire on the top of the building. The pilot of the helicopter was killed.
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