1457 – Oldest known exactly dated printed book (c 3 years after Gutenberg)
1498 – “Columbus” landed at the mouth of the Orinoco River in Venezuela
1846 – Henry David Thoreau jailed for tax resistance
1848 – Oregon Territory created
1851 – Doc Holliday, Griffin Georgia, American gambler, dentist and gunfighter (Gunfight at the O.K. Corral)Born
1861 – 79th NY troops mutinies
1861 – Martial Law is declared at St Louis, Missouri due to pro-secession sentiment which surged throughout Missouri after the Battle of Wilson’s Creek
1888 – An audio recording of English composer Arthur Sullivan’s “The Lost Chord”, one of the first recordings of music ever made, is played during a press conference introducing Thomas Edison’s phonograph in London, England.
1911 – United States Senate leaders agree to rotate the office of President pro tempore of the Senate among leading candidates to fill the vacancy left by William P. Frye’s death.
1912 – 2,500 US marines invade Nicaragua; US remains until 1925 (Smedley Butler)
1916 – Romania declares war on Austria-Hungary, joining the Entente in World War I
1917 – In Palestine Turks plundered and murdered some of the Jewish inhabitants. An Associated Press Official observed, “The attitude of the young Turks for the unfortunate non-Turkish races within their empire has been an open campaign of robbery, exploitation, and massacre.” The town of Gaza had to be evacuated and the regional violence was the worst since World War I began.
1925 – Mount Rushmore 1st proposed
1932 – Rin Tin Tin, US Hollywood-dog, dies
1935 – Social Security Act, creating a government pension system for the retired.
1941 – David Crosby, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (The Byrds, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, and CPR) was born.
1941 – World War II: Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt sign the Atlantic Charter of war stating postwar aims. (Oceania)
1945 – Steve Martin comedian (SNL, Parenthood, Jerk, Roxanne) Born
1945 – Japan accepts the Allied terms of surrender in World War II and the Emperor records the Imperial Rescript on Surrender (August 15 in Japan Standard Time).
1950 – Gary Larson, Tacoma, Washington, cartoonist (Far Side) Born
1951 – William Randolph Hearst, newspaper publisher, Yellow Journalist… dies in Beverly Hills aged 88
1959 – Magic Johnson, American basketball player and coach was born.
1960 – Stet Howland, American drummer and songwriter (Killing Machine, W.A.S.P., Blackfoot, and Impellitteri) was born.
1962 – NASA civilian test pilot Joseph A Walker takes X-15 to 60,000 m
1967 – UK Marine Broadcasting Offences Act declares participation in offshore pirate radio illegal.
1969 – Operation Banner: British troops are deployed in Northern Ireland.
1975 – The Rocky Horror Picture Show, the longest-running release in film history, opens at the USA Theatre in Westwood, Los Angeles, California.
1984 – IBM releases PC DOS version 3.0
1987 – Tim Tebow, American football player – Born
1988 – Enzo Ferrari, Italy, sportscar manufacturer (Ferrari), dies at 90
1990 – Denver vote for a 1% sales tax to pay for a baseball franchise
1997 – Convicted Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh formally sentenced to death
2002 – Dave Williams, American singer-songwriter (Drowning Pool) (b. 1972) died.
2003 – A widescale power blackout affects the northeast United States and Canada. (martial Law in Cleveland)
2013 – Allen Lanier, American guitarist and songwriter (Blue Öyster Cult) (b. 1946) died.
2013 – 638 people are killed in violent clashes between police and protesters across Egypt